AN IC PUBLICATION
The bestselling pan-African magazine
Founded in 1966 • August/September 2017 • N°575
WHAT IS CHINA’S GAME IN AFRICA Around Africa: DRC – Kabila to stay put Zimbabwe – Sweet and sour Uganda – Refugee haven threatened Ghana – Mob justice Angola – After Dos Santos Tanzania – Magufuli gets school pregnancy backlash Features: Skating for sanity in Mozambique; Innovation key to marine security; The perils of plastic; Building education with a purpose; Tunisian delicacies; Mo, don’t go • Euro Zone € 5.00 • UK £4.00 • USA $6.50 • Algeria DA 300 • Angola 1.000 Kwanza (AOA) • Australia A$ 7.50 • Bahrain BD 2.00 • Canada $6.50 • CFA Zone CFA 2.600 • Cyprus 4.00 • Denmark DKr 40 • Egypt E£ 30 • Ethiopia R 90 • Gambia Da 150 • Ghana GH¢ 12.00 • Indonesia R45,000 • Japan JPY 700 • Jamaica $680 • Jordan JD 3.500 • Kenya KShs 350 • Kuwait KD 1.500 • Lebanon LL 7500.00 • Malaysia RM 15.90 • Mauritius MR 150 • Morocco Dh 30 • Norway NOK 59 • Oman OR2.00 • Qatar QR 20 • Rwanda RWF 3000 • Saudi Arabia Rls 20 • Sierra Leone LE 20.000 • Singapore $7.50 • South Africa R40.00 (inc. tax) • Other Southern African Countries R 35.10 (excl. tax) • Sweden SKr 33 • Switzerland SFr 8.70 • Tanzania TShs 6.500 • Tunisia TD 5.000 • Turkey 10.00YTL • UAE Dh 20 • Uganda USh 10.700 • Zambia ZMK45
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CONTENTS
p. 14 What is China’s game in Africa?
No single country has ever had such a profound impact on Africa’s economy as quickly as China. But what is its end game? R eaders’ views
Native intelligence
Events: innovation
K aleidoscope
Talking point
K nowledge is power
04 Your comments and letters 06 Briefs 10 Photo of the month 12 Quote/ unquote
36 Water and fire
54 El-Shafei wins $100,000 prize
38 Obasanjo: God did not make Africa poor, that was done by man
Hidden africa
Editorial
13 Election fever
40 Delightful food and brimming history
Cover story: China
People
14 What is China’s game in Africa? 19 What is the difference between Chinese and Western aid in Africa? 23 African vision, Chinese muscle
Baffour’s beefs
28 Kagame makes us stand tall
Special report: the blue economy
31 The perils of plastic 31 Africa fighting back against fish piracy 34 Innovation: key to marine security
44 More girls should take up science
Focus
46 Rolling away the stress, Mozambique-style
Speakers’ corner
50 Magufuli faces student pregnancy backlash
Letter from london 52 Mo, don’t go
56 Education with a purpose
A round africa 58 60 62 63 64
DRC: Kabila to stay put Zimbabwe: Sweet and sour Uganda: ‘Best in the world’ programme threatened Ghana: Murder of army captain linked to loss of social values Angola: Plus ça change...?
The arts
66 Burkinabé architect Kéré’s vision
Sport
70 Diaspora Blacks turn commentators
Back to the future
74 European colonialism redux
NewAfrican The bestselling pan-African magazine, founded in 1966. August/September 2017 ISSUE 575 www.newafricanmagazine.com
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Readers’ Views LET TERS & COMMENTS
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Registered with the British Library. ISSN 0142-9345 ©2017 IC Publications Ltd. N° DE COMMISSION PARITAIRE 0213 K 89410 Mensuel: août /septembre 2017 Dépôt légal
Old enemies should bury the hatchet The cover story of the July issue, “Old enemies in new battle”, was just great. For at least the whole of the past year, the local coverage of the run-up to the elections has been oversensational and very partisan. There has been very little analysis of what the parties stand for or even what are the driving forces of the main contenders – Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. I loved the historical background of the two dynasties by editor Anver Versi, who understands the deep politics of Kenya very well but expresses things in a simple way that all can understand. Not many of our younger voters actually know this history or that Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga were once the best of allies, and that in fact it was Odinga who campaigned for the release of Kenyatta and insisted that he should be the first president of Kenya. Whatever the outcome of the election [scheduled for mid-August – Ed.], and whoever wins, I hope it is peaceful and that the loser will accept the verdict as the will of the people. We do not want a repeat of 2007! Perhaps these two dynasties that have been so important to the development of the country will bury the hatchet and work together, as their parents did, for the welfare of the country first. Wilfred Ochieng, Kisumu, Kenya Important history of Africa series Please accept my and my children’s thanks for the great article on the new television series on the history of Africa by the African queen of international TV, Zeinab Badawi
(NA, July 2017). This is a very important issue as unless we know our history, seen through our own eyes, we cannot understand our present. We managed to catch a few episodes via satellite channels but as far as I know, it is not on the normal channels in our country (Ghana). As you know, Ghana has a very rich history going back centuries and I am looking forward to seeing some of this reflected in the BBC series. Stanley Awusu, Accra, Ghana
Value for money education The article “A harambee system to pay for higher education” (New African July 2017) was very well written on the concerns of higher education in Africa. Yes, it is quite correct to note that university education is generally far too expensive and that it is beyond the reach of many students to be able to afford the costs for different courses of study. But the reality is value for money. Whatever the prices these institutions of higher learning charge students, the question is, are these universities well equipped for the courses they offer? What about the quality of the education itself and the facilities available? Do they provide the students with education that allows them to meet their aspirations? It is important that students get value for the money they invest in the pursuit of careers of their choice. Kokil K. Shah Mombasa, Kenya *Please see the article on education in this issue (pp. 56-7) – Ed.
4 New African august/september 2017
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Kaleidoscope Somali-American exrefugee first to wear hijab on top US magazine cover Halima Aden, 19, who was born in a refugee camp in Kenya, has become the first model to wear a hijab on the cover of a major US magazine. After breaking boundaries in 2016 by wearing a hijab at a beauty pageant, Halima has now worn a hijab on the cover of American women’s beauty magazine Allure. In the shots, she is wearing the fabled new highperformance Nike hijabs, accompanied by the caption ‘This Is American Beauty’. Aden moved to America with her mother when she was seven and is also a student at St. Cloud State University.
Kenyan distance runner outruns bears in US wood Moninda Marube, a professional runner from Kenya, outpaced two angry black bears while training in his local woods in Maine. Moninda told the Lewiston Sun Journal that he passed the bears near a lake, and in a moment of panic his only option was to outsprint them to a nearby abandoned house. On reaching the house's screened porch he says the bears just looked at him through the screening and then wandered off. A student at the University of Maine, who won the city's half-marathon in 2013, Moninda said: “I don’t fear lions. But a bear is scary!”
Middle Africa gets the chills As Africa holds the world record for hottest average temperature and hottestever temperature recorded, it’s no wonder that snow doesn’t normally come to mind when thinking about Sub-Saharan Africa. Exceptions would be high altitude countries like Lesotho, although Johannesburg in South Africa gets cold enough for hail in the winter months. Middle Africa, the vast area between the northern and southern extremities, is hardly ever visited by snow, or even hail. However, twice this year – once in Kenya and once in Zambia – temperatures dropped so significantly that hail fell
and many residents, having never seen snow, believed it to be snow. Unfortunately in this case, middle Africa stayed true to form, but there are some places where you can get guaranteed snow and even go skiing. Ifrane (below) is a Moroccan town nestled high in the Atlas Mountains, with plentiful snow for skiing in the winter. The town itself looks like a Swiss ski resort and comes complete with Europeanstyle ski lodges. Neighbouring Algeria also sports a resort called Tikjda in the Djurdjura mountain range in the north, and Lesotho’s AfriSki sits at 3050m above sea level.
Republic of Congo hosts fourth international fashion festival Pointe-Noire, Congo’s second city, held its fourth fashion festival this summer, known as the Carousel of Fashion. The theme was Fashion Industrialisation and Job Opportunities and local and international models hit the catwalk. Pascaline Kabré Turmel, an organiser of the event, told Africa TV: “The objective is to exchange visions, to make people talk about art and fashion, and we’ve had twice as many interested in the event this time around.” This year saw participation from artists and designers from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Senegal, Libya, France, Italy and Congo. African designs and prints are experiencing a revolution in the world of fashion, being worn by the likes of Michelle Obama and Beyoncé, and incorporated into the works of Western fashion designers like Stella McCartney.
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Kaleidoscope Maasai warriors bat for endangered white rhino in Kenya In the annual Last Male Standing Rhino Cup cricket tournament, a group of Maasai warriors battled Britains and Australians to draw attention to and raise funds for the almost extinct northern white rhino. The two-day
tournament took place in Laikipia conservation area, home to the world’s last three northern white rhinos, who need constant supervision in order to prevent them from being poached. Richard Vigne helped organise the event with the Ol Pejeta Conservancy and told Reuters: “Because the cost of looking after rhinos
is enormously expensive these days as a result of poaching, we use many other different ways to try and raise money.” They hoped to raise 1m Kenyan Shillings ($100,000) from the 12-team tournament, which included teams from the British Army Training Unit and the Australian High Commission.
Lagos’ first skate crew boosts African skate scene A skate crew in Lagos called Waffles n Cream recently held a weekend tournament to show off their skills and bring attention to the sport. Besides a few movements in Ethiopia, South Africa and Mozambique (see page 46), skateboarding is relatively uncommon in Africa. Waffles n Cream plan to spread the message by doubling up as a brand, and by raising funds to pump money into skating. They are the first crew in Nigeria and practice on home-made ramps which they install on basketball courts.
Africa's First Ladies organisation meets in Addis to elect president On the sidelines of the AU summit in Ethiopia, a humanitarian organisation run by Africa’s First Ladies met and elected Roman Tesfaye, wife of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, as their new president. Known as the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/Aids (OAFLA), this marks the 19th meeting of the group, who aim to rid the continent of HIV and Aids. At last year's meeting in Kigali, the group outlined the need for Africa to continue investing in its health systems and to support civil society initiatives to promote young women’s well-being as leaders and agents of social change. 8 New African september/august 2017
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Kenya Airways gets American air traffic rights In a bid to fly direct to the States, Kenya Airways (KA) has been granted air traffic rights. It now waits on two further licences, the Air Service Licence and the Air Operating Certificate, plus approval from the US's Federal Aviation Administration, after which KA hopes to fly transatlantic by March 2018. Jomo Kenyatta Airport obtained ‘Category One’ status in February, which gives it the technical authority to operate to the US. The government spent 1.3bn shillings on new security equipment and 9bn to regenerate Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 which led to the newly acquired status.
