Africa

South-South cooperation offers new opportunities for transforming African economies

A new study warns that trade and investment flows with the South are reinforcing a longstanding trend in which African countries export farm produce, minerals, ores, and crude oil, and import manufactured goods. It says this situation should be reversed while the South-South trend is still in its early stages. A repeat of the traditional pattern will not help African countries to reduce their traditional dependence on exports of commodities and low-value-added goods. This AfricaFocus (...) read

Lead, Kindly Light!

Inder Sidhu travels to a remote Rajasthan village where rural African women are learning new skills to transform their lives back home. The Barefoot College NGO’s ‘solar engineer’ programme teaches semi-literate and illiterate women from the continent’s rural communities how to build and maintain solar power sources. Read more and see here read

The Unspoken Risks of Cell Phones and Wireless Networks

Africa has been catapulted into the electronic age over the past decade and a half by an almost incomprehensibly swift growth in telecommunications technology driven primarily by a massive rollout of cell phones and wireless technology throughout the continent. While few can deny the economic benefits that this growth has brought to a continent historically hobbled by a patchy telecommunications infrastructure, the physical risks of this explosive growth on the health of the people of (...) read

Endorois’ human rights court victory against Kenya has far-reaching implications

With the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) deciding in favour of Kenya’s Endorois people, Korir Sing’Oei Abraham hails an unprecedented court victory. The Endorois were forcibly evicted by the Kenyan government in the period 1974–79, and their victory suggests positive ramifications for indigenous peoples’ rights across Africa at large, Abraham argues. Read (...) read

Modern and Mobile: Pastoralism in Africa and why it’s worth defending

African pastoralism has been dismissed as outdated and inefficient. But awareness of its social and environmental benefits is growing. Read more here (Part 1) and here (Part 2). read

Africa’s Success Stories in Gender Empowerment

Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa is mostly left out of political reckoning - and wrongly so. Read more read

Africa, geology and the march of the development technocrats

Jason Hickel asks whether ‘environmental determinism’ – the theory that Africa’s development has been hindered as a result of ‘the environmental conditions that Africans inhabit’ – accurately explains Africa’s poverty. While he commends its attempt to stop blaming underdevelopment ’on the presumed genetic inferiority of black people’, he finds the theory and motives behind environmental determinism to be seriously lacking. Hickel asserts that environmental determinism is both ahistorical and (...) read

How can African governments regain control of the aid process?

In the last three decades, changes in the global economy have led to debt and balance of payments crises in many African countries. They desperately needed foreign exchange which they could only get from the World Bank and the IMF. These institutions used this opportunity to expand their influence over the recipients’ national policies. This paper discusses country ownership which is a central issue of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. It looks at the contradictory and competing (...) read

Bridging the digital divide through open access

Kenyan researcher Joseph Juma Musakali asks what African research institutes can do to exploit the open access movement. Read more read

Dictatorship more dangerous than climate change

Dictatorship presents ’a far more perilous threat to the survival of Africans than climate change’, Alemayehu G. Mariam writes in this week’s Pambazuka News. But with the widespread acknowledgement that global warming ‘could affect Africa disproportionately’, and that the continent is ‘entitled to assistance to overcome the effects of greenhouse emissions caused by the industrialised countries’, Mariam argues that its dictators ‘are using global warming as their new preferred ideology behind which (...) read

Africa’s children are important

‘I am an angry African,’ Assefa Bequele writes in this week’s Pambazuka News, challenging the continent’s failure to meet its collective responsibilities to children. ‘I will tell you why and what, I hope, we can do to build an Africa fit for children and help nurture an African man and woman that can walk with pride on the world stage’, says Bequele, calling on fellow Africans to ‘have the courage and be the first to speak out and engage in the defence of the inherent rights of all human beings (...) read

Africans Won’t Just Be on Receiving End of Arts and Culture

Global initiatives have in recent years stressed the contribution that arts and culture can make to development. This has led African and European artists, bureaucrats and policy makers to increasingly confront the unequal relations in North-South cultural and artistic exchanges. Read more read

Africa: Civil Society to AU: Investment Must Address Marginalisation

> By Diletta Varlese, Terna Gyuse and Joyce Mulama

No gathering hosted by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is ever dull, and the Thirteenth Ordinary Session of the African Union, concluding in Sirte, Libya today has not disappointed. A surprise invitation to Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is facing down massive popular protest over his disputed re-election as president, briefly threatened to overshadow the meeting, but he did not in the end attend. The other source of drama was the renewed challenge to the International Criminal Court, on (...) read

