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Pambazuka News 291: Cultural paradigm for Liberia's reconstruction
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CONTENTS: 1. Highlights from this issue, 2. Features, 3. Comment & analysis, 4. Pan-African Postcard, 5. Letters, 6. Books & arts, 7. Blogging Africa, 8. Podcasts, 9. African Union Monitor, 10. Women & gender, 11. Human rights, 12. Refugees & forced migration, 13. Elections & governance, 14. Africa & China, 15. Corruption, 16. Development, 17. Health & HIV/AIDS, 18. Education, 19. LGBTI, 20. Environment, 21. Land & land rights, 22. Media & freedom of expression, 23. Conflict & emergencies, 24. Internet & technology, 25. Fundraising & useful resources, 26. Courses, seminars, & workshops, 27. World Social Forum 2007, 28. Jobs
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Highlights from this issue
Featured This Week
2007-02-15
FEATURES: Doeba Bropleh outlines a new paradigm for Liberia’s reconstruction
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- International NGOs: Mukoma Wa Ngugi examines the threat to African democracies?
- An open letter to President Mbeki from South African feminists
- Selome Araya on the misrepresentation of Africa by the international media and assorted humanitarian campaigns
LETTERS: on the rejection of a new PM by the Guinean people and the furore over China in Africa book
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem writes on religion and the ideology of hope
BLOGGING AFRICA: Harnessing wind power in the Niger Delta and other Nigerian stories
BOOKS & ARTS: Carbon trading exposed and a homage to Nuruddin Farah
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: AU remains hopeful and hesitant
PODCASTS: Live from death row by Mumia Abu-Jamal
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Change or chaos in Guinea?
HUMAN RIGHTS: Rights groups call for Nlandu's release in DRC
WOMEN AND GENDER: Liberian women decry post-war violence
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Liberian refugees in plea to Israeli government
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Nigerian VP to be barred from poll
AFRICA AND CHINA: South African firms take on the Dragon
DEVELOPMENT: AFRICOM – Opening the Third Front
CORRUPTION: “Vulture Funds” threaten Developing World
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: 3GSM Cell-phones to fight AIDS
EDUCATION: Choice between school and survival in Mozambique
ENVIRONMENT: Caught between drought and guns in Uganda
LGBTI: Human rights failures in Nigeria
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Dozens killed in Kenya land clashes
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Zimbabwe courts abandon case against Ncube
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Social development portal launched in Kenya
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs
Features
A Cultural Paradigm for Liberia's Reconstruction
2007-02-14
Doeba Bropleh
As Liberia emerges as a new nation with competing resource priorities it needs to look back to it’s past cultural traditions particularly in the area of education, in order to move forward. Children should be taught “traditional arts, music, literature, religions, languages” and most importantly the ancient and modern history of Liberia, argues Doeba Bropleh.
There are many competing resource allocation priorities for Liberia as the country emerges from years of corruption, political instability, and civil conflict: education, shelter, food, economic revitalization, reintegration of former refugees and combatants, security, rebuilding infrastructure… the list is long. While each of the listed elements is important, for Liberia to develop, it has to use a foundation that includes an “expanded cultural perspective”. My premise is that economic growth, without a unifying cultural base, will lead to a bland society, one suffering from a lack of character and susceptible to further degradation.
As Liberia rebounds from the socio-economic and political carnage wrought by corruption, instability, and war, the country needs to reverse the dilution of its heritage. The Liberian identity should be reshaped to include more aboriginal cultural markers: there was learning before western-styled education; religion before the missionaries; and an economy before capitalism. Cultural truth is where salvation resides – Liberia needs to reach back in order to leap forward. This process may be uncomfortable at the onset, but, like birth, first there is pain, then joy.
Liberian identity, forged primarily from two disparate groups – freed American slaves (settlers) and indigenous people – developed in a lopsided manner because of the dominance of the settlers, even though they were the minority. Wrapped in western culture, which is all they knew, the settlers collided with and distorted the prism of the country’s “pre-settler” value systems. Various degrees of “westernization” were demanded from the natives before they were granted access – albeit limited – to the corridors of society, which were all controlled by the settlers. In the process, textured indigenous tradition and mores were shunned for foreign/imported ones.
Though Liberia was never directly colonized, the weakening of its native tradition was accelerated by the intrusion of western nations. The neo-colonialists’ “dark continent” outlook had insidious ramifications. In his book “Decolonizing the Mind”, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the esteemed Kenyan writer, discussed the “cultural bomb” of imperialism. He stated that: “The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves.” In her essay “Africa”, Maya Angelou, the renowned American writer outlined that: “The slaves too soon began to believe what their masters believed: Africa was a continent of savages.” It was some of these same slaves – armed with their altered worldview – that eventually resettled in what we now know as Liberia. Conflict was inevitable. Culture, however, provides a homogenizing glue that helps bind a multi-ethnic society, such as Liberia’s, creating a collective conscience buttressed by self-love and pride. Shared experiences and commonality work to humanize members of a community; thereby, moderating tensions which may arise. An “expanded cultural perspective” could aid in neutralizing the settler-versus-native rift that has plagued the country since its inception.
The sewing of cultural fabric does not require the suppression of intra-group differences however. On the contrary, the quilt should be expansive and inclusive enough to showcase the best from its various sub-groups, while respecting their idiosyncrasies. Such an approach acknowledges the contributions of all and signals equanimity between members of a society. This, in turn, fosters “buy-in” from each sector and gives people a product they can, and want to identify with. Many sub-groups (Ibo, Hausa, Yoruba, to name a few) influence Nigerian culture, yet each maintains a distinctive heritage of its own. While Liberian culture does have facets of this phenomenon, it could use more. This fabric though, only becomes durable if customs, traditions, history are truly shared, and if there is an awareness of these mutual elements. Hence, my proposed cultural paradigm for Liberia’s reconstruction calls for a holistic approach, plus aggressive, focused teaching and subscription to Liberian culture and history. This orientation will help Liberia develop the nationalistic audacity to question foreign socio-economic, political, legal, and religious systems, instead of accepting them carte blanche. Respect, especially from outsiders, is reserved for a people imbued with self-knowledge and pride.
One medium that can be used to jump-start this cultural awakening is the formal education system. Traditional arts, music, literature, religions, languages… should be taught in schools. The teaching of Liberian History – an integral part of cultural development – needs to be broad and rigorous, not the truncated version I was fed in junior and high school. The historical time line should be stretched to include the Liberian moment prior to the American Colonization Society’s resettlement plan for a select group of freed American slaves, which began in the 1820’s. Every person who attends school in Liberia should be aware of how the various tribes got to the area now known as Liberia, and what occurred in the territory before the arrival of Portuguese explorers in 1461. Instead of the romanticized, revisionist stories of settlers-repelling-natives”, former combatants – my young brothers and sisters, exploited as pawns in Liberia’s recently ended 14-year civil war – need to learn about the tribal internecine conflicts of yesteryear. The adage continues to hold true: a people unaware of the mistakes of the past are bound to repeat them.
Language is a cultural agent that needs to be strengthened in Liberia. S. Kpanbayeazee Duworko II, an instructor at the University of Liberia, addressed this issue well in his essay, “Literary Education and Canon Formation: The Liberian Experience.” In that piece he wrote that: “There is a need to create schools of Liberian languages and performing arts at the University of Liberia as a means of promoting Liberian culture.” Duworko went on to argue that students from elementary to high school should also be exposed to Liberian languages and literary works. He stated: “This exposure will give them a broad view of their own culture and will help them to have a sense of pride in their heritage.” Ngugi wa Thiong’o, (who now primarily writes in his native Gikuyu instead of English), asserts that the loss of language is a loss of culture. He declared that: “Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we perceive ourselves and our place in the world.” The politics of language and its role in the preservation of culture reminds me of the late Liberian President William Tolbert’s much-ridiculed “Kpelle” effort, which was implemented in the late 70’s. This was when it was made policy for Kpelle – an indigenous Liberian language – to be taught in schools. For most of us in school at that time, learning Kpelle was our first and only exposure to a written aboriginal language. History will judge President Tolbert as a visionary for mandating the teaching of a traditional language. Now is a good time to reconstitute native language programs in schools.
In addition to the formal education component, the country’s heritage can also be brought to the fore through the promotion of traditional dress (current Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s simple, but highly visible act of wearing African attire sends positive self-esteem messages), food, visual arts, music, dance, literature and orature. The heritage needs to be accessible to people in their everyday lives. The South American country of Venezuela recently implemented a program that calls for the inclusion of traditional content in various outlets (television, radio, theaters, museums). Liberia could use that idea to create its own cultural content programming. While strong cultural cognizance alone will not prevent conflict, it is a practical way to reduce the chances of recidivism into lawlessness. And, if knowledge of the total “Liberian Self” cannot stop the outbreak of future hostilities, it can at least help lessen the resulting devastation. Greed will always be a threat, but it makes sense that a people connected by an “expanded” knowledge of self is less likely to destroy that which it loves. A people, bound by common purpose and drenched in homegrown pride – requirements for cohesive nationalism, collective conscience – would think before ruining their collaborative creation.
This new paradigm assumes more relevance given the exponential growth of the Liberian Diaspora since 1980, when many Liberians began relocating out of the country due to its civil and political conflict. The cultural renaissance suggested in this article could work to lure some citizens back, who could help with the country’s reconstruction. The shift to include a wider, more representative swath of Liberian tradition benefits the country three-fold: a) reduces the potential for a return to conflict; b) gives citizens the confidence to discriminate as to what is placed in the country’s “cultural canon”; and c) provides the foundation to move the country forward.
Many people have and continue to be dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Liberian culture. A few of the voices that have agitated in this realm are: Miatta Fahnbulleh; Fatu Gayflor (singers); Joseph Gbaba; Peter Ballah; Womi Neal; Konah Khasu (dramatists); Bai T. Moore; Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley; Wilton Sankawulo; and K-Moses Nagbe (writers and teachers). Let the teachers teach it, writers chronicle, singers harmonize about it, medicine men, and yes, the preachers preach about Liberia’s cultural vitality. I am beginning to feel better about myself just by thinking about it.