Ivorian woman wins gold at World Taekwondo Championships Ruth Gbagbi, 23, defeated all her opponents in South Korea to emerge victorious in the women’s lightweight category of the championships. Côte d’Ivoire is well known for its high-calibre Taekwondo fighters, with Cheick Sallah Cissé winning gold at the Rio Olympics. Ruth also won a bronze medal at the Olympics, for which she was awarded 30m CFA ($51, 000) and a house by the government. In total, 19 athletes left Abidjan to take part in the biggest-ever Taekwondo championships, with 971 athletes from 183 nations.
Seychelles bans plastic Seychelles has now banned the sale and commercial use of plastic bags, cups, plates and cutlery, following up on a ban on their importation earlier this year. An archipelago of 155 islands, the plastics endanger local wildlife as well as pose problems for the tourist industry, which relies on clean beaches. The government is now working to introduce biodegradable alternatives. Violators of the ban will be fined by the environment ministry under the country’s 2017 environmental protection law. august/september 2017 new african 9
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Kaleidoscope
The #CelebrateAfrica photography competition, sponsored by Canon and hosted by Picfair in association with New African, generated a stunning array of entries celebrating all the fascinating aspects of African life. Each month, we are publishing one of the prize-winning shots.
Photo of the month
Sambatra (Happiness).Photographer: Toni from Madagascar. Winner of the 3rd runner’s up prize in the People Category
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Quote/unquote ‘What we need in South Africa is for egos to be suppressed in favour of peace. We need to create a new breed of South Africans who love their country and love everybody, irrespective of their colour’
‘It’s like if you give a sweet to a kid who did bad things. He’s going to do it again’
JO-WILFRIED TSONGA, FRENCH TENNIS PLAYER OF CONGOLESE HERITAGE
CHRIS HANI, ANTI-APARTHEID LEADER
‘After all, if there is no class stratification in a society, it follows that there is no state, because the state arose as an instrument to be used by a particular class to control the rest of society in its own interests’ WALTER RODNEY, GUYANESE POLITICAL ACTIVIST
‘Look to Africa, for there a king will be crowned’ MARCUS GARVEY, PAN-AFRICAN MOVEMENT LEADER AND JAMAICAN INTELLECTUAL
‘True beauty is born through our actions and aspirations and in the kindness we offer to others. Beauty should not be culturally relevant. It should be universal’
‘Achieving gender equality is about disrupting the status quo – not negotiating it’ PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UN WOMEN
ALEK WEK, SOUTH SUDANESEBRITISH MODEL
‘Don’t let nobody bring you down. Hold your head up. Whatever you want to do, do it’ TERRY KENNEDY, AFRICANAMERICAN SKATEBOARDER
‘You can no longer see or identify yourself as a member of a tribe, but as a citizen of a nation of one people working toward a common purpose’ IDOWU KOYENIKAN, AUTHOR AND CONSULTANT
‘You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them’ THE LATE WANGARI MAATHAI, KENYAN ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICAL ACTIVIST AND NOBEL LAUREATE
‘African art is functional, it serves a purpose. It’s not dormant. It’s not a means to collect the largest cheering section. It should be a healing, a source of joy. Spreading positive vibrations’ MOS DEF, AFRICAN-AMERICAN HIP-HOP ARTIST
‘When I was growing up in Monrovia, I sold doughnuts, popcorn and Kool Aid every day after school so that my family had some money and I could pay my school fees. It was a tough life’ GEORGE WEAH, LIBERIAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL AND FIFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR 1995
12 New African september/august 2017
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From the Editor
Anver Versi
Election fever
O
nce again election fever will sweep over a substantial part of Africa. Over the next three months, August to October, millions of voters in four countries will exercise their democratic rights (give or take) to choose the set of men and women who will run the countries on their behalf. Three of the four elections will be held this month: Rwanda, 4 August; Kenya, 8 August; Angola, 23 August and Liberia’s on 10 October. A survey of 36 countries conducted by the pan-African research network, Afrobarometer, last year showed that only 40% of the citizens believed that the last elections in their countries had been free and fair, although 25% said that they had a lot of confidence in their electoral commission. Many of the respondents claimed that bribery and the threat of violence had been common and that the media has been biased. There is no doubt that after this set of elections, there will be the by now usual accusations of electoral rigging and intimidation in some of the countries involved. The results, as has happened before, may be subjected to judicial review in the courts. In the worst-case scenario, we could see a repeat of the horrific violence that swept Kenya after the elections there in 2007/8. It is now clear that the violence had been sparked by instances of fake news and incitement by politicians. It is our fervent hope that all parties will have learnt the lessons of that debacle and that this time around, a more mature attitude by both losers and winners will prevail. Recent research has indicated that ordinary people are now aware of the disruptive effect of fake news and are therefore more sensitive to the sources of information that flow, often unbidden, into their mobile phones. It is to be hoped that this awareness will help them avoid being swayed by damaging propaganda and steamrollered into acts of violence or public disorder. The mainstream media too, especially in Kenya and Liberia, where it enjoys almost complete freedom of expression, has used that power responsibly while being robust and fair in its reporting. In Kenya in particular, the mainstream media had come under sustained challenges from sensationalist websites and social media trolls pushing one-sided and often completely made-up stories. It stuck to its principles by and large and the signs are
that it has seen off these challenges, with an increasing number of people indicating that they trust their mainstream media much more than the fly-by-night ‘news’ peddlers which are often in the pay of various politicians.
The view that matters In Rwanda, President Paul Kagame is standing for another 7-year term of office – made possible by an amendment to the constitution in 2015. He has come under heavy criticism for this, especially from foreign powers who have accused him of dictatorial tendencies as well as intimidation of the opposition. They have a right to their opinions, made from their safe havens abroad but what counts is the view of the Rwandan people. From all indications, it appears that perhaps even as you read this, Kagame will have easily secured another 7-year mandate. It is much more cut and dried in Angola, effectively a oneparty state. President José Eduardo dos Santos will step down and it is most likely that his anointed successor will be João Lourenço (see story on page 64). Lourenço however will inherit a post-oil boom economy which will test his mettle to the full. At the time of going to press, it was too close to call the direction of the Kenyan elections, potentially the most volatile of all current African elections. Kenya’s neighbours, near and far will be watching with bated breath, as will foreign interests, as this East African country is very much the economic kingpin in the sub-region. Liberia will also see a change of guard as Africa’s first female president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, the redoubtable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, bows out. Hers will be very large shoes to fill although George Weah, the former international football star, appears confident that he can do it, but there is space for dark horses to make the final running. Despite many of the negatives associated with elections in Africa, the public enthusiasm to vote remains undiminished. What they do have to keep in mind is what former Nigeria leader Olusegun Obasanjo advises in an exclusive interview in this issue: “I think in Nigeria people are increasingly seeing that it is not where a leader comes from that matters, it is what a leader can do for the country.” Which of course applies to the whole of Africa. Amen. NA august/september 2017 New African 13
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Cover Story CHINA
WHAT IS CHINA’S GAME IN AFRICA? Not since the end of the colonial era has any one nation had such a wide as well as deep influence on Africa as China over the past decade and a half. The Chinese tide has swept over the continent at a breathtaking pace and the changes it has brought about over this relatively short space of time have altered the economic structure of the continent beyond all recognition. But what are the implications of such a profound change over so short a period for our continent? In what way is this ‘invasion’, as it is often described by those critical of China-Africa expansion, different from previous foreign incursions? Is so much dependence on one nation healthy for the continent in the long run? And what does China really want from Africa? We look at the extent of China’s activities on the continent in the light of new research as well as examining the issues raised above in our composite Cover Story. By Anver Versi.
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Liberians celebrate China’s president, Xi Jinping
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Cover Story China
T
he question posed by the cover line, ‘What is China’s Game in Africa?’ has been exercising analytical minds inside and outside Africa for a considerable time and although a whole slew of theories have been put forward, many of them have been proven to be flawed by the actual reality. So we can only conclude that we are still nowhere near to solving the great ‘Chinese puzzle’, if in fact it does exist. Perhaps many of us, including think-tanks influenced by the West, which by and large view the Chinese presence in Africa with undisguised suspicion, have been approaching the issue from the wrong perspective. Over the past five decades since the end of WW2, we have become used to looking at the world in terms of the strategies of superpowers in their attempts to establish hegemonies over various parts of the globe. They have set about consolidating their ‘spheres of interest’ using both hard power – military force, economic sanctions and regime changes – as well as soft power: diplomacy, aid and cultural exports such as films, music, literature, art and value systems. Africa, as indeed most of the developing world, has had little choice but to try and navigate through these often dangerous shoals, taking whatever profit and gain that is available and steering clear of destructive confrontations as nations pursue their development agendas. The previous five decades have therefore been a fascinating series of measure and counter-measure as all the players, major and minor, engage in the modern version of ‘The Great Game’, winning some hands and losing others. While the rules of the game of dominance remain the same, strategies often have to be redrawn in the light of seismic events – such as the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then, seemingly suddenly and coming from an unexpected quarter, entered the Dragon. In the case of Africa, the Chinese influx, unlike previous foreign incursions, was not led by gunboats or a heavy ideological battering ram. Instead they politely knocked on the door and when leave to enter was given, they came in with smiles, firm handshakes and an overflowing cornucopia of goods and the means – financial as well as technical – to provide Africa with what it needed most, a stream of infrastructure. It was an offer that no one sensible could refuse. And the Chinese, unlike others, did not just make pledges, they delivered immediately. To the astonishment of many, they did not insist on any conditionalities or seek to change the way countries were governed. ‘You are independent, do what you have to do. Don’t interfere with our system and we’ll not interfere with yours,’ was the message. But having been brought up in a world of vested interests and covert motives, we, and many others, kept asking – but what is the real game? The West had made it clear that they regarded Africa in terms of their own economic, strategic and ideological interests and supported or opposed governments to the degree that African policies and practice conformed to these sets of expectations.
Chinese construction projects have been marked by speed – speed of decision, speed of funding and speed of execution – all at cut-price costs. Surely, therefore, the reasoning went, there had to be a hidden Chinese agenda. But what was it? Were they secretly pushing communism or establishing camouflaged military spearheads? No, they said. ‘We want resources to build our own economy and you need plenty of cheap goods and lots of infrastructure. We trade – you get what you want, we get what we want.’ They termed it a ‘win-win situation’.