HIV Prevention in Africa: Religion, Culture, Tradition and Science

> Jonathan Mundell

It is common knowledge that the African continent has been hit hardest by the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Over the past 25 years, Africa has been the prime victim of a small, but highly intelligent virus, which has infected and killed millions of people, and significantly hampered the growth and development of a land with abundant potential. The epidemic has ravaged Africa far more viciously than any other continent, and the reasons for this continue to be explored in an array of research. A (...) read

Aricom: Making peace or fuelling war

> Daniel Volman and William Minter

In the first of a two-part article exploring the implications of the US AFRICOM (the United States Africa Command) programme, Daniel Volman and William Minter discuss the growing strategic importance of the African continent to US interests. Arguing that shaping a new US security policy will require more than a mere move towards more active diplomacy, Volman and Minter underline the importance for the US of striving for an inclusive approach encompassing joint action. With AFRICOM having (...) read

The global financial crisis: Lessons and responses from Africa

> Demba Moussa Dembele

As the international financial crisis points to the collapse of laissez faire economics and discredits market fundamentalism, Africa and the global South should break free from failed neoliberal policies and the institutions that have promoted them and define their own paths to development, writes Demba Moussa Dembele, director of the Forum for African Alternatives. The crisis provides fundamental lessons, says Dembele, the first being that markets do not have self-correcting mechanisms, (...) read

Africa Analysis: Federal or regional science policy?

> by Linda Nordling

Last year’s row between two pan-African policy bodies is feeding a split between regional and federal approaches to science, says Linda Nordling. Research and innovation is an area that could benefit from coordinating projects and pooling resources between nations. So it was disappointing last year when a row between the two main pan-African policy bodies threatened to derail plans for continental science programmes. Now, the disagreement threatens to feed tensions over whether a federal or (...) read

African universities agree to support ’homegrown’ research solutions

> Zablon Odhiambo

African universities have rallied behind a scheme to integrate community-guided environmental initiatives into their teaching and research agendas. The African Association of Universities (AAU), a confederation of 212 universities, stated its support for the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities (MESA) Partnership during the 1st MESA International Conference held at the UN Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, last week (24–28 November). Read (...) read

Fundamentalism And Women’s Rights in Africa

>  A paper presented at the 2006 African Feminist Forum

The essential paradox about a globalised world is that as global business and micro politics have relentlessly spread across the globe, there has been a tendency for many people to get closer to the ethnic, national, religious and racial identities. This nestling within a known identity has been seen as a form of seeking certainty and belonging in a world in which political, social and economic boundaries are being challenged and eroded. It has resulted in an increase not only in (...) read

Africa and global finance: potential resistance?

> by Patrick Bond

Far-reaching strategic debate is underway about how to respond to the global financial crisis, and indeed how the North’s problems can be tied into a broader critique of capitalism. At minimum, the ongoing chaos offers new ideological space and material justifications for African finance ministries to re-impose exchange controls and re-regulate finance, and to find sources of hard currency not connected to the Bretton Woods Institutions or Western donors. The 2008 world financial meltdown (...) read

The destruction of African agriculture

Biofuel production is certainly one of the culprits in the current global food crisis. But while the diversion of corn from food to biofuel feedstock has been a factor in food prices shooting up, the more primordial problem has been the conversion of economies that are largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers. Here the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) figure as much more important villains. Read (...) read

African Agriculture and the World Bank: Development or impoverishment?

Kjell Havnevik, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Atakilte Beyene and Prosper Matondi look at the destructive role the world bank has played in African agriculture and food production Agriculture’s dominant role in Sub-Saharan Africa’s local, national and regional economies and cultures throughout pre-colonial history has been foundational to 20th century colonial and post-colonial development. No other continent has been so closely identified with smallholder peasant farming. Nonetheless, smallholder (...) read

Africa – Europe alternatives, Lisbon, 7-9 december 2007

Final Declaration

> Towards peoples alternatives in Africa and Europe

We, civil society activists engaged in a wide range of peoples’ movements and organisations in Africa and Europe met in Lisbon from 7-9 December 2007 to express our opposition and resistance to the neoliberal free trade and investment policies that European and African governments are implementing in our countries, and which they propose as a framework for the “Africa- EU Strategic Partnership”. While the leaders of two continents gathered in Lisbon to decide the future of Africa, we came (...) read

The routes and possibilities of a South - South subversive globalization: Africa and Brazil