* Doeba Bropleh is a Liberian currently based in California, USA
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Comment & analysis
African Democracies for Sale
2007-02-14
Mukoma Wa Ngugi
Mukoma Wa Ngugi argues that one of the major threats to African Democracy comes from international NGOs such as the IRI, NED and USAID. These organizations act in the interest of the United States by attempting to and often succeeding in effecting regime change and influencing political outcomes in African countries.
Some of the most important threats to democracy in Africa are the International Republican Institute (IRI), USAID and other international NGO’s that are directly funded by the United States Congress. These are US foreign policy institutions that masquerade as philanthropic organizations of good-will all the while furthering American foreign policy. They are currently operating in over 40 African countries including Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
A brief history of the IRI is as follows: In a bid to make the world friendlier to US interests, President Ronald Reagan (a supporter of Apartheid South Africa) called for the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy in 1983. The US, he claimed, needed an organization that would “foster the infrastructure of democracy--the system of a free press, unions, political parties universities--which allows a people to choose their own way, to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.” As a result the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which spawned the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were formed. NED receives about $50 Million from the US Congress. USAID requested a staggering $9.3 billion for 2007.
Out of these three organizations, the IRI and USAID are the most active in the promotion of a world safe for US Democracy. The IRI at first “focused on planting the seeds of democracy in Latin America,” according to its website. After the “Cold War, [it] has broadened its reach to support democracy and freedom around the globe.” USAID states that U.S. foreign aid helps in “furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world.” Through what NED terms Consolidating Democracy, democratic principles and sovereignty are being violated. The NED, IRI and USAID attempt to unify opposition against a target government. They provide strategic and monetary support to the opposition. They also infiltrate university student organizations, women’s and youth groups, trade unions, teacher associations and other sectors of civil society which they then into supporting the opposition parties that they have effectively turned into a coalition. Worse than instigating a coup (a top down mechanism of change), the IRI and USAID infect the very blood lines of the country by affecting “regime change” through civil society.
Consolidating Democracy was successfully used in what the IRI refers to as the color revolutions in Ukraine (Orange), Georgia (Rose) and Kyrgyzstan (Tulip). In Haiti, democratically elected Aristide was overthrown using the same methods of unifying a rag-tag opposition and then mobilizing civil society behind it. But some countries such as Venezuela remain a failed target. The IRI’s 2005 Programs in Africa webpage states that it “provided training for political parties in Angola to establish a strong and stable political party system, and reinforce the national reconciliation process.” In Kenya it “worked with political parties to teach them how to develop positions and communicate them to voters.” In Nigeria they “focused on strengthening and preparing political parties for the 2007 elections and fostering partnerships between the parities and civil groups”. And in Liberia the IRI “sponsored the first-ever formal presidential candidate debates.”
In September 2006, when receiving the IRI 2006 Freedom Award together with Laura Bush, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf thanked the IRI which “was particularly active in promoting [the] elections.” She added that: “Very quickly an office was established. They came, they did workshops. They brought political groups together. They worked with the media. They educated. They instructed. They supported. They assisted the process.” She was in fact recounting the steps taken to consolidate democracy in Liberia by the foreign NGO.
President Mbeki has in the past questioned to what extent South African civil society makes independent choices. This concern can be extended to the continent. For example, a Boston Globe survey “identified 159 faith-based organizations that received more than $1.7 billion in USAID prime contracts, grants and agreements from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2005” as part of President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative. The implications here are obvious. USAID has also tied acceptance of Genetically Modified food to foreign aid even in terms of disaster as in the case with Zambia in 2002. Organizations such as Oxfam have showed that GM foods in Africa would in the long run be harmful to the small scale African farmer, lead to the destruction of local food economies, create a cycle of dependency and cause more acute starvation. It was an absurd case of stopping starvation today by creating conditions for more starvation tomorrow. And in even more direct interference with the internal economy and politics of African countries, USAID, has worked in concert with the World Bank to promote the now infamous Structural Adjustment Programs. But it is the hijacking of democratic processes by using civil society that should be of the most concern to Africans concerned with genuine democracy.
The IRI and USAID don’t have to win every African election they participate in – each parliamentarian and each political organization that gets a seat in the government becomes their lobbyist. In effect, they become shareholders in the new government. And as the American proverb says, “whoever pays the piper calls the tune.” To understand the absurdity of what Africans have accepted as a norm, imagine African countries financing a third party in the United States. And in addition they also train student leaders, trade unionists, journalists and the rest of American civil society how to oppose or overthrow the US Government. Americans wouldn’t stand for it.
African election processes should be monitored by the African Union, the African Peer Review Mechanism and the international community to ensure opposition candidates get equal time in the media. Campaign finance laws should make it illegal for both the opposition and the sitting government to accept foreign funds. Taxpayer money (with a reasonable ceiling) could even be allocated to opposition parties, depending on the number of legally registered voters.
Sitting governments in Africa have access to state money, state television and newspapers and easily attract business money to line their pockets, while the opposition feels compelled to take foreign money. But foreign money perpetuates the goals of the donor. As a matter of democratic principle, alternatives have to be found. With governments that don’t address debilitating inequality, growing majorities living in absolute poverty, and opposition parties whose foreign funding sets the political platform instead of focusing on the causes of the marginalized, the gains made by those who fought for democracy with content are under threat.
* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change and Hurling Words at Consciousness. He is the coordinator of Toward an Africa Without Borders and a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine where a shorter version of this article first appeared.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
A Feminist critique of President Mbeki
2007-02-14
Gender & Trade Network in Africa
The Gender and Trade Network in Africa (GENTA) write an open letter to President Mbeki of South Africa criticising his failure to address gender issues in his economic development and poverty alleviation policies.
Dear Mr. President,
We as African women awaited your speech with interest and with open minds. We hoped that you would speak to our aspirations and make significant pronouncements on interventions intended to advance our citizenship as South African women during the mid term of this government. When you spoke of the ‘stench of living’ we could relate because many of us live with this stench. What sounded like a robust recommitment to tangible poverty eradication was weighed down by the market driven imperatives obscured by a pretty but ultimately empty rhetoric. An excellent opportunity to leave an outstanding legacy to the women and men of this country has been lost.
There is no doubt that the economy is growing. There is also no doubt that South Africa is an environment attractive to investors. However this growth is not translating into improved lives for the majority of people in this country especially women who are largely the least skilled, the lowest paid and the ones whose labour is the easiest to barter to foreign investors. It is extremely worrying that in the same breath President you speak of eradicating poverty and then suggest that a more flexible investment environment is needed to make doing business easier. In real terms this means consigning women to poorly paid, often risky employment conditions, with no union protection to produce profits that will be repatriated overseas. Your constant use of the “two economies” partition reflects the need by the state to accommodate both the demands of business for a non-interventionist state with the explicit requirement for state led intervention to tackle the burgeoning needs of the economically excluded.
Women are explicitly mentioned only once during the State of the Nation Address and that is in the context of indigent women. In mentioning this particular group of women, you have not in any way suggested any mechanism of enabling them to participate significantly in the economy and make the quantum leap from the so-called second to the first economy. If government persists in its own propaganda, enabling this dualism will certainly cause deepening poverty and destitution as the ‘first’ economy continually ejects those superfluous to its requirements. Moreover objectifying our poverty serves no function other than to further dehumanise women.
Much has been said in this speech about strengthening SMEs. In so doing it is important to address the supply side constraints, the financial environment particularly to access to credit, small business mentoring, child care, skills development and the many other factors which inhibit women’s ability to fully benefit from the opportunities available. Fluctuations in capital flows and cyclical instability disadvantage women more than men. There is a strong case for re-regulation of capital of international capital flows, especially portfolio flows. This is because they are 'gendered' institutions and structures. That is, they are institutions created, dominated and controlled by men. Institutions like DTI are therefore being shaped by a particular gender and class of people. They are expressions and vehicles of the preferred vision aspirations and assumptions of this particular group in South Africa. This occasion would be an opportunity to articulate the aspirations of citizens across gender, income and class lines.
The speech thus ignores the question of gender issues in economic development. It is not simply one of economic or social problems. It involves social relations of gender and the problems of deconstructing the ideology of gender relations, which includes a redistribution of power. Access to basic services are lauded as meeting Millennium Development Goals. The President states that access to water follows a rights approach in this country. Mr. Mbeki you fail to mention that millions of the most vulnerable people in this country –most of whom are women - still have to contend with water and electricity cut-offs, many of which are not legal. The rights based paradigm would not force the most economically vulnerable to pay for services that they cannot afford. The rights based paradigm would ensure that water, sanitation and electricity were readily available by subsidising the most impoverished households and charging the ‘haves’ greater amounts. This is the difference between poverty alleviation and poverty eradication. Poverty eradication requires a radical and consistent re-alignment and redistribution of resources across sectors and a complete shift in thinking. If we are to see the evidence of Ubuntu, this requires considering and rescinding the negative consequences of state policy on the most vulnerable particularly women. It is not comfortable and it requires more profound and accelerated impetus than government has hitherto shown. Is this a shift that you and the government are willing to make?
The speech speaks vociferously about increasing the personnel numbers and capacity in the criminal justice machinery, mentions violent crime in passing and highlights poaching, cash in transit heists and animal trafficking. More puzzling is the omission of rape and gender based violence. Given the ongoing reports of these crimes, this is reprehensible. In a country with the highest incidence of rape in the world it is a shameful lapse. We recognise the sterling efforts of many police, judges, prosecutors, district surgeons and other public servants. However no mention is made of the collusion of some criminal justice personnel in allowing certain dockets to go ‘missing', the trauma that many women and children face when they give evidence, the non-responsiveness and insensitivity of police in dealing with domestic violence. Equally worrying is that the speech mentions nothing abut the trafficking of women and children in and out of South Africa yet this is a global crisis. Considering all this, should we conclude that poaching is a higher priority than rape or human trafficking or domestic violence?