What you see is what your get?
Above: A Kenyan worker checks ceramic tiles at Chinese industrial firm Twyford Ceramics in Kajiado County
The more inscrutable the Chinese remained, the greater was the speculation about their hidden agenda. Theories abounded – it was a ‘new form of colonialism’ or a ‘massive resource grab’, or the Chinese even wanted to settle part of their large population in the wide open spaces of Africa, or exploit its cheap labour; and so the ideas went on. But real evidence was thin on the ground. ‘We want a win-win situation’ was the deadpan response. Perhaps they really do mean what they say. After all, despite the fact that China is now the second-largest
16 New African August/September 2017
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DRAGONS EMERGING INTO VIEW Extract from McKinsey’s new research report on the Africa-China economic relationship: Dance of the Lions and Dragons: How are Africa and China engaging, and how will the partnership evolve? Kajiado County, Kenya, might not be the obvious place to look for evidence of large-scale business. A sleepy, mostly rural area about two hours from Nairobi, the county’s greatest claim to fame is its views of snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, just over the border in Tanzania. But when we made the 70-kilometre journey from Nairobi one rainy morning, we were astonished to witness a massive, modern factory – the size of several football fields – rising out of the savannah. We had arrived at the Twyford ceramic tile factory, built in just eight months in 2015–16. One of our teammates commented, “It took me longer to retile my roof and bathroom!” The factory is a joint venture between two Chinese firms, the SunDa Group and Keda Clean Energy Company. SunDa started as a trading operation in Nigeria, focused on importing tiles from China, but it has since switched to manufacturing in several African countries. Its partner, Shanghai-based Keda, is a major supplier of industrial machinery. The two companies invested $30m in the first phase of the Kenya factory alone. Our visit to Kajiado took some time to arrange. The Twyford factory’s managers, like many other Chinese business-builders in Africa, prefer to keep a low profile. While we were learning more about Chinese industrial firms like Twyford, many business leaders we spoke to in Nairobi were unaware that such a large-scale factory could exist in Kenya. If even such a large industrial facility can remain hidden in plain sight, it’s no surprise that the extent of Chinese business activity in Africa is so widely underestimated – and misunderstood. Our tour of the factory – once we’d trudged through the ankle-deep mud surrounding the construction site of the massive second phase – shed light on several aspects of Chinese business activity in Africa. Inside, the factory is bright, spacious, and modern. It is also enormous: each production line is three-quarters of a kilometre long. Most workers we encountered were Kenyans; the myth that Chinese firms typically avoid employing locals was shown to be just that. Twyford, like many other Chinese firms in Africa, is not just creating jobs – 1,500 at its Kenya factory alone – it is also helping to build skills. Moreover, these employees are not simply engaged in manual labour: many work as technical operators of Keda’s advanced machinery. Most of the factory’s management and supervisors, including its overall manager, are Kenyan. The smaller group of Chinese managers and workers, unlike their Kenyan counterparts, live on site – in a housing compound complete with a volleyball court – and rarely leave the factory precinct, even on weekends. With a year or more between their visits back to China, several told us of their homesickness. The camaraderie between Chinese and Kenyan employees was clear for us to see on the factory floor, but the Chinese are far from integrated into the local community. Since we visited Twyford, we have seen Kenyans also starting to take notice of the factory, which has received coverage by multiple news outlets. We think that shift is emblematic of the increased visibility of Chinese businesses across the continent: the many thousand dragons are emerging into view.
economy in the world, it is still a developing country that has moved more of its citizens out of poverty more quickly than any other nation has ever done in history and wants the same not only for Africa, but developing Asia as well. China itself still remembers what it was like to be a colony of foreign powers and no one can deny that it was a staunch supporter of Africa’s liberation struggle. It knows full well the cost of sticking to its own political system against that prescribed by other powers and this is perhaps why it has decided not to interfere in anybody else’s affairs. ‘Only he who wears the shoe, know where it pinches’. In addition, its economic logic is impeccable. Its spectacular rise has been built on making things and trading them. It needs trading partners and you cannot trade with a poor nation. So if you can help other nations to become more, prosperous, you also become more prosperous by trading with them. So you set about making them more prosperous by building their infrastructure and increasing your trade with them. It is an argument that is difficult to fault even in these cynical times. But China remains tight-lipped on many issues and therefore the speculation on what exactly its game in Africa is will continue. Time will tell. In the meantime, let us take a fresh look at the extent of China’s presence in Africa to help us arrive at a more sober reflection on its motives.
A sweeping presence from coast to coast
For the past decade and a half, from the northernmost tip of Africa to the southernmost, from east to west, the only game in town has been China. From high-end shops in city centres to ramshackle stands deep in rural Africa, the goods on sale are made in China. The number of Chinese in Africa seems to multiply by the week. Some are almost invisible in their work camps; some pop up in all sorts of places – hawking live chicken in a Zambian market; illegally digging for gold in Ghana or copper in DRC; peddling DVDs of Hollywood, Bollywood and even Nollywood new releases; running huge Chinese-style restaurants in the heart of Luanda; growing, harvesting and buying massive quantities of tea in Zimbabwe; digging ditches in Nigeria; telling fortunes in Tanzania; and the list goes on and on. That is one picture of the Chinese in Africa. The other is the massive construction and infrastructure project sweeping right across the continent – from new, state-of-the-art ports, to desperately needed railway and metro systems, to modern highways creating transport ribbons all over the continent, to bridges flung over raging rivers, to massive skyscrapers altering African cityscapes overnight, to humming factories, to gigantic power plants, to essential telecoms and mining infrastructure, to all-inclusive housing projects, etc etc. The hallmark of Chinese construction projects has been speed – speed of decision, speed of funding and speed of execution – all at relatively cut-price costs. This is not even to mention trade. Chinese buyers are gobbling up virtually anything on sale in Africa – minerals, oil, gas, cotton, leather, hemp, tea, coffee August/September 2017 New African 17
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the middle classes, is directly linked to trade with China. “We are not talking just the official figures – oil and mineral exports, etc – but the under-the-surface transactions, almost all in cash, that have brought relative prosperity to the ordinary African. Just think of the whole chain of middle-men needed to handle all this volume of trade, each taking a small cut along the way,” added one of my friend’s World Bank colleagues. “This explains Africa’s resilience despite the global economic slump and the sharp downturn of commodity prices,” he went on. “Governments have lost out, true, but go visit the markets – business is booming.” But all this ‘unquantifiable data’ is anathema to dyed-in-the-wool economists and government statisticians, my friends from the Bank confided. “They want things in neat boxes, and if you can’t fit them into boxes, they simply ignore the reality and believe their figures represent the true picture.”
Myth versus reality
China remains tight-lipped on many issues and therefore the speculation on what exactly its game in Africa is will continue. Time will tell. (indeed, the Chinese have become some of the most ardent consumers of coffee over the past few years), foodstuffs, all sorts of meat (including crocodile), anything that swims or slithers and plenty more besides. Going in the other direction are hundreds of thousands of containers crammed full of manufactured items – ranging from dirt-cheap toys and textiles to smartphones, computers, television sets, radios, household gadgets, spare parts, medicines, and increasingly, white goods such as cookers, fridges, microwaves, washing machines, dishwashers and a million other useful bits and bobs that occupy shelf space in upmarket shops as well as the teeming informal markets that every African city boasts. Honest statisticians throw up their hands in helplessness when you ask them to put a dollar value to all of the China-related economic activity. A very great deal, perhaps the bulk of trade at least, goes under the monitoring radar. Based on accessible accounts, institutions work out what is at best a ball-park figure of say $100bn per annum, but they will privately tell you that this may be a gross underestimate. New research by McKinsey suggests that the Chinese presence may be much larger than we have been led to believe. “Look, frankly, no one, not even the Chinese authorities, knows the exact figure you can put on China-Africa trade and investment,” a friend who works as a number cruncher at the World Bank told me. “Whatever it is, it is colossal. Totally a gamechanger as far as Africa is concerned.” There are some who insist that the real cause of Africa’s sustained economic growth and the rise of
Top: The Chinese have been popping up all over Africa in the past decade and a half. Here, a Chinese storeowner talks to a customer in a Chinese-run shopping centre in Johannesburg, South Africa
The reality, according to McKinsey’s report Dance of the Lions and Dragons: How are Africa and China engaging, and how will the partnership evolve?, is that there are there are more than 10,000 Chinese-owned firms operating in Africa today. “Around 90 percent of these firms are privately owned – calling into question the notion of a monolithic, state-coordinated investment drive by ‘China, Inc.” says the report. “Although state-owned enterprises tend to be bigger, particularly in specific sectors such as energy and infrastructure, the sheer multitude of private Chinese firms working toward their own profit motives makes Chinese investment in Africa a more market-driven phenomenon than is commonly understood,” it adds. Nearly a third, the report states, are involved in manufacturing, a quarter in services, and around a fifth in trade and in construction and real estate. “In manufacturing, we estimate that 12% of Africa’s industrial production – valued at some $500bn a year in total – is already handled by Chinese firms. In infrastructure, Chinese firms’ dominance is even more pronounced, and they claim nearly 50% of Africa’s internationally-contracted construction market.” The report makes another surprising discovery. “The firms we talked to are profitable; nearly one-third reported 2015 profit margins of more than 20%. They are also agile and quick to adapt to new opportunities. Except in a few countries such as Ethiopia, they are primarily focused on serving the needs of Africa’s fastgrowing markets rather than on exports.” What is even more impressive is that the Chinese seem to have smoothed out the earlier cultural clashes which often brought their personnel into violent conflict with African workers, and as the research shows (see box, p. 17), their production methods are now designed to pass on skills to their African workers. So what can we conclude about China in Africa? Is the Dragon a devouring beast or the benevolent creature of Chinese mythology? Time will reveal all but perhaps in the meantime, we should give them the benefit of the doubt.
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What role is Chinese enterprise as well as aid playing in the development of Africa? What are the main differences between Chinese and Western aid and what are the plus and minus points of the Chinese presence on the continent? Yongjun Zhao, Head of China Affairs and Assistant Professor in Globalisation Studies at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and Research Fellow at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection in South Africa, discusses these issues.
What is the difference between Chinese and Western aid in Africa?