> Pambazuka News

Jacques Depelchin reflects on the growing economic, political and cultural relationship between Brazil and the Africa and urges for a solidarity from below that is cognizant of black revolutionary history. Almost everyone knows about Brazilian football, especially Pelé; but, it is a fair bet that a very tiny percentage of the same people will know about one of the foremost intellectuals of Brazil in the 20th century: Milton Santos (MS), winner in 1994 of the Vautrin Lud prize given to the (...) read

Fifteen years of conflicts have cost Africa around $300bn

The cost of conflict on African development was approximately $300bn between 1990 and 2005, according to new research by Oxfam International, IANSA and Saferworld. This is equal to the amount of money received in international aid during the same period. The study “Africa’s Missing Billions” is the first time analysts have calculated the overall effects of conflict on GDP and comes as diplomats from around the world arrive at the United Nations to discuss an Arms Trade Treaty. It shows that (...) read

The wider historical context of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade

Trade in African slaves underpinned the British economy in the 18th century: the rich and powerful, the monarchy and the Church. So why was an enterprise that was so economically important ended so abruptly in the first decade of the 19th century? Hakim Adi explains... In March 2007 large-scale commemorative events were organised to mark the bi-centenary of the parliamentary act to abolish the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This unprecedented commemoration of a historical event, in which the (...) read

Ministers give EASSy another go

ICT ministers from about 20 African countries have been invited to Malawi for a special meeting that is expected to iron out controversies surrounding the ratification of the NEPAD ICT broadband network (NIBN) project. The project includes the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and Central Corridor Trade and Transport Facilitation Project. Rwandan state minister for energy and communications Albert Butare told HANA that ministers are expected to meet in Lilongwe, the capital of (...) read

The Protocol on the rights of women in Africa

> Center for Reproductive Rights, June 2005, 25 p, (pdf)

The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, (adopted by the African Union in July 2003) provides broad protection for women’s human rights, including their sexual and reproductive rights. This briefing paper outlines the significations of this treaty and the way advocates can use it to pressure governments to address issues which threaten women’s health and rights in Africa. Furthermore, “it provides detailed information that can help African women use the protocol to exercise their (...) read

Panafricanism or recolonisation

> Pan African Movement

This brief history of the Pan African Conferences underlines how modern Pan Africanism arose in the middle 20th century. But what happened to the great hopes about African Unity after the initial success of the nationalist movement, asks the author ? Today, it is no longer a debate whether Pan Africanism is desirable but how it could be achieved. If it was contained yesterday by colonialism, it grapples today with neocolonialism (i.e. political independence without economic independence). (...) read

Annual World Bank and IMF Meetings Close Under Heavy Criticism

> International Financial Institutions Under Fire with Regard to Developing Country Voting Rights and Civil Society Repression

http://www.liberationafrique.org/spi (...)

As the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings closed under heavy fire, both from within and from civil society activists, Africa Action today condemned the undemocratic nature and harmful policies of these institutions. The organization underscored that the countries most affected by World Bank and IMF policies, particularly the debt-burdened countries of Africa, must have a greater say within the international financial institutions.
This week, the IMF re-organized the system of voting rights, increasing the voting power of China, Mexico, South Korea and Turkey, and the World Bank indicated that it would also be willing to consider a similar shift. But Africa Action notes that while developing country finance ministers and civil society from around the world have pushed for a more representative voting structure, these latest minor changes still leave power disproportionately concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest nations.
Ann-Louise Colgan, Acting Co-Executive Director of Africa Action, said today, "The World Bank and IMF persist in ignoring the priorities of the developing world, and African countries continue to pay the price. The decisions made by these institutions have long-lasting effects on African countries, and yet there is little opportunity to hold them accountable. As a result, Africa’s illegitimate debt burden remains at overwhelming levels, and the World Bank and IMF continue to impose unfair conditions on Africa’s economies."  read

The economic impact of telecommunications on rural livelihoods and poverty reduction

> TelAfrica.org

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/info (...)

Aimed at a policy audience, a study looks at the use of various communications technologies in villages in Gujarat, Mozambique and Tanzania. It reveals that in all three research countries telephones are the preferred means of communications for emergencies and family networking; mass media are the preferred ICTs for general information such as news and weather and face-to-face communications is overwhelmingly the main method of communications for specific information in all three countries, including information about education, farming, business and government services

• Download the document in PDF, 447 pages: http://www.telafrica.org/R8347/file...

The role of Small Arms in African Civil Wars

> Pambazuka News

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category (...)