Social welfarism is a laudable component of State policy, particularly when there are such deep schisms and social inequalities. However it is disingenuous to present a speech full of promises as though the status quo is a result of forces other than Government policy of the last 13 years. GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution economic strategy) and now ASGISA (Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa) are objects of contestation not only because their origins are not clear but because they do not offer a clear social contract with the nation. Despite the fact that the GEAR failed to meet its targets on most of its goals, including increased levels of local and foreign investment and employment creation, government for its part continues to hail the success of GEAR based on the attainment of two narrow indicators which are the reduction of the budget deficit, and the reduction in inflation. ASGISA has so far failed to address these contradictions and has so far kept women invisible from the policy constructs and processes. Moreover you have not told the nation that many of the 500,000 new jobs that have been created are short term or temporary and that these figures include self employed people in the informal sector. And most critically for African women, you have not told us how many of these jobs are for women who comprise the biggest group of unemployed people.
In defining a common national identity it is critical to be cognisant of the totality of the nation. The character of the Nation State, Mr. President, is linked to the manner in which the state relates to all in those within Her borders. It is connected to the nationhood that enables, that protects and that nurtures. As citizens we must challenge the role of the state as protector, provider, enabler and defender especially when this role is all but vacated. We must as women interrogate the nationhood that ignores us or replicates all that is reactionary, patriarchal, gender blind and hostile to our development in the name of ‘growth’ , of ‘investment’ or hidden under a gender desk. The greatest irony is that the resumption of the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations reduces the role and notion of the State to a moot point and rescinds any progressive domestic policy cutting across access to and provision of services, agriculture, investment policy, intellectual property rights and non agricultural market access.
This multilateralism promotes a supra state accountable to none and yet keeping all in its grip. Added to this is the threat of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which many of our neighbours are being bludgeoned into by the European Union with indecent haste and almost sinister opaqueness. There are inevitable consequences on South Africa through dumping and trade diversion. In all this, Mr. President, we urge you to remember that in order to remove ‘the stench of living ’ nationhood must restore our dignity, must enforce an authentic pro Africa agenda, must promote intra Africa trade which does not replicate colonial relationships. Nationhood in this era requires courageous leadership, Mr. President, which enables social cohesion without threats to dissenters, which makes us all feel safe physically, economically, socially and financially without selling our interests to foreign capital and which can relate to the mighty women in this country as more than vote fodder.
* For more information contact GENTA on: Liepollo Lebohang Pheko [084
881 9327] or Mohau Nthisana Pheko [082 670 2505]
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
The misrepresentation of Africa
2007-02-14
Selome Araya
Africa continues to be misrepresented as a continent of victims of poverty, violence and ridden with HIV/AIDS. Selome Araya says campaigns such as "Save Darfur", the Red Campaign by GAP and the "I Am An African" AIDS campaign all contribute to the stereotyping of the continent as a place of despair.
Ask anyone what they think of “Africa” and you may receive a response related to poverty, AIDS, hunger, ‘tribalism’ or animals. Trails of pity might linger in their words as a hint of disgust shimmers in their eyes. They may give an example of how they helped to “Save Darfur” or dreamed of adopting an “African orphan”. Most likely the view of the continent is that it is not a continent at all, but one large country, where everyone speaks the same language, eats the same food, wears the same type of clothing, and creates the same type of art. Yes, in their eyes, “Africa” is a homogeneous place of simple people with simple activities.
But, for someone who has never been to the continent, can they be blamed for this ignorance? The media and “humanitarian” agencies do an incredible job of misrepresenting the birth of civilization and projecting it as a down-trodden place of mishaps and has-beens. A place of disease, poverty, and chaos, and a place devoid of any history or future. Even today, it is still depicted as “The Dark Continent”, with dark tales of gore and war. And it’s not just the media. So-called “experts”, practitioners, and scholars perpetuate these stereotypes to no end, continually feeding the misrepresentation engine.
This cynicism is not to be taken lightly. “Africa” has been placed at the bottom of every pole on the international scale. It is deemed as possibly one of the worst regions on earth, and this notion is perpetuated continually with images and language, misinformation and racism, and media blitz and negative attention. Very few media outlets provide their viewers and readers with positive information about the plethora of countries and events occurring on the continent. For that would be mundane and not “sexy”. Yes, it seems that “Africa” is sexy these days. A crisis in “Africa” gets more response, more money, and more attention than a positive occurrence.
Granted, there are many issues affecting numerous countries in Africa. But I’m appalled at the fact that every time I hear of this place my family and ancestors call home, it is in a negative light, in a pitiful light, in a savagery light, in a deadly light. What I fail to understand is how all other elements of life are negated for the sake of a “good story” and a dramatic plea for funds. I have seen with my own eyes many elements of life that are beautiful beyond explanation, and I beg someone to explain to me why these elements aren’t projected.
Recently I was skimming Elle Magazine (yes, clearly not a place to be reporting on affairs of an international nature) and was deeply disturbed by the only two pages dedicated to “Africa”. The article disturbed me so much that I had to write a letter to the Editor expressing my utter disgust at their depiction. Africa was [mis] represented as a place where everyone is dying, has AIDS, or who is thirsty and hungry. There was no context provided, nor was there any balance that spoke of the positive elements of the continent. There was no mention of how people are responding to their own needs. All that was discussed were ways in which Europeans are “saving” this dreadful place from falling further into its cave of darkness. I couldn’t help but wonder how many readers of this pretentious high-fashion magazine walked away with a haunting perception of a place that they have never been to. If I were reading about “Africa” for the first time, I surely would think of it as a place that is just a hot mess of hell.
As a graduate student at Columbia University, where so-called “experts” teach aspiring public health students about “Africa”, I experience the same generalizations and stereotypes being perpetuated. These “experts” have dedicated their lives to joining the “saviour” movement that’s happening in certain circles of humanitarian assistance. And so, “women” are all victims and need outsiders to help them do everything. “Child soldiers” need to be rehabilitated by people from European countries. “Women and children” need outsiders to intervene and “save” them from the heathens that are the men in their lives. Everyone is dying of some disease. Every home seems to be in a dilapidated state with no food, water, or electricity. Almost everybody is in need of a program designed from abroad. People don’t know (or remember how) to grow their own food, so they need continual food aid packets dropped in their “communities”. And everyone belongs to a “culture” and has traditional ways that they live their lives, in their villages.
“Health” must be shaped from a Western point of view. It sickens me to hear how excited they become as they talk about the next country they are travelling to, to implement their pre-designed projects on people. They are the Lords of Poverty and aren’t even conscious of the stereotypes they carry with them as they lecture. And they’re producing an entire pedigree. Many of the students make drastic generalizations and proclamations about the countries they have lived in (for three months) and become self-proclaimed spokespersons for this region of the world.
There are also many campaigns today that continue to project negative perceptions of Africa onto the world. For people who have no exposure, direct contact, or knowledge of Africa, these campaigns are down right dangerous and counter-productive. Instead of “raising awareness” about important causes, they invoke pity for “the other” and perpetuate the concept that Africa is backwards and in need of saving. The campaigns I am referring to are the “I am African” campaign, the “Red” campaign from The Gap clothing company, and the numerous “Save Darfur” campaigns occurring in the world. As I walked down the streets of Manhattan today, I retained some of the advertisement for the “Red” campaign at the Gap. It pleads for people to help end AIDS in Africa and to save women and children from dying. Again, another universal representation of Africa for all of the Gap Corporation consumers. The millions of Gap Corporation consumers.
The “I am African” campaign is one that may have good intentions, but is grossly offensive and appalling. Appalling because an African woman is behind it, offensive because of the feathers, face paint, and European superstars posing as “Africans”. So now we have Gwyneth Paltrow with striped paint on her cheek, a plethora of jewellery on her neck, with the phrase “I am African” across her chest. I understand the point is to educate people on the AIDS crisis on the continent, but could it not have been done in a more respectful, tactful, and tasteful manner? But more importantly, what these campaigns do is make “AIDS in Africa” a commodity, something that is fashionable and marketable, and makes the only reference people have to the continent one that is linked to death and poor health. To have celebrities (who are not of African descent) say that they are “African” is to imply that since they are now “African” they also somehow have AIDS. It’s sending a message that being African is synonymous with AIDS.
International Non-Governmental Organizations who do business in “Africa” are no better. They spend much of their time and resources depicting the continent as a place that only they can “fix”, and spew out endless facts to justify their own causes. Yes, they are there to save the lowly Africans, and the more dramatic the picture or story, the more support they receive. And more importantly, the longer they stay in business. What people fail to understand is that, while it is imperative to raise awareness about the global poverty that is the reality for billions of people around the world, it is not helpful in the least to project an entire continent through a one-dimensional lens that is lined with despair and imbalance.
If people are going to campaign and discuss such despair, they need to provide context and background information, and underlying root causes of issues like AIDS and other poverty-related concerns. To simply present them independent of any other information is to represent people as helpless, hopeless victims who need saving. It is time for a change. It is time for “Africa” to be uplifted more often in the media. We need to hear more about the other dimensions of life for “Africans”; those that are not living in abject poverty and dying every second from whichever health concern is “hot” at the moment.
There’s music, there’s movement, there’s knowledge, there’s progress, there’s love, there’s tradition, there’s strength, there’s beauty, there’s nature, there’s power, there’s wealth, there’s health, there’s humanity, there’s history, there’s unity, there’s peace, there‘s LIFE. Sometimes, wouldn’t it be great to hear about these elements too? Because the “Africa” that I know is much more than death.
* Selome Araya is a community activist and freelance writer who is currently finishing her Master's degree in Forced Migration and Health.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Pan-African Postcard
It's about time god issued a disclaimer
2007-02-15
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
I spent New Year with two visiting friends, both of them Ugandan, who have been living outside of the country for most of their lives. One is more Nigerian than I can ever claim to be. He is married to a Nigerian, and I am not. He has lived in the country for the past 30 years, which I have not done. Having left home at 22, I could not go back for a decade and a half. I have never spent more than one month there since 1999, when I was ‘allowed’ back. The other friend crossed over to yankee-land, studied, worked and became famous - though he has never lost his Kabale roots. The former is Professor Okello Oculli and the latter is ‘Mr Terrific’, the hugely popular anchorman of VOA’s mass audience programme, Straight Talk Africa.