China Henan International Cooperation Group built a bridge over the River Kafue at Chiawa in Zambia, with the aid of African workers
S
ince the 1960s, China’s ties with Africa have undergone a remarkable transformation – from cooperation for diplomatic gains to a truly multifaceted partnership. The latter includes aid, trade and investments in basically all the economic sectors on the continent. As the world’s second-largest economy, China has become one of Africa’s most important and influential development partners. Sino-African development cooperation has been dramatically boosted by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) established in 2000, and subsequent institutional platforms. This cooperation gained a new momentum through the Beijing Summit on the One-Belt One-Road Initiative (OBOR) in May 2017. OBOR is characterised by China’s ambition to restore its historical glory through expanding its links with continental Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa to dramatically boost trade, investments and aid. Various powerful state agencies and bodies such as the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM), China Development Bank, China-Africa Development Fund, ministries and affiliations, universities and research institutions, are playing a more prominent role in
fulfilling China’s dream of ‘going global’. China’s policy for development cooperation with Africa is straightforward – the approach is to pursue economic interests based on mutual respect and partnership. Central to this policy is China’s non-interference stance, meaning that China has no interest in swaying the domestic affairs of its African counterparts. Thus, China does not impose conditions on its cooperation programmes for Africa.
Unmatched magnitude of projects
There is a wide acknowledgment among African countries that Sino-African cooperation has largely been successful. Infrastructure investment is the key to China’s policy and strategy regarding Africa. Chinese state-owned enterprises and state-backed financial institutions provide Africa with the needed technological, financial and human resources for construction projects. The magnitude and efficiency of these projects, to a large extent, have been unmatched by other powers. The Chinese construction of buildings, bridges, highways, railways and dams has, to say the least, considerably contributed to the acceleration of urbanisation and industrialisation in Africa. In agriculture, tackling food security on the continent is a major Chinese policy ambition. Improving agricultural productivity through science and technology innovation is deemed essential, coupled with the provision of agricultural equipment and expertise. State-owned agribusinesses have made sizeable investments to help improve local production. Agrotechnology demonstration centres have sprung up across Africa. Agro-technicians, dispatched from China, teach local farmers relevant skills and technologies useful to improving their farming practices. China also provides increasing support for Africa’s public service sectors such as health and education, August/September 2017 New African 19
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Specific criticisms, when supported by facts on the ground, is one thing – for example, over cultural clashes and workplace conflicts in places such as Zambia, or artisanal mining in Ghana and the DRC – and justifiable. Exaggerated and non-specific accusations, such as over ‘China’s colonisation of Africa’, belong more to the realm of propaganda than fact.
Whose aid is better?
by bringing over Chinese doctors and teachers and constructing clinics, schools and so forth. The Chinese construction of the African Union headquarters building, and the establishment of Confucius Institutes across the continent, are just a few examples of Chinese construction with further aims. These projects underscore the use of soft power in influencing African policy-makers and the wider public, in the cause of furthering China’s multifaceted interests in the continent.
Chinese presence criticised
However, China’s footprints in Africa have often been criticised, especially by the Western media. The criticisms are centred around the adverse impacts on the environment, as well as social, economic and political negativities arising from Chinese programmes. China’s role in Africa’s mining, timber, land and other natural resource sectors is depicted as ‘resourcegrabbing’, negatively impacting on the livelihoods of African workers and poor farmers for the benefit of local elites, businesses and politicians. And, say the critics, the exploitation of primary materials has not led to a substantially improved manufacturing capacity among local industries or increased job creation. In a similar vein, these critics say that large-scale infrastructure projects have caused land loss for local farmers and that they are often not involved in the planning processes. Some projects are poor in quality – the example, the recent collapse of a $10m Chinesebuilt bridge in western Kenya, which had not reached completion, two weeks after its inspection by the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta. Moreover, it is claimed that Chinese investments by the private sector and state-owned enterprises, and imbalanced trade relations have disadvantaged African local businesses, which are less able to compete. Chinese projects, it is also claimed, are partly to blame for local unemployment as margins for small, local businesses are squeezed and some are driven out of business. While there is no doubt merit in many of the criticisms, one cannot discount the influence of the wider global rivalry between the West and China. Similar criticisms were levelled at the Soviet Union’s activities in Africa during the Cold War.
Occasionally the quality of projects is poor. Here, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta (2nd right) visits a $10m Chinesebuilt bridge in western Kenya – but it collapsed two weeks later
The West has also shown unease towards Chinese aid to Africa. It is often claimed by many actors that Western aid has lost its attractiveness to African countries, as Chinese aid continues to pour into the continent. But is there a real difference between Western aid and Chinese aid? Western aid is often attacked for perpetuating the legacy of colonialism, and seen as an ongoing effort pushing through the now-discredited Washington Consensus agenda on Africa. For decades, African governments, scholars and activists have protested against this hidden agenda which they believe aggravates social inequality and postpones the need to redress the colonial legacy. Aid programmes are also alleged to exert adverse impacts on the local environment and society. Perhaps what has been most galling for African societies is the easy double standards adopted by Western countries – especially the US – which loudly proclaim the virtues of democracy while funding and supporting dictatorial regimes, both in Africa and in other parts of the world. Chinese aid, on the contrary, is acclaimed by many for the non-political incentive it offers to strike a winwin deal through partnership building. Aid money from China is taken as almost a free gift by African countries. However, aid cannot be taken for granted, whether from China or the West. Aid means many things to different groups, carrying its historical, political, economic, social, cultural and ethical underpinnings. Western aid bears its own characteristics, putting an emphasis on policy and institutional issues such as stakeholder participation – especially that of local communities – as being essential to economic growth and equitable development. A major argument against Western aid is the fact that aid programmes have not been successful to a large degree in many parts of the world. Getting institutions right – essential to aid and structural reform programmes as championed by Western donors – remains window dressing, which fails to cover feasible action to meet planned objectives. Western aid has yet to effectively tackle the fundamental challenges of local reality in programme design and implementation. Chinese aid, by contrast, displays state domination, driving state-owned enterprises to play a big role, given China’s governance system. This approach is especially evident in Chinese programmes in the infrastructure, manufacturing and extractive industry sectors. Enjoying preferential government policies and facilitation, Chinese state-owned enterprises find it much easier to win project bids over other competitors in Africa.
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Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships Programme Identifying and supporting African leaders of the future.
Invitation for Applications The Ibrahim Fellowships offer the opportunity to work in the executive offices of either the African Development Bank (Abidjan), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa) or the International Trade Centre (Geneva) with an annual stipend of $100,000. The Executive Management office of each organisation will host an Ibrahim Leadership Fellow for a 12-month period. The Fellowships are open to young professionals, mid-career and new executives up to the age of 40 or 45 for women with children. The Fellows will be nationals of an African country with 7-10 years of relevant work experience and a Master’s Degree.
The application process opens on 14 August 2017 and closes on 15 October 2017 For more information about the Fellowship programme, eligibility and application process please visit: mo.ibrahim.foundation/fellowships
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African governments favour this faster-track in getting the work done by the Chinese than by the Westerners. Nonetheless, the Chinese government has not turned a blind eye to its operations in Africa in terms of their local impact. Numerous policies and regulations stemming from the government and its financing institutions have attempted to make Chinese businesses operating in Africa accountable in addressing potential negative effects on the environment and society at large. Chinese corporations have also incorporated local people into their operations by offering employment, building clinics and schools and improving local skills in agricultural practices, to name but a few. As compared with Western aid, Chinese aid to Africa has a short history – only beginning on a larger scale since 2000. China does not have development agencies like USAID, or the UK’s DFID as such, to supervise and coordinate its development programmes. A multitude of development-related institutions at the central and provincial levels in China are responsible for their programmes in terms of policy guidance and institutional facilitation. These programmes, when actioned on the ground in Africa, do not have as much institutional support as needed. The number of Chinese NGOs operating in Africa remains scant. The lack of African governments’ support for Chinese programmes is another hurdle against the efficient delivery of project activities. Chinese actors working in Africa have to rely on each other by forging their own networks. Chinese embassies in Africa remain a primary resource base for their support. Chinese agencies and businesses are operating in Africa in a complex political, economic and sociocultural context. Understanding this context is absolutely crucial for the success of their initiatives. Despite all those institutional and societal constraints in Africa, as well as language and cultural barriers, it is impressive how the Chinese manage to work within African political and businesses environments. Even for many Africans, this is a big puzzle. When institutional support is lacking from official channels, the Chinese are forced to work out the informal rules of the game in African countries. Relations between the Chinese and their African counterparts have thus become murky, especially in business operations, which may not be easily understood by outsiders. Despite the growing attention of the Chinese government and its agencies in addressing the adverse impacts of their programmes in Africa, more concrete action has yet to come. China has yet to develop systematically coordinated mechanisms to oversee the operations of its programmes. The fragmentation of government institutions responsible for aid policy and programmes can explain this. How to involve government and non-governmental institutions, and the private and public sector, in aid policy design and implementation remains unclear in policy strategies. A delay in addressing these issues will affect the sustainability of Chinese programmes in Africa in the long run.
Whose interests?
Aid is double-edged, serving the political and economic interests of the aid-giving country or organisation. Western aid to Africa carries a similar agenda to Chinese aid – that is, the realisation of national interest. The priorities of Western donor programmes indicate the use of aid to facilitate trade and investments for Western companies. Their approaches, such as value chain development and public-private-partnership, also show the role of the private sector in economic development. Chinese aid programmes, in this sense, have yet to catch up with the West in articulating better what their approaches are, and how these approaches can actually lead to more sustainable development outcomes for the African people.
Chinese aid is acclaimed by many for its nonpolitical incentive to strike a win-win deal through partnership building. Notwithstanding the importance of infrastructure, science and technology in African development, Chinese programmes have placed overt emphasis on these factors, leaving those so-called ‘soft’ factors like institutional issues largely unaddressed. To a certain extent, Africa is ‘luckily’ overwhelmed by growing interest from China, other rising powers and the West. Getting as much as it can from them seems to be working. When these external resources from the competing powers are put into effective use for the benefit of local people, it is certainly a great thing. However, more evidence is needed to prove whether this has been the case so far. It is argued that Africa does not have a China strategy. On the contrary, China does have an Africa strategy. But it lacks a well-founded institutional framework and implementation plan to ensure programme success that would contribute to local sustainable development in the long run. The G20 Summit held in Hamburg, Germany from 7-8 July 2017 is an interesting case in point. It showed that Western interest in Africa has not receded in the face of the competition from China. On the contrary, it has gained new momentum, with Germany’s call for a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Africa to promote private investment and job creation. Participants at the Summit concluded that this partnership should be demand-driven and far-sighted rather than pursue short-term objectives. Germany and China will also explore a kind of partnership to further their common interest in Africa, although this grand agenda will need to be defined by both countries. The time has come for Africa, China and all the powers with a stake in Africa to start working together, through dialogue and engagements based on the principles of equality and transparency. Africa has a choice in facing these diverse interests, but ultimately, its people should have more say over the process of engagement and over their own interests.