It is not an over-statement to say that small arms in Africa have played the major role in every political conflict, from South, East and West Africa. Baffour Dokyi Amoa writes that “Conservative estimates indicate that there are about eight million small arms and light weapons in West Africa alone. Of the 640 million small arms circulating in the world, it is estimated that 100 million are found in Africa.”  read

The hopes and illusions of world trade liberalisation for women in Africa

> Pambazuka News

http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-A (...)

Africa has faced ten years of unfettered liberalisation that, argues Cheikh Tidiane Dièye, has left the continent on its knees. Women, more than any other group, suffer the weight of the constraints of poverty largely brought about by the world trade system. It is women that must play a crucial role in winning the struggle for a better trading system.
Even though over the last twenty years many African nations have adopted sometimes draconian economic reforms, the benefits of trade liberalisation that were promised have not materialised. On the other hand, developed nations have enjoyed 70% of the wealth generated by trade liberalisation. In some respects, world trade regulations, defined for the most part by industrialised countries during the Uruguay Round agreements between 1986 and 1994, have only increased Africa’s economic problems.
Before an “ambiguous consensus”1 was reached at Doha, which was at the heart of the launch of the round of multilateral negotiations that tool place at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the “battle of Seattle” or “Seattle showdown”2 revealed to the world the growing dissatisfaction of developing countries with regard to the WTO, whose way of working did not appear to respond to their profound desire for economic progress and development.  read

An African Perspective on Globalization

> Pan African Movement

http://www.panafricanmovement.org/Gl (...)

Africa and Europe have had a continuous contact of more than 400 years. It has been a relationship of domination, exploitation and oppression. Whatever happens in Europe tends to have ripple effects in Africa. Therefore any idea that has become fashionable in Europe trickles down into intellectual and political discussions/battles in Africa.  read

Africa and the WSF: From Bamako 2006 to Nairobi 2007

> Pambazuka, January 26, 2006

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?i (...)

This Pambazuka "question and answer" provides a general overview of the World Social Forum (WSF), addresses the primary criticisms of the forum. African awareness-raising and mobilization was made possible in 2006 by holding polycentric events, which included Bamako, Mali. African attendance at previous forums had been minimal; therefore it was important that the WSF provide a space for groups from the area hardest hit by the globalization and poverty link to voice their concerns and ideas.  read

African Women Confront Bush’s AIDS Policy

> Pambazuka, 12 Jan 2006

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?i (...)

African women are the hardest hit by HIV/Aids in Africa and yet the approach to fighting the epidemic advocated by the Bush administration fails to take account of their specific needs and circumstances. Yifat Susskind examines the "man-made" components of the crisis, including economic austerity measures, US pharmaceutical companies and onerous debt repayments.  read

Let Africa Into the Carbon Market

> Project Syndicate, Dec 2005

http://www.project-syndicate.org/com (...)

This article calls for a change to the European bias against using credits from forest projects for its own internal carbon market, in order to allow Africa to play a larger role in the emerging international carbon market.

• Further details on the European Trading Scheme
• A selection of video clips with people expressing their views on carbon trading in Africa
• See also the website carbontradewatch.org

Case studies in alternatives

> Pambazuka, 15 Dec 2005

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?i (...)

This article tracks the emergence of an “African Peoples’ Consensus”, in opposition to the Washington Consensus, through the rise of the African Peoples Forum and recent debates on economic alternatives. It asks what should we be questioning (use of language, erosion of cultural values), and what concrete process is needed to get closer to these alternatives.  read

Africa’s GM Dilemma

> July 2005, The Globalist

http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId. (...)

"As Africa continues to struggle with civic wars, poverty - and AIDS - hunger remains the continent’s most critical problem. Promoters of genetic engineering believe that genetically modified organisms are the answer that will eradicate starvation. The other side questions the safety and nutritious value of GM foods, as well as its bend toward dependency. Amadou Kanoute, Africa Regional Director for Consumers International, offers his perspective." The article also continues with what Kanoute believes are the principale causes for hunger in Africa.
article originally appeared in The Nation  read

The role of AU/NEPAD in preventing and combating corruption in Africa

>  November 2005, Africafiles

http://www.africafiles.org/atissueez (...)

This article begins by outlining the anti-corruption initiatives of the African Union (AU) and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and analysing their effectiveness. It also explores the phenomenon of corruption in Africa more generally and follows with some recommendations on how to tackle it. The author concludes that the best role the AU and NEPAD can play to combat and prevent corruption in Africa is by complementing and strengthening grassroots and national measures and by promoting regional anti-corruption norms.  read