We were invited to dinner by an Eritrean sister, the immediate director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Nairobi, Aki Aseghedech, and her visiting brother, the former long-term minister in the EPLF government of Eritrea, Tesfaye. Tesfaye - like a few other prominent refugees from president Afworki’s one-man rule - is now working with the UN.
They say opposites attract in marriage but there are more opposites than cupid could conjure up between these two siblings. Aki is a hot-blooded radical who sometimes makes me seem like a ‘moderate’! But the brother is more sedate - though no less a revolutionary. He is one of those stoics who can keep his brains on ice while his heart is on fire.
You can just imagine the kind of conversation, intellectual and political exchanges around that dinner table that night. Five widely travelled and politically committed Africans, none of them in their country of birth, but feeling no less African. All angry because they know that their individual countries and Africa as a whole can and deserves to do better than it is doing at the moment. Our heated conversations and passionate exchanges over all kinds of topics and themes from the global to the local gave me more hope than anything that although this continent might be down, it is not out: not yet, and it will not be, so long as there are many Africans not giving up on themselves, and on Africa. But it also confirmed to me the necessity to heed Karl Marx’s advice and move from ‘interpreting the world’ to ‘changing it’.
I had promised a friend that I would come to their church. So soon after honking in the New Year, we left Aki’s beautiful home in one of the most posh areas of Nairobi - which residents call Nairobbery - because of the high rate of crime! Since I was the driver, my two guests had no choice but to go to where I was going. And that’s how we arrived at the Parklands branch of the Nairobi Pentecostal Church, joining the faithful in their midnight service for the New Year. There were hundreds of worshippers who had been keeping vigil all night, pouring out their hearts to God in anticipation of good tidings. One would have thought that I, being born a Muslim, would be the most uncomfortable in the church. But thanks to my missionary education, lifelong love of Christmas carols and Christian choirs, I acquitted myself well. But one of my guests was more uncomfortable. He cannot remember when he was last in a church. Just imagine a scenario in which a Muslim was trying to placate the nerves of a person born and christened in a church! But that’s another story, to be continued another time. Anyway, we survived the service.
Okello has again been visiting Nairobi, and we got involved in church-related conversations again. A few days ago, in my office, we were engaged in a half day discussion about God in Africa. A firebrand Anglican reverend, responsible for mobilising 45 million Anglicans on this continent, came to my office to say hello. We were still halloing three hours later. Our discussions soon veered towards the church in Africa. The context is a Kenya that has been gripped by the story of a very popular born-again reverend, Rose Wanjiru whose desire to marry another Charismatic priest from South Africa had been the subject of a very public legal tussle. It turns out that this self-proclaimed bishop has been married before and had children. The husband in question went to court to stop the marriage, and also demand ‘his conjugal rights’ from a woman he had married under customary law and had never divorced! The courts stopped the marriage. The battle continues both in the law courts and the court of public opinion. However it has raised questions about the role of the church, and the ever-growing born-again, Pentecostal charismatic church across the continent.
Okello, our Anglican reverend sister, and I spent hours discussing this. There were no conclusions to our exchanges, though a number of issues are becoming clear. First, the Pentecostals are occupying a vacuum created by the established churches, which focus more on delivering their herd to heaven. Whereas, the Pentecostals offer God’s kingdom on earth. Second, while the established churches preach humility, poverty and guilt, the born-again (or mulekole as they are called in Uganda) preach prosperity and ‘feel good’ ideologies. For instance Bishop Wanjiru admits to fornication, children outside marriage, witchcraft and all kinds of failings, but then says, ‘see what God has done in my life, if I can make it so can you’.
These ideologies offer hope to the hopeless in a way that no government, president or CSO activist can do. We know many of them are fraudulent but their supporters believe they are God’s ‘little angels’ with all kinds of miracle prayers that can solve their immigration problems, marriage and other relationship challenges, barrenness, even HIV/Aids. And even but more importantly: their poverty. They offer bargain priced prosperity, as captured in one of their more popular slogans, 'a giver never lacks'. The more you give to God the more you are entitled to expect. They proclaim ‘Jesus is the answer’; but never quite tell their believers what the question is. What can or should we do about it? It is not enough to say ‘religion is the opium of the masses’, because it is both the rich, the very rich, the poor and poorest who are flocking to be saved. It is not just the ‘uneducated’ masses, but our highly educated and professional classes who are seeking salvation and refuge from the helter-skelter rat race of their lives.
And it is not only these churches that are witnessing revivals, but all religions. Many Muslims are becoming radicalised thanks to Bush and Blair’s ‘wars on terror’, that has made Islam and Muslims targets. Are the manmade problems of the world so out of control that ‘Only God’ can solve them? Or are we inventing God as a shield and convenient excuse to avoid facing up to these problems, both personally and politically? What has God got to do with poverty? What has he got to do with rapacious globalisation, intolerance, Iraq, the Niger Delta, Darfur, Palestine and Lebanon? It is about time God issued a disclaimer!
* Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the Deputy Director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned Pan-Africanist.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Letters
Guinea: People reject appointment of Eugene Camara as PM
2007-02-14
Mariam Tendou
You may know by now that President General Lansana Conte has responded to the call by the Union Workers Leaders to nominate by Monday (February 12th) a new Prime Minister with independent powers to form a new government (Gouvernement d union nationale).
So, yesterday, Friday Feb 9th, at 19:45 pm it was announced that Eugene Camara, the current Minister of Presidential Affairs - who was nominated just a few weeks ago at the height of the first call for strike in replacement of Fode Bangoura - has been nominated as the new prime minister by presidential decree.
Unfortunately, just as the news spread people started reacting to this nomination. The mood in the streets is clear: Emotions are quite high, most are saying that Eugene Camara is no new face to Guinea's politics. He was moved from the Ministere du Plan to his last post by presidential decree. And now to Prime Minister.
People are asking for change and this nomination is not perceived as "change". Today, most taxis were parked, and there was almost no public transportation. Most businesses were closed. People were at home. Some groups started going into the streets but most streets down town were peaceful, with military men patrolling here and there. I have not been outside of my neighbourhood (down town).
Earlier it felt quite unsafe to take the highway as there were reports of cars being stopped, of tires burning . There have been reports of clashes with patrol men in suburban and popular areas ( Gbessia, Hamdallaye, Taouyah, Koleah, Matoto). Also reports of clashes in other cities inland. People are saying that it is time for the change they have long waited for: a glimpse of hope in their daily lives. Already a few successes from the first strike call have allowed in the reduction in prices of gas, and the Guinean France exchange rate has also gone down, merchants are slowly lowering their prices in market places. People feel that with more pressure they might get more. Although the families of those who lost their lives on January 22 are still mourning. Major international radios such as RFI and BBC are also covering the events.
Airlines cancelled their flights today inbound and outbound including Air France, Snairlines, Air Ivoire. But no reports yet that the airport is closed. So, I was supposed to leave tonight to attend a Forum in Paris, this coming Monday. Maybe tomorrow I will leave if the flights are not cancelled.
Afrisoc-RSSAF Statement regarding Fahamu's China in Africa book
2007-02-13
Jeni Whalan, Convenor, RSSAF
Afrisoc and RSSAF have declined the offer to sell copies of ‘African Perspectives on China in Africa’, published by Fahamu Press, for the following reasons: 1) to facilitate an exchange of ideas rather than an endorsement of any single approach; 2) to emphasise debate rather than commercial transactions; and 3) to comply with the requirements of the event venue that no cash transactions take place. In no way does this represent an evaluation, critique or censorship of the publication in question. Afrisoc and RSSAF encourage the presentation of diverse perspectives, and welcome the participation of all at the upcoming event.
The event China’s Involvement in Africa is the second in a series of panel discussions hosted by the Africa Society and the Rhodes Scholars’ Southern African Forum (RSSAF), two student organisations at the University of Oxford. This collaboration aims to bring the Oxford community together to discuss pressing issues in contemporary African society. Researchers and practitioners are invited to provide diverse perspectives on a specific issue in order to promote debate and facilitate an exchange of ideas.
On 30 January 2007, the event organisers were approached by Fahamu Press about the possibility of promoting their publication ‘Perspectives on China in Africa’ via book sales at the event. After discussion with the organising committee, it was decided that this request would be declined, for the following reasons:
1) It compromised the central purpose of the event: to facilitate the exchange of ideas by promoting a diversity of perspectives. We sincerely hope that the perspectives contained in the book will be raised in the panel discussion. However, we believe that the endorsement of a single book at the event would compromise the neutrality of the panel, given that there are many relevant books on the topic. 2) Commercial transactions, such as book sales, are not currently part of our vision for the panel. This does not rule out that possibility in the future, but multiple books and multiple publishers on a topic would always be offered to promote a diversity of ideas. 3) Our agreement with the event venue, Rhodes House, includes the condition that no cash transactions take place in the building. Book sales would contravene this agreement.
These reasons were openly communicated, and the suggestion that the sale of the book in question was declined for reasons of its content, authors or publisher is an unfortunate misunderstanding.
We deeply regret the misrepresentation of our response as “censorship”, and that those making allegations to this effect did not seek adequate clarification before publishing such erroneous comments. In no way do Africsoc and RSSAF engage in or support censorship, and accusations of such conduct are simply incorrect, misleading, and damaging to the credibility of these student-run organisations.
We believe our decision is fully justified, and indeed crucial to the facilitation of an open exchange of diverse ideas at the event. The planning committee reserves the privilege to decide whether book sales are part of the events we hold.
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: Thank you for accepting our invitation to you to respond to Fahamu's letter about this matter. If the reasons now provided by you had been expressed in the first instance, an entirely different discussion would have ensued.
Instead your committee wrote to inform Fahamu on 30 January that the only reason that the book would not be permitted at the seminar was because - quote:
"Undoubtedly the book enriches dicourse (sic) on this pertinent issue and is a very valuable contribution. We however feel it is (sic) represents one view of the relationship between China and Africa."
Leaving aside, for the moment, the fact that this opinion was formed without evidence (as the book was not yet available in the UK), your current statement is clearly at odds with the committee's original reasons for prohibiting the display of the book. Fahamu sought clarification of your committee's decision and were informed that that the committee stood by their decision. It is not, therefore, entirely accurate to state now that "These reasons were openly communicated" to Fahamu.