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As the years pass, China’s economic relations with Africa become more complex and defy knee-jerk analysis. However one views it, China’s massive infrastructure project across the continent has changed the face of Africa and is contributing robustly to the modernisation and industrialisation of the continent. Neil Ford outlines some of China’s most significant recent projects.
African vision, Chinese muscle
T
he relationship between China and Africa has long been portrayed as a swap of much-needed infrastructure in return for raw materials. China accounts for a large proportion of global demand for copper, iron ore, bauxite, copper and other minerals, so it is unsurprising that the mining sector has attracted a lot of investment. Yet the relationship between the two is now far more complicated than that, with hundreds of large corporations and millions of small-scale entrepreneurs developing their own trading links and projects according to the opportunities on offer. Chinese involvement in Africa was originally viewed
The Pointe NoireDolisie road in the Congo was built by the China State Construction and Equipment Corporation. Over 2,700 Congolese and 1,000 Chinese were employed on the project
as a grand strategy imposed from above by central government but this image is becoming less true as time goes on. As China’s economic growth has slowed down, many Chinese companies have looked overseas for contracts, taking advantage of Beijing’s promise to fund projects in Africa. In addition, it is clear that an increasing number of Chinese companies now see some African states as excellent hosts for manufacturing outsourcing, in the same way as international firms have outsourced their own production capacity to China for many years. The pace of growth in the economic relationship
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is breathtaking. The value of trade between China and Africa increased from $10bn in 2000 to $220bn in 2014, although it has now fallen slightly because of lower commodity prices. Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo says: “African countries need trade and they need investment. To the extent that China, or anybody else – India, Turkey, Russia or Brazil – bring new trading and investment opportunities.” The impact of the investment is not purely economic. There are increasing numbers of Chinese shopping malls and retail parks across Africa, which bring Chinese goods, culture and workers to the continent.
The Mazeras Bridge section of Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway from Mombasa to Nairobi. The line was built by China Communications Construction Company at a cost of $3.8bn
Very low interest rates
Many analysts had expected the pace of road, rail, power and dam construction to slow down over the past few years but if anything it has speeded up. There are some valid concerns over the debts being taken on board by African governments. It is now generally reckoned that China accounts for a sixth of all outstanding lending to the continent. Yet the borrowing governments calculate that the infrastructure in question will boost GDP by more than the cost of servicing their debts. It is difficult to assess the financial terms of such deals, as they are usually kept secret, but it is generally believed that they take the form of concessional loans, with very low rates of interest. Such investment has enabled the development of much-needed infrastructural projects, many of which would not otherwise have been built. It has created a great deal of employment, although many Chinese companies have brought a large proportion of their workforce from China. In many cases, the raw materials and components required are also imported, although local content requirements are increasingly being enforced. The Namibian Port Authority, for instance, insisted that China Harbour Engineering Company source at least 30% of all its raw materials locally in its construction of the new container terminal at the Port of Walvis Bay. In some cases, the quality of the work undertaken has been criticised. Chinese Overseas Construction and Engineering Company was building a $12m bridge in Kenya’s Busia County but the bridge collapsed at the start of July, before it had even been completed. Kenyan state engineers are currently investigating the cause of the collapse. There have also been instances of poor treatment of workers. The focus on getting the job done has had both positive and negative implications. The required infrastructure is provided but in the past, there has been too little emphasis on skills transfer, restricting one of the key benefits of such investment and making it more difficult to maintain and upgrade the project in question. This is starting to change and more Chinese companies are engaging with local partners and helping to train local engineers and other specialists. In the telecoms sector, for instance, tens of thousands of Africans are being trained by Chinese firms or on Chinese-funded courses at any one time.
Some of China’s major projects in Africa include: Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway
When the boom in Chinese investment in African infrastructural projects began, power projects, such as Ghana’s Bui hydro scheme, attracted the most attention. More recently, transport schemes have taken the lead. Chinese construction companies and Chinese banks are behind many of the road projects that are transforming transport links across the continent. One of the most high-profile projects ever developed by Chinese firms in Africa opened on 1 June, with the completion of the new Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Mombasa to Nairobi. When the scheme was first mooted as a replacement for the existing colonial-era railway that runs along the same route, it was seen as a vague aspiration rather than a concrete proposal and yet the line was completed on
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Freight trains capable of transporting 4,000 tonnes will travel at 80km an hour, while passenger trains will be able to make the journey in just over four hours. The government of Uganda is keen to see the line extended to Kampala. Although a preliminary agreement with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation in 2012 came to nothing, in May Kampala awarded the $2.3bn contract to another Chinese firm, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC). Yet again, funding is expected to be provided by Exim Bank. Chinese finance has also been mooted for a spur line from the SGR to the South Sudanese capital, Juba. Project coordinator Kasingye Kyamugambi said: “As soon as studies are complete and approved, and funds secured, works on the other sections of the SGR will commence.” Chinese companies were also involved at every stage of the development of the first urban light railway in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first phase of the $475m Addis Ababa Light Rail opened in 2015. Funding was provided by Exim Bank, construction carried out by China Railway Group and the system is being operated by Shenzhen Metro for the first five years before being handed over to Ethiopian Railways Corporation. China Electric Power Equipment Technology Company developed the dedicated power grid for the system.
The ports of Djibouti and Walvis Bay
Chinese companies are increasingly engaging with local partners and helping to train local engineers and other specialists. schedule – rare in infrastructure project work anywhere in the world. China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) built the line at a cost of $3.8bn, with funding from Export-Import Bank (Exim) of China, making it the most expensive infrastructure project built in Kenya since independence. At present, the vast bulk of passenger and freight transport between Kenya’s main port and its capital city is by road but the government hopes that the new line will change this. Transport Principal Secretary, Paul Maringa, said: “The SGR is the backbone of Kenya’s multi-modal infrastructure development and thus it will play a key role is spurring economic growth.”
There has been lots of investment by Chinese firms in the African port sector recently, particularly by CHEC and China State Construction Engineering Corporation. China Cosco Shipping has also launched more services to African ports and China Merchants Group (CMG) has invested heavily in Djibouti. CMG bought a 23.5% stake in the Port of Djibouti and 67% in the nearby Doraleh Container Terminal in January for $185m, on top of the $590m investment it has made in Doraleh Multipurpose Port, which opened at the end of May. CMG president Li Xiaopeng said: “Making full use of Djibouti’s geographical advantages, we are in the process of making the country the ‘Shekou of East Africa’. We will use our experience in Shekou and adjust the model to local conditions.” CMG has turned the Chinese port of Shekou into one of the most important trade centres in the world. Chinese firms are gaining experience on African ports that can be of use to them elsewhere. To take one example, CHEC has run into unexpected difficulties in building a new container terminal at the Port of Walvis Bay for the Namibian Port Authority. The completion date has been pushed back by at least a year, to mid2019, following the discovery of a 23m thick layer of dead vegetation starting 20m beneath the sea bed. CHEC has spent six months carrying out tests on the layer and devising a solution to the instability it causes, adapting its construction methods in the process.
Lekki free trade zone
Much further north, CHEC may save the ailing Lekki port project. Nigeria is in desperate need of new port capacity, partly because the existing Lagos ports are August/September 2017 New African 25
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There are now believed to be a million Chinese entrepreneurs living in Africa and many more with ties to the continent based in China itself. hemmed in by urban development and so have little room for expansion, but also because other countries in West Africa are in the process of building far bigger container terminals than anything currently on offer in Nigeria. Two brand new ports have been planned, Badagry and Lekki, 60km either side of Lagos respectively. International Container Terminal Services Inc was the main contractor on Lekki but pulled out of the project earlier this year after years of delay. However, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has now revealed that CHEC has bought an unspecified stake in Lekki for $86m. The Chinese firm and any partners it brings on board will be required to invest at least $1.5bn to develop the deep-water port. CHEC may have been attracted by the plan to develop a large free trade zone (FTZ) next to the port. Chinese investors are becoming increasingly interested in African FTZs, processing zones and industrial parks. Chinese manufacturing sector wages have risen by an average of 15% a year over the past five years. This is persuading both Chinese and foreign investors to move some of their manufacturing capacity out of China. Asian countries including Vietnam, Bangladesh and latterly Myanmar have been the main beneficiaries but Africa’s rapid population growth is starting to attract Chinese attention.
Ethiopian industrial parks
Ethiopia has been particularly successful in
developing industrial parks. China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) completed Hawassa Industrial Park last July to serve textile and clothing producers. The government says that Hawassa will be used as the model for nine similar parks to be developed elsewhere in the country. It is expected that Chinese companies will take the lead on most if not all of them. In July, Tadesse Haile, the state minister of economic affairs in the office of the prime minister, revealed that two new industrial parks were to open in September. CCECC has built both Dire Dawa and Adama industrial parks at a combined cost of $315m. Located 445km and 99km east of Addis Ababa respectively, both will follow Hawassa in focusing on textiles and apparel manufacturing. Ethiopia has received $12.3bn in Chinese lending since the turn of the millennium. It is perhaps no coincidence that it is the African country with the economic strategy most closely modelled on China’s development over the past 30 years. Beijing’s interest in the country can hardly be motivated by access to raw materials as Ethiopia has few mineral resources of any international note. Speaking during a visit to Kenya in July, Zhu Layi, the president of the Guangdong New South Group, said: “SEZs [Special Economic Zones]are a very good model to push for Chinese industries to establish manufacturing plants in African countries. They improve the business environment in the manufacturing sector and hence are likely to become magnets for Chinese investors seeking opportunities in Africa. In addition, SEZs can help to spur the transfer of Chinese industrial technology into Africa.” Guangdong already operates SEZs in Nigeria and is now developing its first zone in Mombasa in a joint venture with Kenya’s own Africa Economic Zone.
Outlook
Above: The Chinese in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa Light Rail service, funded by Exim Bank and built by the China Railway Group, is helping to solve the capital’s road transport problems
Beyond the more high-profile projects, economic ties between China and Africa are becoming ever more diverse. Estimates vary but there are now believed to be a million Chinese entrepreneurs living in Africa and many more with ties to the continent based in China itself. Even in sectors with the longest track records of cooperation, new trends are emerging. Most recently, Chinese firms have invested heavily in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There is undoubtedly a political and geopolitical element to the investment. Beijing and many Chinese companies see the Africa of the future as a continent where they can exert a great deal of influence. Yet it would be wrong to regard China as a monolithic influence on Africa. It is more accurate to view the relationship as a piecemeal patchwork of economic activity between a vast nation that has experienced economic growth on historic levels over the past 30 years and a continent with a similar population and also huge potential. NA
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Dance of the lions and dragons: How are Africa and China engaging, and how will the partnership evolve?
