Monday, December 17, 2018

Ghana: Rejecting Ghandi

GHANA

Rejecting Gandhi

The University of Ghana in Accra has taken down a statue of Mohandas K. Gandhi, more commonly known as the Mahatma, or “great soul,” after a petition drew attention to his racist views regarding black Africans.

In India, of course, Gandhi became known for his dogged, nonviolent opposition to British colonialism. But his profile is more problematic in Africa, where he lived and worked as a lawyer in South Africa, the Washington Post noted.

In their petition for the removal of the statue, professors, students and Ghanaians drew attention to Gandhi’s denigration of “savage” black Africans in his advocacy for preferential treatment of Indians in South Africa, as well as his frequent use of the term “Kaffir” – the utterance of which is now a hate crime in that country.

Some Indians also object to what they describe as his patronizingviews toward people from the castes historically viewed as untouchables, whom he called “Harijans” or “the children of God.” But South African supporters, including Gandhi’s granddaughter, objected to the statue’s removal as “a judgmental statement about a person based on one or two statements,” the Press Trust of India reported.

Friday, December 14, 2018

Venezuela Chronic Corruption

VENEZUELA

Chronic Condition

Venezuela’s former oil minister died in prison Wednesday, where he had been incarcerated on corruption charges since last year.

The chief prosecutor’s office said Nelson Martinez, who was also the former head of the state-run oil giant PDVSA, suffered from a serious and chronic illness that led to his death, the Associated Press reported.

He was probably no angel – corruption is endemic in Venezuela to the great rage of its struggling population. But the incident is nevertheless likely to raise questions about the conditions under which jailed opposition figures and former government officials are being held.

Two months earlier, a Caracas councilman, Fernando Alban, died after falling from a police building. The government claims he jumped, but the opposition insists he was murdered.

The authorities are also holding five former executives from Citgo – PDVSA’s US unit – who are American citizens, AP noted.

Rafael Ramirez, another former head of PDVSA, blamed President Nicolas Maduro for Martinez’s death, saying he had repeatedly been denied visits from his family doctors.

Congo: Fire But No Smoke

CONGO

Fire But No Smoke

Election officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo said the presidential vote would go ahead as scheduled on Dec. 23, despite a fire that destroyed thousands of voting machines in the capital of Kinshasa.

The national electoral commission (CENI) said in a statement the blaze had destroyed 8,000 of 10,368 voting machines due to be used in the city, Reuters reported. The fire started about 2 a.m. Thursday in the Gombe riverside area of Kinshasa that is also home to President Joseph Kabila’s residence.

The ruling coalition and the main opposition candidate blamed each other for the blaze, though several opposition candidates had called for the voting machines to be banned, arguing they could be used to rig the vote, the BBC reported.

Kabila’s mandate ended in 2016 and term limits prevent him from contesting again, but he has clung onto power through repeated delays. Now that elections finally look imminent, he is backing his former Interior Minister, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary. A tight race is expected among Shadary, opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi and business tycoon Martin Fayulu Madidi.

Monday, December 10, 2018

Cameroon: radical Possibilities

CAMEROON

Radical Possibilities

Civil rights activists in Cameroon recently rejected the authority of a military court as they faced charges of terrorism and secession.

They claimed they were citizens of “Ambazonia,” the name of their self-declared republic in English-speaking regions of the mostly Francophone country, Agence France-Presse reported.

The judge, Col. Abega Mbezoa, was not pleased. “That country does not yet exist,” she said, according to the Journal du Cameroun.

The start of the trial marks a new era in a crisis that has rocked the Central African country for more than a year.

As the BBC explained, English-speakers, who comprise 20 percent of the population, went on strike and then formed militias in protest against the rule of 85-year-old President Paul Biya. They claimed the country was not following rules that mandate that English be considered on par with French.

Like many aging African strongmen – think former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe – Biya has done little to accommodate his people’s concerns.