Response to Jeni Whalan, Convenor, RSSAF
2007-02-15
Irungu Houghton, Pan African Policy Advisor, OXFAM GB
The following letter, addressed to Jeni Whalan, Convenor, RSSAF, is reproduced here with the permission of the author.
Dear Jeni,
Really glad that you have decided to clarify where Afrisoc and RSSAF lie on this issue and that censorship of the book is not your intention.
Not sure about the portrayal of the book as one sided, but in any case, is this necessarily a bad thing? If you held to this principle, I am not sure whether we would be able to display very many books, including that of the Chinese Government's own perspective on contributing to development in Africa.
I am disappointed that you have held to your earlier decision. Displaying the book should not imply endorsement, the organisers could make this clear and even go as far as disassociating the organisers from the perspectives contained in the book if you feel so strongly. It clearly sets a bad precedence to refuse to display materials that are central to the discussions being planned. The more commercial issues are less controversial given Fahamu's non-profit mission. I am sure you could work out something with Firoze Manji.
I would urge you to reconsider and not block the book from being displayed. In so doing, you would uphold rather than violate a fundamental freedom, the freedom of expression. Perhaps there are other books on China and Africa that could be displayed as well.
I have no vested interests in the book, sit 4,500kms away in Nairobi but feel these small decisions create the climate for more fundamental victories and failures. Closing down the space for any perspective, any view on such a significant development in Africa's political economy will hurt us as Africans and Africanists in the long run.
Global Response and Yala Swamp, Lake Victoria
Executive Director Global Response
2007-02-14
Paula Palmer
Global Response organizes international letter-writing campaigns to support local communities that are engaged in struggles to stop environmental destruction. Most often the local communities are indigenous peoples whose struggle is for human rights and land rights as well as environmental protection. For example, our current campaign supports indigenous and Garifuna communities in Belize that are trying to stop oil development in a wetland area where they live. If you’d like to write a letter in solidarity with them to the Prime Minister of Belize, please see the action alert at www.globalresponse.org
I’m developing a new campaign now, based on meetings I had in Nairobi with residents of the Yala Swamp region on the shores of Lake Victoria. You might have heard the Yala Swamp residents present their case at the Peoples’ Tribunal during the Forum. I’ll send you our action alert for this campaign as soon as it’s ready.
If you have networks or listserves, I wonder if you would send the Yala Swamp alert to your lists? It would be great if you would also send them a link to www.globalresponse.org and ask them to register to receive our campaign alerts and updates directly. This would be a great way for us to expand our international network of citizen activists.
Books & arts
Carbon Trading
A critical conversation on privatisation, climate change and power
2007-02-14
Heather Bartram
"From Uganda to Guatemala, the book provides shocking case studies of carbon offset project after project that went wrong. Land grabbing, human rights violations and illegal evictions."
According to Tony Blair recently – it is possible to combine having a good time with taking care of apocalyptic climate change. He was responding to criticism that he had set a bad example by jetting off to Florida for the annual Blair family holiday. His answer to the spoil-sport environmentalists was to pay a carbon offset company Climate Care to 'neutralise' the emissions from the air travel. Carbon offsets allow a polluter (Blair in this case) to continue life as usual (flying cheaply) by paying an intermediary (Climate Care) to invest their money (minus administration costs of course) in a project that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases somewhere else. This in turn caused a secondary furore because the concept of carbon offsets is a pretty controversial one. In the background of this media frenzy, the highly respected Dag Hammerskjöld Foundation published their new book “Carbon Trading: a critical conversation on privatisation, climate change and power” edited by Larry Lohmann that does a comprehensive demolition job on Blair's fun-loving approach to the end of the world as we know it.
From Uganda to Guatemala, the book provides shocking case studies of carbon offset project after project that went wrong. Land grabbing, human rights violations and illegal evictions, the collection of essays catalogues the abuses perpetrated in the name of 'saving the planet'. In Uganda, the Dutch FACE Foundation tree-planting project in the Mount Elgon national park is an example of the occupying force that Northern polluters can have in a Southern country. Since 1994 the Foundation have been planting trees on 25,000 hectares of land where the carbon 'rights' have been given over to them for the next 100 years. This is for the primary purpose of offsetting carbon dioxide emissions. The land within the boundaries of the park is hotly contested and 300 families were evicted in 2002. Communities living on the borders of the park who previously relied on the wood, herbs and animals of the forest now risk being shot at by guards if they trespass. The book argues that because land is politically contentious across the South, the exclusion of local people from this resource to protect 'carbon offsets' of rich Northern polluters can only be seen as an exercise in neo-colonialism.
However it is not only the dubious projects that the book takes issue with but also the wider system of carbon trading into which they fit. Carbon trading lies at the heart of the international treaty on climate change – the Kyoto Protocol. It is the mechanism through which corporate polluters and industrialised governments can trade greenhouse gases instead of reducing their own emissions. It works on the same principle as offsets but with the added bonus that countries and companies can trade credits between themselves rather than invest directly in a project. In this way it acts as a kind of currency. The chapter on the history of its birth onto the UN scene from US fossil fuel lobbyists via the Clinton administration is a fascinating insight into the horse-trading and brinkmanship that goes on at international negotiations. It is also a disturbing glimpse into the machinations of corporate power and neoliberal infiltration of the environmental sphere.
In the conclusion, the book's editor Larry Lohmann gives a stirring analysis of the political dangers of carbon trading by pointing out that in the short life of the climate negotiations, discussion of the precise details of the mechanism has become a “dangerous sideshow”. This has served to distract and confuse environmentalists and policy makers. In fact, for Lohmann, the resignation of policy makers to accept carbon trading as the only show in town is quitters talk. This desperate diplomacy ignores the plethora of existing tried and tested strategies that create dramatic social change. For him change does not occur in small rooms by planners but by move and counter move by all social actors in a slow and painful process of political democratisation of the issues. What climate change needs is a process of “decentring”. Shifting the solutions away from top-down entities such as the World Bank and international diplomacy and more towards grassroots movements that are already making headway on keeping fossil fuels in the ground.
If you thought carbon trading was a dull subject, think again. This book not only demonstrates that it is on the front-line of the conflict with neo-liberalism and corporate power but has infused the issue with the thrill of inspiring social justice movements across the South. If the topic intimidates you, the question and answer style of the book makes it accessible and informal. When you feel you're getting lost, the conversation steps back and gives a chance to reflect and regroup. Plus it's not all doom and gloom, the many strategies Lohmann lays out for tacking climate change from a social justice perspective are inspiring and dare I say they sound like fun! So I guess it all comes down to what your idea of a good time is after all Mr Blair.
You can order the book at www.dhf.uu.se
Hommage to Nuruddin Farah, the man who writes powerful women
2007-02-14
Annie Quarcoopome
Farah’s second trilogy, Blood in the Sun, is made up of three works (two of which I know to be excellent) Maps, Secrets and Gifts. Obviously, this is an author interested in concepts. Generally, his works are amazingly lyrical, incorporating such unconventional elements as the use of first, second and third person narrative voices for the same character in the same novel, and the vivid and yet vague recounting of dreams whose meanings are not easy to decipher. The supernatural plays a significant role, but instead of overwhelming us, it draws us deeper into the narrative. I can imagine that many a reader has been found absorbed in this book with furrowed brow, engaging with the musical quality of the language, at the same time trying to find meaning within the text.
Maps tells the story of a Somali orphan raised by an Ethiopian maid in the highly contested Ogaden region in the Horn of Africa. The question of the map is an intriguing one and important to us all, especially to those of us who have to deal with issues of representation in heterogenous places that need to be made homogenous because of the political structures it is assumed we must strive towards. For democracy sake, different groups of people enclosed within such arbitrarily drawn boundaries as our colonial masters left us with, must find enough commonality to regard themselves as a nation, or at least as a state. But what is most fascinating to me is the recurrent imagery of blood in this text. The macrolevel concept of national identity, especially relevant to the Ogaden whose national identity has alternated between Ethiopian and Somali, is played out in the familial arena. And so blood becomes important. Blood shed is crucial. Bloodlines even more so. And then there Misra, the protagonist’s foster mother, who reads his future in blood…and I am still deciding where to go with that.
Gifts is equally fascinating, if not more so for those who want to extrapolate Farah’s Somali context to cover Africa as a whole. Gifts presents even stronger characters (if this is possible), and I say this because they are characters who remain with me even after I have put the book down, even after I have read other works including Farah’s Links. This narrative is a love story that is completely not sappy. It is a love story in which the act of giving and consequently of receiving are very controversial. Duniya is leery of gifts offered by anyone because she recognizes the power dynamics at play. And yet in her love affair with Bosaaso, one must compromise, because the game of courtship cannot be divorced from the act of giving. It is highly ironic that the power dynamics of benevolence are played out in the arena of courtship, because this novel is really about the “courtship” of Africa by the West and the so-called Asian giants. And so weaving the story around Duniya’s dysfunctional family which includes her children from two previous marriages and an abandoned foundling which her daughter brings home, we see the shamed face of Africa lurking in the wings, arms outstretched, cupped beneath those of our benefactors, our “development aid” givers. They give and we receive, and our “love” affair begins. Issues of dependence, of misuse of “aid” to prop up corrupt, unpopular governments, arise in the setting of a war-ravaged Somalia, a raped continent.
I’m yet to read the final book in the trilogy, but be assured that I will track it down and I will add it to the millions of books and characters and authors, their creators, swimming around in my head. But let me say that one cannot write about Farah without acknowledging his unique take on women, especially as a male, African author. He has apparently received mail addressed to Ms. Farah, Mrs. Farah etc. for who would think that a man would have such a unique understanding of women, of their power, of the hypocritical social tenets that condemn trivialities and gloss over crucial questions of the woman’s place in Somalia, in Africa, in the world!
* Annie Quarcoopome is a student of Comparative Literature at Williams College in the US. She is also a contributor to Black Looks Blog.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o: Still de-colonising the mind
2007-02-13
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=298008&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/
Last month, Kenya’s most celebrated literary icon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, gave a series of lectures entitled Re-Membering Africa at the University of Nairobi. Rasnah Warah reports for the Mail& Guardian Online, on this historic moment, marking Ngugi’s first lecture in his homeland in nearly three decades, delivered at the very institution that stripped him of his professorship after he was detained without trial by the Jomo Kenyatta regime in 1977.