#1 Trade partner
10,000+ Chinese firms in Africa
#1
30%
#3
Infrastructure financier
Chinese firms in manufacturing
Donor
~90%
89%
Privately owned Chinese businesses
Local employees
Ten recommendations to accelerate the Africa-China partnership: 1.Define China strategy 2. Build China-capable bureaucracy
African governments 1, 2
9, 10
Chinese government 3, 4 & 5
3. Open government financing to private Chinese firms 4. Extend responsible business guidelines to private Chinese firms 5. Use results-based aid approaches
6. Chinese firms: Explore brownfield growth options 7. African firms: Decide where and how to play 8. African firms: Drive step-change in productivity
Private sector 6, 7 & 8
9. Establish agriculture demand deal 10. Switch to PPP model for infrastructure August/September 2017 New African 27
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Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has done the impossible – he has persuaded African member states of the AU to pitch in and finance the organisation instead of relying on it being funded by foreign donors.
Kagame’s AU coup makes us all stand tall
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n my last column, I promised readers that I would continue the discussion on the political economy of Africa and how best our continent of immense natural resources could shift from being an exporter of raw materials to one engaged in industrialisation. But something very interesting happened on 3 July at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa that has diverted me from my promise. So please bear with me, we shall return to Africa’s political economy in the next issue. For now, let’s concentrate on the good news. At the AU Summit, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, the man charged with leading the overdue AU reform process (which I wrote about here two months ago), came to report that things were going so well that we might need to pinch ourselves to realise that it wasn’t all a dream. “I am very happy to report to you that implementation is well underway, and that none of the problems identified is a serious obstacle,” the tall man from Rwanda told his fellow leaders. “We are off to a good start in implementation. There are fewer obstacles than might have been expected … In fact, I am glad to say that around 10 countries have already started to implement
what we have agreed… Even more member states are actively preparing to do so…” Two years ago, at their Summit in Johannesburg (South Africa), African leaders agreed that by 2020, member countries would fund 100% of the AU Commission operating costs, 75% of the AU’s programmes, and 25% of African peace operations. It was an ambitious pledge considering that in the last 50 years, Africa relied on “external partners” to fund much of its operations. For example, in 2015 and 2016 external partners funded 59% and 63% of the AU budget respectively. In April this year, President Kagame revealed that 98% of AU programmes were being funded by external donors, and said the situation was unacceptable. Even worse, because he who pays the piper calls the tune, these external partners have had too much leverage on decision-making at the AU, to the detriment of African independent thought and action. At one point in the recent past, the external partners even wanted to ‘second’ their own staff to keep an eye on the work of the AU Commission. That was the height of an insult that the Africans could not bear, and, not surprisingly, it became
BAFFOUR’S BEEFS Baffour Ankomah
a wake-up call for the slumbering African leaders who had gotten used to outsiders paying for the continent’s every need. Mercifully, the threat to the dignity of the African was so real and massive that our leaders were forced to make a plan in 2015 whereby each of the continent’s five sub-regions would raise $65m a year (thus $325m in total) through a levy of 0.2% on selected imports into Africa. From 2020 onwards, the $65m will increase to $80m per region. As one pundit has put it: “The implementation of the plan is expected to upgrade the AU’s status as a credible organisation and elevate its relationship with the UN and other international organisations.” We can only thank God that our leaders, for once, are walking the talk. For there is no dignity in being a beggar. And we should not have been one at all! In fact Londoners showed us how to do it following the Grenfell Tower inferno this June. They contributed from their own means to help the victims of the horrific fire outbreak while the Tory government shamefully dilly-dallied. Likewise, with one billion or so Africans alive today, we can pay for any emergency on the continent ourselves if all of us pay just one dollar
“Around 10 countries have already started to implement the AU reforms we have agreed. Even more member states are actively preparing to do so.” – Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame
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each for such emergencies. Just one dollar, my brother and sister! But we love to go cap in hand, begging all the time! Thank God this shameful behaviour is going to stop. But listen to President Kagame: “As evidence mounts that this reform [the AU reform] is real and irreversible, there have been expressions of polite surprise, bordering on discomfort, from external parties. “Accommodating an articulate and effective African Union in the world order challenges entrenched interests and assumptions. Even those who wish us well may have reason to discourage a more independent and organised Africa. We should be prepared to react accordingly.” He continued: “This
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame reported recently that the overdue AU reform process was going so well that we might need to pinch ourselves to realise it wasn’t all a dream
should only serve to remind us of the reasons we felt the need to make these changes in the first place. It is therefore important to prepare the framework for the upcoming partnership summit in Abidjan in advance, and within the spirit of our reform.” Here, the Rwandese president, constrained by diplomacy, was speaking in parables, which only confirmed what New African, not used to speaking in parables, has been strident in exposing over the past two decades or so. That, there are puppet masters whose only desire is to see a weak and shambolic Africa. And because strength comes from unity, every time Africa has tried to unite, the puppet masters have not been happy. As a result, they have used every power at their disposal, including mammon and deceit, to derail Africa’s forward march. The puppet masters have been at this game for a remarkably long time for us not to see their tricks. They were at it in May 1963 when 30 African leaders met in Addis to form what became the OAU. On 7 August 2007, I went to the British National Archives at Kew, London, to look at the British official papers on Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and, not surprisingly, I found a letter dated 18 October 1963 written by one British official, D.W.S. Hunt, to their Acting High Commissioner in Tanzania, F.S. Miles, saying in part: “…Nyerere and Sékou Touré had the most effective influence on the other delegations [to the OAU founding conference] and were largely responsible for the final result, which was to reject the largely Nkrumahist doctrine of an immediate overall political union and accept instead a process of gradualism … Anything we can do, without attracting attention, to build up Nyerere, for example, would undoubtedly be useful – and he looks as though he needs it because in my view he is coming off second best in his struggle with Nkrumah.” Here, the British are proposing to build up President Nyerere against President Nkrumah. They were going to play one African brother off against another, so that in the pro-
cess of fighting among themselves, the Africans would lose sight of the goal of a proper African unity. After all, ‘Divide and conquer’ was the official motto that ran through all British relations with its empire. The same intrigues rose up in 2002 when the external partners discovered that an “articulate and effective” African Union could rise from the ashes of the OAU. Thus on 1 November 2003, Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chrétien mustered enough courage to write to President Thabo Mbeki, the then chairperson of the AU, urging Africa to supplant the nascent AU with NEPAD, which had been established nine months earlier by African leaders as the socio-economic development arm of the AU, with fabulous pledges from external partners. Not a man to suffer fools gladly, Mbeki copied his reply to Chrétien to the G8, EU, the UN Secretary General, the Nordic countries, members of the NEPAD Implementation Committee, and the heads of multilateral organisations, stating in part, and in unambiguous terms, that: “The AU is the primary organisation that unites the people of Africa. NEPAD is its socio-economic development programme. Accordingly, NEPAD is not an organisation separate from, and independent of, the AU...” Mbeki went on: “One of the dangers to us, posed by the assertion that the NEPAD Peer Review process should displace all related AU legal organs, is that this seeks to encourage us to ignore decisions related to the AU, adopted by our parliaments as law. In short, we are invited to treat the AU, the parent of NEPAD, as a dangerous irrelevance with regard to its NEPAD offspring, whose connection with the latter may lead to the ‘unravelling’ of our external partners as you warn.” So nothing has changed! But this time Africa has to force a change by doing what Kagame told our leaders in Addis: “The key principle we must insist on,” he said, “is not to allow political or technical dilemmas to override our strategic imperatives, but rather to address them as they arise. We must work together and find the solutions that allow us to keep moving forward.” NA
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THE BLUE ECONOMY Millions of Africans depend on the oceans for their livelihoods and the sustenance for a large number of industries. But Africa’s seas are under assault from over-fishing, pollutants, plastic waste – and the continent’s coastline, its vital economic link to the rest of the world, is under threat from piracy as well. In this special report, we look at the challenges facing African governments as they seek to take control over their marine treasures.
Africa’s Blue Economy time to take control
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The perils of plastic
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n the words of Peter Thomson, the 71st president of the UN General Assembly, “The ocean is in deep trouble... Marine pollution is taking us to a point where, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than there will be fish.” Thomson’s dire warning is not a hyperbolic flourish: about 80% of ocean litter is plastics that, when ingested, can kill fish, seabirds, turtles, oysters and other creatures. Also, plastics washed ashore often damage agricultural land and discourage tourism. Africa is primarily concerned with the livelihoods of its millions of citizens, especially those who live along the continent’s 30,500km coastline and depend on fish for food and income. Every year Kenya’s supermarkets alone use about 100m plastic bags, many of which end up in the ocean. And more plastics, which do not rot, in the ocean means more deaths of sea creatures. Africa’s coastal communities also grapple with a changing climate and overfishing. As a result of coastal erosion, whole communities in Mozambique have had to relocate, while Togo has suffered economic losses of about 2.3% of GDP, according to a 2016 World Bank report. Africa’s policy makers and prominent Africans, including former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, are unhappy over the billions of dollars lost annually to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The cost of illegal fishing to Somalia alone is about $300m annually. Mostly perpetrated by foreign fishing fleets, overfishing also disrupts ecosystems and endangers biodiversity. Currently, some 37 types of fish are on a growing list of species becoming extinct in Africa, including octopus and grouper, which are hardly found these days in Mauritanian waters on the West African coast. When scientists and representatives of governments and civil society gathered at the UN headquarters in New York for the
crucial Ocean Conference, they discussed ways to prudently manage ocean resources for sustainable development, which is Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14. But individual African governments, with support from the World Bank, the UN and other institutions, are already taking measures to tackle climate change, overfishing and plastic in the ocean. The Rwandan and Seychelles governments have banned plastic
Opposite: Plastic litter on a Mozambican beach. Below: Ghanaian fisherman in Accra preparing their nets
bags; Liberia and Sierra Leone have enacted acts to regulate fisheries and installed ocean surveillance systems; fishing communities in Cape Verde have organized to protect fishing zones, and Mozambique has carved out an area for conservation that includes coastline. Sylvia Earle, a renowned American oceanographer, says that she’s hopeful that life in African seas, though in trouble, is not dead. Sounding a note of optimism, Thomson says, “I have no doubt that we will break this problem.” Courtesy: Africa Renewal.