Over the objections of many who suggested he might consider letting someone else run the divided country, he ran for re-election in October and won a seventh term, though the results are in dispute. Violent protests broke out after the election, the Associated Press wrote. In one clash, an American missionary, Charles Trumann Wesco, was killed, apparently in the crossfire between separatists and government troops.

Opponents have questioned Biya’s victory, claiming voter fraud occurred, reported Agence France-Presse. Biya’s government arrested more than 50 opposition activists but later released them.

The government’s crackdown against Anglophone separatists and counterattacks by rebel militias have resulted in hundreds of deaths and displaced more than 400,000 people, UN officials estimate.

Some fear the violence could grow worse and spread.

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy recently warned that elements of the Anglophone insurgency and Francophone security forces could become “radicalized” if their concerns aren’t addressed.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Nagy noted that the Islamic State-affiliated Boko Haram had sprung up in neighboring Nigeria in response to that government’s crackdown on extremism and a breakdown of government services. The insurgent group continuesits campaign of kidnappings, killings and other terrorist acts across several West African countries.

The Confederation of African Football’s decision to rescind its offer to hold the Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament in Cameroon is likely to have a bigger impact on Biya’s reputation than Nagy’s complaints, however. Slow progress on soccer stadiums and the dismal security situation likely factored into the move, opinedGoal.com.

Soccer was probably one of the few institutions that could unite Cameroonians. Despite his wealth of experience, Biya appears to have squandered the opportunity.

Friday, December 7, 2018

Slavery In Mauritania

MAURITANIA

The Master and the Mother

Slavery is alive and well in Mauritania.

Unfortunately, there is a very personal reason for that.

“People think that God created them to be slaves,” Brahim Bilal Ramdhane, an anti-slavery activist in the West African country, toldthe Thomson Reuters Foundation, speaking of exploited workers whose families have served “masters” for generations.

Technically, slavery ended in Mauritania in 1981. It was criminalized in 2007. Yet the Global Slavery Index estimates that around 90,000 people, or 2 percent of Mauritania’s population, are enslaved. And only a few people have ever been prosecuted for holding their fellow citizens in servitude.

As the Guardian explained, the institution stems from long-held social structures in a country that straddles the divide between Muslim North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Light-skinned Arab “white Moors” own dark-skinned African “black Moors.” The former tend to live in the city, while the latter often work like indentured servants in the countryside, handing over the fruits of their labor to their masters.

It’s a brutal existence. CNN told a story of a master leaving the infant daughter of a slave he had raped out to die, reasoning that the woman could work harder without the child. When the mother discovered her dead baby, she asked if she could take a break to give the child a proper burial. Her master told her to get back to work.

“Her soul is a dog’s soul,” the master said to the mother.

The government admits that slavery exists but denies that it is widespread. Activists like Ramdhane face jail or worse for calling out leaders who turn a blind eye to bondage. Around 150 human rights defenders are now sitting in jail, the Associated Press reported. Opposition leader and anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid is among them.

“To speak out about slavery in Mauritania is to risk losing your liberty” was the headline in the Independent.

Mauritania’s lack of progress in tackling slavery led US President Donald Trump to end trade benefits for Mauritania starting next year, wrote Quartz. A US trade official said Mauritania will need to “eradicate forced labor and hereditary slavery” to regain those benefits, which include around more than $60 million of imports annually to the US – a significant sum of foreign cash for an impoverished country.

The Mauritanian government reacted angrily, saying Trump wasn’t treating Saudi Arabia so harshly despite the kingdom’s human rights abuses. “Would Trump have taken this decision if he was expecting a $110 billion arms contract with us?” government spokesperson Mohamed Ould Maham asked.

Maybe not. But don’t change the subject, Maham.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Benin-The Wild-Wild West!

BENIN

The Wild, Wild West

Nigeria and Benin recently opened a nearly $21 million border crossing to deal with the crime that proliferates around the lawless frontier between the two West African countries.

“Travelers and traders battle corrupt officials, hawkers and buzzing moto-taxis just to get to the other side,” wrote Agence France-Presse.