Manual on Advancing Justice and Reconciliation for the ICC
2007-02-14
Centre for Justice and Reconciliation
http://www.cjr.nl/
The Faith and Ethics Network for the ICC has drafted a Manual for African Religious leaders and faith-based communities on ‘Advancing Justice and Reconciliation in relation to the ICC’. A preparatory meeting was held in May 2005 in Nairobi. Participants of the meeting included representatives from the Muslim, Hindu, Bahaí, Catholic and Anglican communities from around Africa. A representative of the Victims Participation and Reparation Section of the ICC also participated.
FGM
2007-02-14
Abdi-Noor H. Mohamed
Birth of a baby must be a blessing event
But mine was nothing short of a curse
Daddy's face didn't shine. Drums didn't make noise
No shots were fired. No ceremony was held
The new born was me. I am a girl
In my culture, gender counts most.
A girl is not as welcome as a baby boy
Raising camel in the rangeland
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no hands for that
Harsh combat against the enemies
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no heart for that
Reconciliation in the aftermath of a clash
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no head for that
At five I had to face the worst
A knife cut across my genitals
A midwife circumcised me
Stitched me. Infibulated me
Where I used to have a clit
I have a black scar now
Why inflict me with this pain?
This real Pain of primitive cultures
In tears I am, at every stage of my life
Mom and Dad, I'm I not a daughter?
Dear Brother, I'm I not a sister?
Dear mankind, wherever you are
I'm I not a human being?
Tears, Tears, Tears
Blogging Africa
Review of African Blogs
2007-02-14
Sokari Ekine
African Architecture suggest that the abandoned oil rigs in the Bright of Benin could be put to use by erecting wind turbines to generate electricity to local delta communities. Not only would this provide electricity and recycle the abandoned rigs but as AA writes:
“Wind energy is the most promising carbon-free, nonnuclear alternative to fossil-fueled grid power. But regions with enough space and breeze for land-based wind farms—mostly in the Midwest—are far from coastal population centers; the cost of running transmission lines between generators and users is a major disincentive. That’s why wind-power entrepreneurs have set their sights on coastal waters. In the Atlantic, off Cape Cod, the 450-megawatt Cape Wind installation has been in the works for five years.”
Black Star Journal has a series of reports and commentary on Guinea starting with the rejection by the unions of Eugene Camara as the country's new prime minister and head of government. The country has been declared “in a state of siege” and the army are patrolling the streets having been given full police powers. In addition the media has been severely restricted and all cyber cafes in Conakry shut down. The Unions are demanding the removal of head of state, Gen. Lansana Conté. Black Star Journal also reports that:
“Mobs there have attacked suspected members of the former Liberian rebel movement ULIMO. Lansana Conté had backed that faction during that country's 1989-97 civil war and some accuse the general of calling in the militiamen to help put down the general strike. Yet members of the Guinean army have sided with the residents, who provided the soldiers with food and drink. Apparently young soldiers at the Alpha Yaya military camp were angry that only a handful of their colleagues were rewarded during the latest round of promotions. Internal divisions inside the Guinean military are one of the reasons many observers fear a messy transition to the post-Conté era.”
Kikuymoja's Realm writes of his time in Kenya where he grew up and has just spent the past four months. Now he has had to return to Germany but finds he is still writing and posting his photos of Kenya. Kikuymoja’s Blog is well known in the Kenyan blogosphere for his wonderful photos of daily life and innovative ways of using recycled goods to photos of things you would never find like:
“...the last two remaining copies of the loooooong time out-of-print “Wilderness Guardian” handbooks, which are selling for Ksh. 1700/=, and which I really recommend to anyone who diggs such manuals. (story goes that in around 1999, I tried to get a copy of it from an online bookshop based in the UK, and after 3 months they informed that this thing wasn’t available anymore.”
Africa’s best music blog by Steve Ntwiga always manages to find rare tunes from way back. Like Kikuymoja’s, no one knows where he finds these gems but thankfully he does and shares them with the world. Here he shares the music of:
“Les Kilimambogo Brothers, Victoria Jazz and some Taarab” ….. If you don’t know whom these people are, that tells you how old I am...if, on the other hand, you are thinking, “wow, I thought XYZ was dead!” then, maybe you might be a little older than I am...And, believe it or not somewhere in there, we get Ladysmith Black Mambazo doing a solo! (hint: go to 2:11)”
Nigerian blogger, Chxta's World comments on Nigeria’s “OBJ” factor. Despite being told that Nigeria’s economy is performing better than ever in the last 10 years, for the ordinary person it has never been worse. If worse is possible it would be Obasanjo retaining his involvement with running the country after the up coming elections. Chxta wonders where exactly the President is heading with statements that he won't hand over to criminals:
“I think that like many other statements that Obasanjo has made over the last few years, this one is way out of line, and extremely undemocratic. What utter nonsense! I am of the strong opinion that Obasanjo has something to hide, and he is of the view that Mr. Yar'Adua would be the best bet to cover his tracks for him. As we all know, Obasanjo and Yar'Adua's late brother were buddy buddies..."
Passion of the Present comments on the continuing civil war taking place in Chad with numerous rebel fractions fighting to remove President Idriss Deby.
“The rebel alliance still under arms includes the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD), and the Platform for Change, National Unity and Democracy (SCUD)...Their fighters recently attacked and briefly occupied several eastern towns, piling pressure on Deby's forces after a wave of ethnic violence which killed hundreds and forced the government to declare a state of emergency last month.”
As the fighting intensifies, the civilian population are caught up in the middle and recently it was reported that Janjaweed type militias were attacking refugees from Darfur. Chad accuses Sudan of backing the rebels and Sudan accuses Chad of backing the people of Darfur and so it goes on, more death and misery for civilians.
Nigerian blogger, Ijebuman's Diary publishes what he believes are the “top ten signs that elections will not be fair and free".
Annie writing on Black Looks discusses the basic criteria for identifying the African Diaspora:
“Some scholars have identified four basic criteria: 1. there must be a dispersal to at least two locations. 2.There must be self-awareness as a group. 3. It must be multi-generational. 4. There must be some relationship, real or imagined, with the “homeland.” Now obviously, this last one is what I am most interested in. The relationship with the homeland. I’m interested in first thinking about the relationship of two broad groups, with Africa: African Americans and Africans living abroad. With the former, there have historically been impressive strides made towards imagining a “black” nation, where black at different times has included African people and people of African descent even outside the US.”
She goes on to ask what is “our” – the Diasporan relationship with the homeland especially as the middle classes in the Diaspora have a habit of what she describes as “whitewashing the continent”:
“What is our relationship with the “homeland” now? If we all (and I come full circle to include both groups I mentioned) have found such ingenious ways to slowly but surely sever ourselves from a reality that should be ours...all ours, then that’s one criteria gone. And if I were a scholar, my conclusion would be that the African Diaspora cannot survive.”
* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org and is Online News Editor of Pambazuka News.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Podcasts
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Radio Essays "Live from Death Row"
2007-02-15
Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/
Listen to radio esssays by activist journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal "Live from Death Row" in the United States. Abu-Jamal was on death row after having been convicted of the murder of a Philadelphia Police Officer, but is now serving life in Pennsylvania Maximum Security State Prison.
For further information on the campaign to secure Mumia Abu-Jamal's release vist The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition.
African Union Monitor
Great expectations: AU remains hopeful and hesitant
2007-02-14
Gichinga Ndirangu
http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/
Africa’s 53 Heads of State ended their first summit of the year in Addis Ababa with a strong pledge to foster democratic culture and respect for fundamental rights. But these commitments were made beneath an avalanche of concern over an apparent reluctance to reign in errant members complicit in the violation of fundamental rights and freedoms.
In recent times, this concern has revolved mostly around the deteriorating situation in Darfur. The tenuous discussion on Sudan’s suitability to chair the AU and adoption of the charter on democracy at this last summit indicated a renewed but cautious sense of affirmation by the African Union to break new ground. But it also showed the lack of clear determination to reign in members not playing by the rules and violating organizational principles clearly evident in the failure to exert clear demands on Sudan.
The decision to devote the forthcoming summit in Accra to a consideration of the proposal on Pan Africa federalism has reinforced a sense of optimism and steer that the AU is intent on breaking new ground towards consolidating continental unity. Even then, there are serious questions on the viability of some of this and other proposals. The democracy charter has for instance faced reservations from several countries while southern Africa countries have expressed strong sentiment on the union government proposal. In the circumstances, a lot of backroom negotiations will need to take place before harnessing consensus on contested issues.
The recent AU summit took place at a significant moment when the African Union Commission prepares for the homestretch on its current mandate, which expires at the end of the year. A new commission will be constituted in 2008 following the election of new commissioners with a clear mandate to steer the AU into its next phase. The summit was also the penultimate session for the current chairperson, Professor Alpha Konare, whose term expires this September. Professor Konare, a former president of Mali, is not expected to bid for a second term setting the ground for a new set of eyes to steer the organisation’s overall strategic vision and mandate.
AU needs to reflect on its performance as it seizes itself for new demands and expectations and the hankering over Sudan best exemplified the dilemma facing the AU at this critical moment rather than the new thresholds of ambition being set for the organisation. The concern to stave off a diplomatic standoff with Sudan obscured the imperative to reign in Sudan and wrench out clear commitments from Khartoum on Darfur following months of negotiations with the AU.
Hence, even though the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon described Darfur as “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster” and promised to make it a key priority of his leadership, the AU failed to deal tough with Sudan. Once Sudan’s bid to lead the AU was dispensed with, the Darfur crisis slowly tapered off. Here, the AU was squarely in focus over the limited capacity of its peace monitors to stem the killing and suffering of thousands of civilians in the hands of the government-backed janjaweed militia. Even though the AU has expended much energy in seeking resolution to the Darfur conflict, Africa’s leaders gathered in Addis Ababa could not extricate themselves from their collective failure to exert sufficient political pressure on Sudan. What was clearly worrying though is that as the curtains came down on the summit, no substantive ground was broken to ensure that the ill-equipped AU peace monitors were equal to the task. Neither was the contested question over the deployment of a hybrid protection force involving the African Union and UN within an agreed timetable thrashed out.