Destructive overfishing by mostly foreign trawlers and illegal, largescale fishing have been the bane of African coastal communities for decades. Many once-thriving species are nearing extinction. The economic impact on maritime nations has been enormous. But Africa is fighting back and chalking up major successes. Report by Kingsley Ighobor of Africa Renewal.
Africa fighting back against fish piracy
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t was midnight on 14 December 2016, when five fishermen in Tombo village near Freetown in Sierra Leone revved up a small outboard engine and powered their boat far out to sea. They threw in their net and soon bagged a good quantity of fish. But as they hauled in their catch, a terrible storm blew
in. When the waters finally calmed, one of them, an 18-year-old named Alimamy, could not be found. Alimamy had stood precariously on the canoe’s edge to load the fish – something he was used to doing – when the storm waves hit. He was tossed overboard and drowned, despite his colleagues’ frantic efforts august/september 2017 new african 31
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THE BLUE ECONOMY to save his life. “It was a sad day for us in this village,” said Samuel Bangura, the local harbour master. Bangura, whose job includes the search and rescue of fishermen missing at sea, had dispatched a search party to recover Alimamy’s body. Tragedies such as these are common in Africa’s coastal nations, but fishing itself is in deep trouble. Fish populations are being lost due to overfishing, forcing boats like Alimamy’s to sail far from home. “There are no fish nearby any more,” lamented Bangura. Overfishing occurs when more fish are caught than can be replaced through natural reproduction. This is linked to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) or fishing piracy. Some 37 species were classed as threatened with extinction and 14 more were said to be ‘near threatened’, from Angola in the south to Mauritania in the north, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Bangura lays blame on the foreign trawlers scooping ashore almost every life form on the ocean floor. “We are competing with big trawlers,” he said. “They take all the fish and they destroy our nets.” The sturdy fishing trawlers, owned mostly by Asian and European companies, are able to drag better and stronger trawl nets over a large expanse of seabed. The trawlers can easily withstand sea turbulence and are able to mechanically haul netted fish into pre-positioned storage rather than haul them by physical labour. In Somalia and Tanzania, trawlers “deploy giant, non-selective nets, wiping out entire schools of tuna, including the young ones, which they discard dead,” reports IUUWatch, a European Unionbased organisation whose website is sponsored by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana, the Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew) and World Wide Fund for Nature in the cause of ending IUU fishing. Some trawlers are licensed in Africa while others operate illegally. The licensed ones pay taxes, although the dynamic nature of
the fishing business complicates tax computation. Many governments lack the capacity to monitor the operations of fishing fleets, thus undercutting efforts to fix fair tax rates, let alone collect revenues. Bangura expressed outrage that illegal fishing vessels operate with impunity in Sierra Leonean waters, but it is also a situation that puts African countries in a bind. Governments need revenues, no matter how meagre, to invest in agriculture, social services and other sectors that can expand economic opportunities. Yet fishing revenues are low compared to the tons of fish that are carted away. “The revenue generated by these catches doesn’t make it back into state coffers,” observes Dyhia Belhabib, research associate and fisheries scientist at the University of British Columbia, Canada. “Boats from China and Europe caught fish valued at $8.3bn over 10 years (from 2000–2010) from the [West African] region. Only $0.5bn went back into local economies.” An additional $2 billionworth of fish is “either taken out without prior consent from local governments or is never reported due to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,” maintained Belhabib. In July last year, the Spanish trawler ‘Gotland’ was impounded in Spain for illegal fishing in Senegalese waters. The vessel, registered in Mauritania with a Russian crew, fled to the Exclusive Economic Zone waters of Mauritania after it was spotted by Senegalese security authorities. In October 2016, Somali authorities observed a Panamanianregistered fishing vessel named GREKO 1, flagged to Belize, seeking port access in Mombasa. The vessel escaped to Kenya where it was arrested under the FISH-i protocol. The FISH-i is a programme by Comoros, Seychelles, Somalia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and Tanzania to combat IUU through information-sharing and enforcement. The Somali authorities settled out of court with the registered owner and a $65,000 fine was paid.
Somali vendors preparing fish for sale at Bosaso beach in Puntland, northeastern Somalia. Local communities have been greatly impacted by illegal fishing, which lowers catches and costs Somalia $300m annually
In 2015, two of six fishing vessels (dubbed the ‘Bandit 6’) on Interpol’s wanted list were captured on the Cape Verdean coast, off the port of Mindelo, as they poached toothfish – a tasty relative of cod typically sold in North America. Their capture followed a campaign by the ocean conservation group Sea Shepherd.
Endangered species
West African waters are powerful magnets for foreign fishing operations because they “are amongst the most fertile in the world”, notes Greenpeace, while underscoring that the resources are fast dwindling. Some of the endangered fishes include Osteichthyes, popularly known as bony fish, which has 1,288 species, the majority of which are found on Africa’s west coast. The Madeiran sardine is overfished in West and Central Africa, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest environmental network. The IUCN reported in
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January that due to overfishing, “the endangered Cassava croaker is estimated to have declined by 30% to 60% over the past 10 years”. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) further estimates that 57% of fishes are exploited while 30% are overexploited or depleted. As far back as 2013, the journal Fish and Fisheries reported that the octopus and grouper fish were hard to find in Mauritanian waters, having been fished away by trawlers from Europe and Asia.
Destroying livelihoods
IUCN director-general Inger Andersen insists that the livelihoods of local coastal communities still could depend on properly managed marine fish species. “Fish provides a major source of animal protein for the coastal communities, which account for around 40% of this region’s population,” says Andersen, adding that the current situation undermines Sustainable Development Goal 14, which refers
to life below water. Africa loses billions to illegal fishing, corroborates Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General and head of the Africa Progress Panel, a group of 10 distinguished individuals who advocate for the continent’s sustainable development. Somalia alone loses hundreds of millions of dollars each year to pirate fishing. A direct consequence of overfishing is that communities relying on fish as a source of protein have less to eat. This leads to malnutrition, especially in children. Women who mostly process the fish earn less than they did previously. In West Africa, times are rough for the nearly seven million people who depend on small-scale fisheries.
Efforts underway
To combat overfishing, Greenpeace recommends countries set up regional fisheries organisations, reduce the number of registered trawlers operating in African waters, increase monitoring and control and ensure that fish
processing operations are managed by Africans. The World Bank’s West Africa Regional Fisheries Program (WARFP), whose participating countries are Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde and Senegal, has empowered countries with information, training and monitoring systems. Under WARFP, small-scale fishers receive training in the use of GPS-enabled cameras to take photos of illegal trawlers. As a result, by 2016, Liberia had collected $6.4m in fines from IUU fishing, while the percentage of foreign vessels committing IUU infractions fell from 85% to 30%. Liberia also enacted a fisheries regulations act in 2010 and installed a satellite-based monitoring system. Sierra Leone’s sea monitors recently arrested over 14 industrial vessels. In 2015, Senegal enacted a fisheries code, focusing on communityled fisheries management. Some of the 12 participating fishing communities are reporting up to an 133% increase in returns. Fishermen in the Cape Verde fishing communities of Palmeira and Santa Maria have organised themselves to protect fishing zones. In southern Africa, Mozambique created and is protecting a conservation area, including a coastline. The FAO in 2009 framed the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) to stop pirate fishing. But it was not until 2016, after the US signed and inspired other countries to join, that the treaty became operational. The agreement makes fishing control easier by, among other measures, designating ports for use by foreign-flagged vessels. This is expected to contribute to stopping IUU. The efforts of ocean resources conservation advocacy groups, policy frameworks, the capacity building of coastal nations – spearheaded by international organisations such as the UN and the World Bank – and increasing awareness among countries and citizens of the consequences of IUU, could potentially slow, if not reverse, overfishing in Africa, experts say. Time will tell. NA august/september 2017 new african 33
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THE BLUE ECONOMY
Innovation is the key to our mar time security With its very long coastline fronting the Indian and Atlantic Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea, Africa has massive security issues with piracy as well as illegal fishing. How can the continent’s seas be secured in the most pragmatic, efficient and cost-effective manner? Eric Ichikowitz, Vice President of Paramount Group, argues that blanket approaches will not work. Instead, a hybrid mix using African innovation is the most affordable solution.
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frica’s maritime domain is vast, with far-ranging security challenges on an almost individual state basis. Arguing for a blanket solution to all maritime security issues is unrealistic, as it is simply not in the interest of every African country to address every maritime security issue. While policy frameworks such as the 2009 Djibouti Code of Conduct are useful in creating the legal highway for good practice, it is the ‘practice’ itself that needs careful attention. In this way, the Djibouti Code of Conduct runs into challenges. How useful is a treaty allowing for
intelligence sharing and cooperation where one country is focused on combating illegal fishing and the other is more concerned about piracy? To complicate matters, not all African militaries possess equally proficient intelligence-sharing technologies and expertise. Overcoming this issue is critical for African coastal nations. Using policy as an argument for maritime security solutions is akin to using a political sledgehammer where a specialised set of scalpels is required. And it is in this regard that African nations can do much in their own shipyards. Navies, ministries, and indeed fisheries all depend on a remarkably simple formula for maritime security: ships at sea, eyes on the water, and planes in the sky. It’s a simple list, but it is also an incredibly expensive one. Peeling back the policy and peering into the practices of navies and security forces in Africa, there is a worrying tendency to purchase foreign vessels and equipment that are not optimally suited for the exact requirements of the continent. Acquiring old Coast Guard vessels or creating a fleet from civilian vessels is all well and good, but often the tool does not mirror the security
SECURITY M AT TERS Eric Ichikowitz
threat posed. Acquiring obsolete frigates and similar class vessels in maritime regions where more sophisticated surveillance systems are required is a case in point. This is a critical factor, because the threats faced by littoral nations are often sophisticated ones. Illegal fishing vessels, for example, often deploy false AIS transponders aboard buoys to confuse radar tracking as to their whereabouts. A tracked vessel just outside territorial fishing waters could in fact be well within, illegally exploiting fishing grounds. This has long plagued large parts of Southern Africa, for example. On the piracy front, attackers often utilise radio networks and the cover of night to board targeted shipping, either to rob or kidnap the crew and vessel. For an aircraft or ship without adequate night surveillance equipment and training, the
Using policy as an argument for maritime security solutions is akin to using a political sledgehammer where a specialised set of scalpels is required.