Citizens of the 15 mostly poor countries in the Economic Community of West African States can move freely and reside in other member states. But those 15 nations don’t share tax rates and regulations, like customs on imported goods, so everyone is understandably trying to exploit or avoid different rules in different countries to make a buck.

The result is a free-for-all where, for example, criminals steal cars in Nigeria, refurbish them in Benin and then sell them back to Nigerians as cheap used cars. “I wanted to make it big, that is why I formed my own car snatching gang,” a thief confessed to police, according to the Daily Trust, a Nigerian newspaper.

The most dangerous but lucrative and easily transportable items – drugs – are also a major problem on the border. The News Agency of Nigeria reported last month on how customs agents had seized rice, tires and marijuana, as well as 67 cartons of Tramadol tablets and Codeine syrup over a 30-day period this fall. Tramadol and Codeine are opioids.

Drugs breed corruption.

A court in Benin recently sentenced opposition parliamentarian Atao Hinnouho to six years in jail for trafficking in drugs, reportedAFP. He was specifically accused of dealing in counterfeit drugs – a scourge that claims more than 100,000 lives a year in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organization has estimated.

A lawyer for Hinnouho denounced the trial as political and vowed to appeal.

Another opposition leader in Benin, poultry magnate Sebastien Ajavon, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking 40 pounds of cocaine. He’s now in France, where he has applied for political asylum, said Africanews. Forbes wrote that he was challenging the conviction, saying the prosecution is politically motivated and the sentence was too harsh.

He might be right.

Ajavon was convicted by the Court of Punishment of Economic Crimes and Terrorism, a special chamber created to crack down on the country’s crime epidemic. But, astonishingly, its decisions are not subject to appeal.

The court has gone after other politicians and rivals of President Patrice Talon, including former Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou for allegedly not repaying campaign funds. He and others have fled the country, saying they’re being targeted unfairly – allegations they don’t appear prepared to back up in the court.

Benin’s political culture, rather than its boundaries, is probably what needs fixing here.

the Wild-Wild West

White Zimbabwe Farmers Seek $9 Billion In Compensation For Seized Farms

No capacity to compensate displaced white farmers, says Zim

Nov 27 2018 06:01

Crecey Kuyedzwa

Mthuli Ncube (Gallo Images / Financial Mail / Russell Roberts)

Zim land beneficiaries to compensate white farmers, says govt

Zim plans to compensate farmers for land grabs

UK gives Zim $72m to help rural farmers

Zim 'willing to compensate white farmers'

Zim evaluates land for compensation - farms union

Zim to establish land compensation fund

The Zimbabwean government is engaging international financial institutions and other stakeholders, hoping to mobilise resources to compensate displaced white farmers, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has said.

Ncube said the Southern African country’s government had decided to improve on compensation to all former farmers affected by the Land Reform Programme, in accordance with the country’s laws and commitments under the various bilateral agreements.

However, he said government did not have capacity to finance the former farm owners.

"Whilst work on the extent of government’s obligations is still to be finalised, the resources required to compensate and put closure to this important issue is obviously beyond the capacity of the budget to finance," said Minister Ncube.

The former farmers are reportedly owed some US$9bn in compensation for improvements made on the farms before the land reform exercise.

In this regard, said Minister Ncube, government is engaging international financial institutions and other stakeholders, exploring various sustainable options for gathering the required resources.

In a demonstration of government’s limited capacity, Minister Ncube said Treasury had put aside US$53m for the exercise.

"Given the limited fiscal space, the 2019 Budget makes provision of US$53m for payment of compensation to former farmers, to show commitment to this obligation," he said.

Another option which has been put on the table is to have beneficiaries of the controversial land reform programme to pay compensation to the displaced white farmers.

According to Lands and Agriculture Minister Perrance Shiri, the state would not be burdened with paying compensation, as it was individual resettled farmers that benefited.

"It makes common sense that instead of labouring the tax payer, the person who is directly benefiting from those improvements contributes towards the compensation of the former farmers," he said.

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Jack's Africa