The summit also failed to win an unequivocal commitment from Khartoum to halt its military scale-up in Sudan and disarm the janjaweed even as questions abound over whether the membership of a complicit Sudan is not anathema to the AU’s determination to raise the threshold against which its members must be judged by.
Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu was spot on warning that “the African Union [had] before it a stark choice on Darfur. Be bold and stand by the people of Darfur or be weak and stand by the politicians who are making that corner of Africa a graveyard”.
The decision on Sudan’s bid was clearly a bold statement. A Sudanese presidency would have compromised the neutrality and independence of the AU’s operations in Darfur. Alioune Tine, a member of the Darfur civil society Consortium spoke for many when he warned that “African opinion will never accept a choice of Mr Bashir as president of the African Union. Such a move will discredit the institution and diminish the image of the African Union as an independent arbitrator in the eyes of the world”.
In the aftermath of the summit, and in the wake of a multiplicity of new and resurgent conflicts, it is feared that the AU could be fatigued and steer its energy and focus away from its priorities and visioning. In many ways, the new theatres of conflict – Chad, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Somalia – have excised the AU’s undertaking to respect territorial sovereignty without being indifferent to systematic violation of fundamental freedoms and rights. This is in sharp contrast to its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which turned a blind eye to conflicts under the guise of respecting the sanctity of territorial sovereignty and non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states. But a lot more is expected of the AU. The period leading up to the summit showed that the AU is increasingly being called upon to provide leadership in reaching a pedestal where governments respect the organisation’s principles in the best interest of their people.
But now the AU must audit itself to determine whether its structures fit the task before it. The organisation clearly faces a raft of internal institutional challenges which impact on its efficiency and effectiveness. The caveat is that the AU may not live up to the billing due to existing institutional constraints, which potentially impede on its capacity to deliver at this critical moment.
A substantive assessment of the AU contained in a newly published report titled Towards a People-Driven African Union: Current Obstacles and New Opportunities cites some of the internal challenges facing the AU as ” the sheer number of AU ministerial meetings, ordinary and extraordinary summits each year, commission budget shortfalls and multiplicity of national legal frameworks, incoherent institutional arrangements and unclear policies and procedures”.
Significantly, the report which was commissioned by the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP), the African Forum & Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) and Oxfam GB warns that the AU is only as strong as its weakest link. It warns that “most African Governments have not reformed their national institutions and processes to respond to the new continental architecture. Consequently, only a few states prepare adequately by engaging across ministries, national assemblies or civil society organisations for the AU summits”.
The creation of the African Union in 2001 created a renewed sense of optimism, which must continue to inform its future by addressing internal and external challenges, which could potentially undermine its vision.
* The writer is the acting editor/policy analyst of the AU Monitor, an e-communication facility managed by Fahamu
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Women & gender
Eritrea: Government says Campaign against FGM ‘is working’
2007-02-15
http://newsite.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70174
The Eritrean government and civil society have expressed optimism that efforts to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) were bearing fruit, saying the campaign against the practice was gaining support in rural villages where excision was most common.
Global: Gender mainstreaming and peacekeeping - new report
2007-02-16
http://womenscommission.org/pdf/dpko.pdf
The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children has released the report "Room to Maneuver: Lessons from Gender Mainstreaming in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations." The report seeks to share lessons and learning on the diverse approaches and methodologies used by various UN agencies to implement former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's directive to mainstream gender in all UN agencies.
Liberia: Government, women's groups decry post-war sexual violence
2007-02-15
http://newsite.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=64306
Rising levels of rape and sexual exploitation of women and teenage girls in Liberia have sparked concern by both the government and women's rights groups. Despite a peace agreement in 2003, these types of violent abuse were still common, according to Lois Bruthus, head of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL), a leading advocacy group.
Liberia: Liberian Women Articulate Priorities for the Reconstruction of the Country
2007-02-15
http://tinyurl.com/3b8wsm
According to a symposium report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Liberian women have identified the enhancement of national security as a key area of focus in the reconstruction of Liberia alongside the revitalization of the economy, strengthening governance and the rule of law, and the rehabilitation of the infrastructure.
SOAWR Public Forum in Addis Ababa launches women's rights book
2007-02-12
The Solidarity for African Women’s Right (SOAWR) Public forum in collaboration with the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) was held on 25 January 2007 in Conference Room 4 of the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It had the following objectives: 1) To popularise the protocol on the rights of women in Africa 2) Discuss some of the provisions of the protocol in the context of Ethiopia 3)To provide space for interaction with the participants to contribute ideas and actionable recommendations towards the struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa and Ethiopia in particular 4) Launch “Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa". Representatives of UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, members of the public and the press attended the forum. The full report is available here.
REPORT OF THE SOLIDARITY FOR AFRICAN WOMEN’S RIGHT (SOAWR)
PUBLIC FORUM IN COLLABORATION WITH INTER-AFRICAN COMMITTEE ON TRADITIONAL PRACTICES AFFECTING THE HEALTH OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN
HELD ON 25 JANUARY 2007,
IN CAUCUS ROOM 4, UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE CENTER, (UNCC)
ADDIS ABABA ETHIOPIA
INTRODUCTION
The Solidarity for African Women’s Right (SOAWR) Public forum in collaboration with the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) was held on 25 January 2007 in Conference Room 4 of the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The public forum tagged: “Breathing life into the African Union’s Protocol on the Rights of Women and launching of Fahumu/SOAWR book titled: Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The Struggle for Womens’ Rights in Africa had the following objectives: 1) To popularise the protocol on the rights of women in Africa 2) Discuss some of the provisions of the protocol in the context of Ethiopia 3) To provide space for interaction with the participants to contribute ideas and actionable recommendations towards the struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa and Ethiopia in particular 4) Launch “Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa. Representatives of UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, members of the public and the press attended the forum.
OPENING CEREMONY
The Forum started at 9.00 a.m with the registration of the participants. At exactly 10.10 a.m, it was declared open by the Chairperson, Mrs Diariatou Korouma, Programme Officer, IAC. She called for a self-introduction by the participants after which she gave her welcome remarks. She chronicled the activities carried out by IAC in ensuring that women and girls take their rightful position in Africa pointing out that IAC has championed several strategies aimed at stamping out all forms of harmful traditional practices especially Female Genital mutilation (FGM) at the national, regional and international levels. Mrs Korouma mentioned some of the significant achievements to include symposiums for the religious leaders, the youth forums for the eradication of FGM and the collaboration with the African Union Commission (AU) in the drafting of the Protocol on Peoples Rights, which has been ratified by some African heads of states and governments. She thanked SOAWR for the bold step taken to highlight the plight of women and the need to incorporate these concerns in the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and ensure that the Maputo Protocol is ratified. She expressed her appreciation to all the participants for responding to the call.
OPENING REMARK
The Opening Remark was given by Mr Patrice Vahard, Officer in Charge of the Eastern Africa Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Addis Ababa. He thanked SOAWR for making the forum possible as a channel to further help put things in order for women in Africa. He pointed out that it was gratifying that the UN always partnered with NGO’s in worthy causes such as the one embarked upon by SOAWR.
Mr Vahard mentioned that by accepting to be at the forum, he was doing part of the job expected of him and also functioning in his capacity as an associate member of Fahumu. He spoke on some provocative issues among them the role of men on the equality issue, the role of women in wealth production, the need for men to see tradition in positive light and the need to behave differently and pointed out that we cannot preach equality and act differently. He made a passionate call for change and hoped for the day when equality with men would be achieved by women rather the situation “where inequality is the norm and equality the exception.”
Mr Vahard considered the Protocol as the most progressive instrument that demands the onerous task of adjusting positively through good governance and sustainable action to offer our sons and daughters a good environment, combat poverty, utilize space to work rather than depending on charity and pursue action rather than rhetoric. He viewed it equally as an asset, an appropriate working tool for breaking down barriers, and reaching out to our parents to drop the negative and inhibitive actions entrenched in our tradition. Blaming others, he opined, is a victim’s attitude, which should be discarded if genuine progress is to be made and positive changes effected. He applauded the initiative of SOAWR and highlighted the need to get boys, and girls out of ignorance and called on participants to use the forum to work together to effect the much-desired change and breathe life into our society and continent.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY Irungu Houghton, OXFAM
The chairperson, Mrs Diariatou Korouma noted with regret the inability of the AU Commission representative to present the keynote address due to the on-going AU Summit taking place at the same time. She called on Mr Houghton to present the keynote address.
In his keynote address entitled, Grace, Eloquence and Tenacity (GET) in Ethiopia, Mr Houghton described Grace, Eloquence and Tenacity (GET) as three very powerful words in the English Language. He viewed Grace as dignity, a sense of culture, present but not dominating on others; Eloquence as the ability to powerfully communicate and touch, move and inspire others; and Tenacity as persistence, perseverance and ‘stubbornness.’
With these words in view, he went on to posit three weapons blocking the rights of Ethiopian women and girls namely; violence, negative cultural practices and mental disempowerment. However, with GET in place, he offered that there would be dramatic change for the better in the lives of girls and women, Ethiopian laws, policies and budgets would be aligned to protect, promote and guarantee international and regional instruments like the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and that the Ethiopia state and non-state actors (CSOs, peoples mass associations, private sector companies etc) would behave differently to outlaw all forms of discrimination to women and promote affirmative action.
On what could possibly be done in Ethiopia, he offered that since the African heads of state and governments visit Addis Ababa at least twice a year, there was the need to capitalize on this and make meaningful contributions. He maintained that learning from the experiences of other African countries, would secure stronger linkages between women associations and NGO’s and of course, using the 8th Ordinary Summit of the AU Commission to remind the Prime Minister, His Excellency Meles Zenawi of his promise to ratify the Maputo Protocol would raise the stakes higher. This, he said, will ensure that countries in the ‘yellow zone’ move into the ‘green zone’ and make Grace, Eloquence and Tenacity, a reality in Ethiopia.
INTRODUCTION TO THE MAPUTO PROTOCOL by Roselynn Musa FEMNET, Nairobi, Kenya.
In a paper titled, The Promise of the Protocol to African Women, Ms Musa drew the attention of the participants to the fact that the keyword, “promise” denotes expectation and clearly signifies a positive outcome. The great importance attached to the protocol, she noted makes it imperative for all to be familiar with the full title: The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, otherwise called, The Maputo Protocol.
She addressed equality as the cornerstone of all societies but noted that African women are enveloped in inequality, subjected to inequalities in law and practice and outlined several causes, consequences and manifestations of these. Backing it up with statistics, she showed the percentage of women and girls in Africa disadvantaged in conflicts, sexual violence, refugee, internal displacements, politics, literacy, employment, wage earnings and HIV/AIDS which she summed up as precarious.
Ms Musa submitted that the formation of the United Nations in 1945 and the International Bill of Rights affirmed the dignity and worth of the human person and women should be treated based on these. Using PowerPoint presentation, to highlight Article 2 to Article 24 of the Maputo protocol, she sequentially and analytically explained the relevance of the articles in the charter to women and what could possibly be done. She mentioned the issue of signing, ratification and domestication and pointed out the initial challenges since the adoption of the Maputo protocol in 2003 as the fact that by 2004 only one country had ratified it and it was not until November 2005 that 15 other members of the AU ratify it for domestication .the protocol with the number presently at 20. She maintained that the Protocol was just an addition to the Charter, which gave room for NGOs to specifically address the needs of women. She called for a concerted effort on the part of women, men, NGO’s, women organizations, citizens, Human, Rights Activists, civil organizations and members of parliaments to join hands to campaign and lobby for countries that have not yet ratified the protocol to do so and those that have been ratified to go ahead and domesticate it.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE SOLIDARITY FOR AFRICAN WOMEN’S RIGHT (SOAWR) CAMPAIGN by Ms Caroline M. Muriithi, Equality Now, Nairobi, Kenya.
Ms Muriithi explained that SOAWR was born in September 2004 following the coming together of Oxfam, GB, FEMNET and Fahumu to speed up the process for the adoption, signing, ratification and domestication of the Maputo Protocol when it became obvious that only one country, The Comoros had ratified the Protocol. She mentioned that it now has several organizations as members with its secretariat currently hosted by Equality Now, Nairobi, Kenya.
The exigency of the situation, she asserted prompted the SOAWR to adopt campaign strategies to ensure that those countries yet to ratify the protocol did so. The strategies included the following, Pambazuka Newsletter, a booklet, “Not Yet a Force of Freedom”, press conferences, television/radio programmes, dialogue with member states at the national level and during AU Summits, mobile phone campaign titled: “Text Now” to popularise the protocol, coloured cards campaign, Green, Yellow and Red distributed to delegates during summits, outreach campaigns, and Pan African Women’s Day as a way to hold various governments accountable.
Ms Muririithi listed some of the challenges faced by SOAWR in carrying out its campaign to include conflicts in Africa – Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia, cultural and religious reservations, national elections in Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique. She also mentioned the issue of ratification with reservation citing Gambia as an example, though it had ratified the protocol did so with reservations but later had those reservations lifted.
Despite this she mentioned some gratifying results. She pointed out that this was the fastest ratified protocol with 20 African countries having done so. SOAWR, she pointed out mobilized women rights groups in 13 African countries and has been visible within the AU and elsewhere and also worked towards Gambia removing its reservations on the protocol. She reminded the participants that the next phase of the struggle involves continuing with the campaign to ensure that those countries that are yet to ratify the protocol do so and then ensure that the domestication process is carried out.
PANEL DISCUSSION
EXPERIENCE OF ETHIOPIA ON ELIMINATION OF HARMFUL PRACTICES THAT VIOLATES THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND THE GIRL CHILDREN by Mr, Abebe Kebede, Executive Director, EGLDAM
Mr Kebede opined that Ye Ethiopia Goji Limadawi Dirgitoch Aswogaj Mahiber (EGLDAM) was formed in 1987 to eradicate Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs), which he considered quite numerous. To implement this, he posited that it had to work closely with women leaders and groups, men, religious leaders, youth and circumcisers with ICT materials produced in local languages including videos and films to help in propagating the message
To ensure that its mandate was achieved, Mr Kebede disclosed that EGLDAM played an advocacy role at the national and regional levels to raise awareness on the importance of carrying out key actions against harmful traditional practices. In addition, it was also involved in lobbying, which led to legislation being instituted against HTPs in July 2003 and enforced in May 2005. With this landmark result, he offered that EGLDAM was engaged in making sure that the people were familiar with the law and its implementation by working closely with the government and other NGOs. He noted with delight the decline in early marriage and FGM as a product of awareness and equally mentioned that through awareness creation 30 fistula patients from different parts of Ethiopia were rescued and given medical attention and they now serve as change agents. In the same vein, students were made aware of the functions of the reproductive system and offered information on the age at which they could possibly get married to stem early marriage.
2. ELIMINATION OF HARMFUL PRACTICES IN ETHIOPIA
by Ms Sehen Bekele Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE)
Ms Bekele indicated that the Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE) is a public law organization established to grant women and girls access to justice and has been playing this key role successfully through policy research and public litigation and assistance in bringing accused persons to court. She stressed that the organization is focussed on the principle of non-discrimination of women in all aspects of life and has been working with youths, traditional rulers, women and schoolgirls to create awareness of their rights under the law.
She mentioned that women issues and problems came to light more in 1948 during the Human rights struggle and that OSJE maintains constant touch with women to rescue them from acts of inequality and harmful traditional practices that run counter to the UN declaration on Human rights. Ms Bekele indicated that a lot has been done by the organization to bring culprits to book and still more needs to be done to assist women and girls get their rights in the law court and that the organization is still poised to give legal aid to women to stem rape, injustice and other harmful traditional practices.
She considered the forthcoming Ethiopian millennium as a veritable ground for highlighting the protocol and ensuring that the ideas expressed are part of governments in Africa with reinforced institutional framework to ensure that women seek and achieve justice in all spheres of human endeavour in addition to securing the financial resources for its implementation. She mentioned the need to seize the regional integration initiative advocated for in Africa in building a viable continent and harped on the need for the African Parliament to work assiduously towards securing legal rights for women and girls not only in Ethiopia but in Africa.
Discussion, Observation and Comments
The chairperson, Mrs Diariatou Korouma asked participants to fully participate in the discussion, and offer their observation and comments where necessary.
Mrs Berhane Ras-Work, President of IAC stressed the need to embrace advocacy and lobbying as a way to ensure that the protocol is ratified based on the wealth of experience she has garnered in the fight against HTP’s especially FGM. She pointed out that the effort IAC put into these areas presented the opportunity for IAC to draft Article 5 of the protocol, which remains the beacon of hope for women and girls in Africa. This statement was greeted with applause. She also took the opportunity to inform participants that FGM is the officially recognized terminology when addressing the issue of female circumcision following a meeting held in Geneva in 2006. She thanked everyone for being a part of the struggle to actualise women’s rights
The participants appreciated the presentations. On what experience would have been handled differently in the last five years, Mr Kebede mentioned the fact that several harmful traditional practices were taken together which would be the most reasonable now to focus on just a few
The effort of EGLDAM was applauded for working closely on the issue of HTPs and assurances given that churches were working closely to help spread the message by ascribing FGM to sin and that the knowledge offered has benefited women, men and girls at the grassroots. The participants emphasized the need to use influential leaders, legal bodies, policy makers, curriculum developers and national baseline surveys as credible instruments for change.
It was agreed that advocacy initiatives be stepped up towards a change of attitude while employing the top to bottom approach but with a strong understanding of the bottom-up approach in effecting change at the grassroots. Equally, the plight of women with disability received attention as a crosscutting issue that should be addressed in the protocol bearing in mind that a special problem requires a special attention.
NGO’s were charged to use the media- radio, television, newspapers etc to offer women and girls knowledge of their rights, interpret the protocol into the different languages coupled with advocacy and lobbying.
The protocol was seen as truly African and therefore more binding on all Africans to see to its domestication. The need to work together, learn from experiences and fill gaps through best practices was emphasized as viable for reinforcing what needs to be done and a concerted effort put in place to ensure sustainability. SOAWR offered itself as a rallying point for a more purposeful campaign to ensure that the protocol is ratified and domesticated and urged more organizations to join in making this dream a reality.
“Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa Edited by Patrick Burnett, Shereen Karmali and Firoze Manji. An Overview by Wangari Kinoti (ECWD).
Ms. Kinoti offered that the book narrates the traditional perception that women toil day and night amidst grinding poverty while facing harsh cultural, traditional and social prejudices like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, which does not offer them the much-required equality. The book she pointed out depicts African women fighting for their rights and doing so with grace, tenacity and eloquence. It brings out the story and narrows it down to the African protocol by gathering articles from Pambazuka Newsletters covering several topical issues that affect women to provide an easy-to-read introduction to the struggle for the rights of women in Africa.
She pointed out that the book is in seven chapters with each chapter addressing key issues that affect women and made headlines in most cases drawing public interest into a carefully woven network of facts and updates.
Chapter 1: Campaigning for Women’s Rights: Showcases articles that represent the voices of women involved in the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights SOAWR) campaign, a coalition of women’s rights organization driving for the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights for Women in Africa.
Chapter 2: Moving the Protocol from Paper to Reality: The articles see adoption of the protocol as kick starting the process and implementation of the protocol as reality for the enforcement of change.
Chapter 3: Women, Health and Food Security: It views the protocol as a veritable tool for guaranteeing the health and food security of women on the African continent.
Chapter 4: Women and Conflict: It highlights what women go through in time of conflicts and endorses that at all levels of peacemaking women need to be included if the effects of war is to be ameliorated.
Chapter 5: Women and Islam. It deals with women’s rights and Islam, women’s reproductive rights within Islam and the compatibility of Islamic laws and the Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa
Chapter 6: Women and The Jacob Zuma Trial. Records the antecedents of the Jacob Zuma Trial and what the ruling means to women.
Chapter 7: Comments and Analyses; It deals generally with various women issues and the need to give urgent