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criminals may as well be invisible. If the problem is a lack of ships at sea, eyes on the water and planes in the sky, simply procuring more of the above in a hurried fashion is not enough to match the threat that is evolving in African oceans. There is little budget to execute the above well, even in larger naval services such as Nigeria or South Africa. When combined with the sizeable training and recruitment demands of fielding larger navies and putting massive vessels at sea, the impossibility of the task becomes apparent. Namibia’s newold vessel, the NS Elephant, requires roughly as many sailors to crew as are currently enlisted in the entire Namibian navy. It is here, then, that
the solution must and should rely on African shipbuilders. This is not to say an approach of duplicating obsolete and varied vessels should be pursued. Rather, an innovative blend of off-the-shelf (OTS) equipment and multi-role platforms that are designed and developed by Africans for African requirements could shift the asymmetry in the continent’s maritime security back in the states’ favour. Below: Crew members of Canadian helicopter Sea-King, from the HMCS Fredericton, at work during a security patrol also involving military vessels in a NATO-led anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden
Indigenous oceanmonitoring capability
For example, littoral nations from Tanzania down to South Africa, and indeed even in the West Africa maritime domain can create an indigenous ocean-monitoring
capability at a fraction of the cost of external navies. This is because unlike NATO and other large military groupings abroad, African states need not maintain a large conventional naval threat as a strategic deterrence from superpowers. Rather it can proceed with the business of securing its maritime resources from illegal fishing and piracy. This means unmanned long-range seaborne drones instead of far-reaching and costly airframes. It means locally-produced multi-role offshore patrol vessels instead of second or third-hand platforms imported from a foreign, and often much costlier, supplier. Light aircraft equipped with sensors rather than large airframes that cost too much to procure and even more to maintain. All the above is possible within Africa. Maritime Robotic Platforms (MRPs) are already performing valuable research in Africa, run and piloted by Africans. In the security context MRPs have already shown a capability in acting as a long-range ‘tripwire’, wherein several MRPs are laid in formation and used as a low-cost, long-range early warning system. Local shipbuilders already have a proven success record in creating durable and effective vessels to police local waters. And in terms of aviation, the alternative to expensive foreign maritime surveillance aircraft must be adapted locally. With a little creativity, this can be achieved cost-effectively. Will this approach provide a foolproof system of achieving good order at sea on the level of larger conventional navies? Almost certainly not. But it will achieve a level of parity in targeting illegal fishing and piracy that can yield significant improvements. A hybrid maritime security strategy using local innovation at a fraction of the cost is both a realistic and optimal objective for good African maritime security.
*The Djibouti Code of Conduct concerning the Repression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden was signed on 29 January 2009 by 20 African and Gulf states.
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There are uncomfortable parallels between the horrific fire that consumed London’s Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey block of social housing flats, and the poor state of urban Africa today. In both cases, state neglect and irresponsibility is to blame.
NATIVE INTELLIGENCE Kalundi Serumaga
Water and fire
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n old African-American hymn cautions that “God sent Noah the rainbow sign: ‘no more water, fire next time!’ ” The deaths of Africans drowned in the waters of the Mediterranean, and the deaths of those London residents in the horrific fire that consumed Grenfell Tower, a 24storey London tower block last month, can be traced to the same roots. Such events are simply the longer-term effects of neo-liberal economics, which began with deregulation and ended with austerity. We are now witnessing a structural failure of the system. Britain’s ordinary people have a long and continuous history of being mistreated by those in charge of their economic affairs. In fact, the emergence of whole countries – such as the former prison colony now called Australia – and even the Empire itself came partly out of a need to manage their heavily exploited domestic population. “If we want to avoid civil war, we must become imperialists.” wrote the energetic Empire-builder Cecil Rhodes. Even from thousands of miles away, anyone can see that the root cause of the fire becoming a disaster was the gradual with-
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drawal of supervisory oversight in the management of a physical environment whose technically complex human-made nature requires politically accountable professional monitoring. In short, no real governance was in place. The residents were left much to their own devices, and now many of them have died. This mean-spiritedness in governance comes from far back in the British governance culture. By the time they began massacring, displacing, plundering and hanging Native Americans, Africans and Asians, they were using methods long perfected on their own poor. The respective fates of all these
A local resident walks past flowers and messages left by well-wishers near the burned-out shell of the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, London
oppressed peoples took different paths for a while, as the historical weight of political demands for a better life, and the degree of poverty and squalor in British cities reached crisis levels that enabled the ordinary British person to wrest some concessions, such as free health care, decent and affordable social housing, and free quality education, from their governments, leading to the Welfare State. It is the huge rolling back of these provisions that has led to the Grenfell fire tragedy, whose deathtoll – stopped at 80 persons – seems to be getting a cover-up. It would be a little optimistic to think it will be the last major social disaster born of neglect, in any of those sectors.
Events such as the Grenfell fire are the longerterm result of liberal economics, which began with deregulation and ended with austerity.
This is where their story reconnects to modern African experience. The end of the 1949-1999 confrontation between the then Superpowers, the West and the Soviet Union, left the average African regime’s capacity to play aid-getting politics between the global big dogs massively curtailed. Aid now came with some very stringent and far-reaching conditions. Principal among these was shrinking the reach of the African state over the lives of its citizens as far as rudimentary welfare, health, education, and social amenity provision was concerned. In addition, economic protections, in the form of
cheaper state-backed credit, food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies were also scrapped. The population was left to its own devices. If it were not for significant differences in demographics, this fire too, could be a story on the African continent. Urban Africans on the whole have not yet begun to be crammed into massive tower blocks on the scale seen in the London tragedy. However, we do see numerous cases of attempts at high-rise architecture collapse on their occupants due to unregulated and therefore shoddy workmanship. In addition, many African communities still retain much more extensive and resilient social support networks rooted in their indigenous cultures which made them more able to weather the shrinking of state interventions in the first place, albeit while still staying poor on the whole. The British and African narratives meet up further through the fact that a significant number of the occupants of the burnt-out tower were first-generation immigrants, or their British-born children. A good number will be African in origin. Relief agencies report that up to two thousand migrants may have drowned in the Mediterranean in the first half of this year alone. What distinguishes the African migrants to Europe from those coming from the Middle East is that the Africans’ migration is driven by more directly economic pressures. Basically, the 30-odd years of World Bank/International Monetary Fund austerity on African soil, have created a growing mass exodus, where the continent’s youth are voting with their feet to opt out of African misery and head north to Europe. For now, the voyage for most of those who have successfully made the perilous trip across the sea ends on the European mainland. The politics that gave rise to Brexit, plus the waters of the English Channel, still deny them fuller access to Britain. But when they do finally manage to start pouring in across that water, will they find the warning to Noah has been heeded, or will they also be herded into high rise fire deathtraps? NA
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TALKING POINT The former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo (pictured below), has become perhaps one of the most easily recognisable figures in Africa and beyond as he dispenses words of wisdom from his vast experience in a multitude of fora. Charlie Mitchell interviewed him when was in London for the Africa Food Prize.
OBASANJO: God did not make Africa poor – that was done by man You are a long-standing advocate of African agriculture, as well as the Chair of the Africa Food Prize. How can the prize help address Africa’s agricultural challenges? People talk about poverty in Africa. God did not make Africa poor. The poverty in Africa is not God-created, it is human-made. We made Africa poor with our policies and how we execute them and how we deal with the market, the processing, and the storage of food. So the Africa Food Prize is designed to identify people, individuals, groups, organisations, institutions, civil society bodies and suchlike that make a contribution or are important in the whole agricultural value chain. We identify them, encourage them, and bring them out as role models to encourage agricultural production and food security; to stop Africa being a victim and to guarantee reliable, stable and predictable food for every African.
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Why did the green revolution fail to take off in Africa, despite decades of optimism that it would? Before the colonial era, Africa was a continent of food production. During the colonial period, Africa produced essentially agricultural commodities in exchange for manufactured goods. But we attained independence without really knowing the
mechanics of world trade, of the international community we were joining. In some cases, other commodities came in, like oil in Nigeria. In some cases, conflict came in. And in some cases we did not move with the changing technology or pay attention to improving seeds. So we started producing less food, less of the socalled cash crops, and the effect was that we found ourselves with our pants down, put it that way. In Nigeria, at independence in 1960, we did not even have a federal ministry of agriculture. How negligent we were! Then there are countries where the indigenes have been deprived of land, and there are many parts of Africa today where women, who are substantial participants in agricultural production, have no rights to land. These are some of the problems. Why should we, in many parts of Africa, depend on wheat, which we do not produce? Cassava is carbohydrate, yam is carbohydrate.
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When I was elected president, our production of cassava was 30m metric tonnes. By the time I left, in the space of eight years, our production had increased to 50m tonnes. It can be done. I’d like to move the conversation to Nigeria. Given President Muhammadu Buhari’s extended medical leave in London, what are your thoughts on the current state of leadership in Nigeria? My thought is that any human being can be ill, and since he didn’t bring the illness on himself, President Buhari being ill is not anything extraordinary. Our constitution takes care of that. If our president for one reason or another is absent or incapable of performing his role temporarily, the vice president stands in, and that’s what we have now. So I wish President Buhari a quick recovery, but I don’t think it should be a matter of great concern. Some Nigerians feel that the sickness of President Buhari has cast a shadow over the country, and with the sickness of the president comes, for example, the sickness of the economy. Do you agree? One of the responsibilities of the presidency is the management of the economy, but while the president directs it, he does not do it alone, he does it with his cabinet. I will say that the Nigerian economy is sick, not because President Buhari is sick, but because of two things: past mismanagement and the downturn in the price of oil. Those two problems have come together, and they are something that President Buhari and the present administration inherited. I think that most Nigerians you talk to would also say that the vice president, who is the acting president, is doing his best. President Buhari’s not being there
does not derail the economy. I would say that if it has any effect at all, it would be very minimal. On the matter of oil, are you confident that the construction of refineries by Aliko Dangote will bolster the economy? Dangote and people like him have become major drivers in the private sector, and of our economy, and thank God for them. It will have some impact, and I hope we will see Dangote also going into agriculture. We want people like Dangote, who are taking the bull by the horns, to invest in the economy, whether it is in construction or petroleum products or agriculture. I wish we could have more Aliko Dangotes. Following fresh waves of attacks by Boko Haram this month, what are your views on this persistent threat? Boko Haram is a menace that we have to deal with, but we must also understand how it came about, and let me give you just an indication. Let me take education. We have six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, three in the north, and three in the south. In the south-west, the education rate is over 80%; in the south-east, it is over 80%; in the north-east, where Boko Haram is rife, it is 25%. Now that speaks volumes, because education determines life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality, employment, wealth generation, even how you manage your agriculture. So that should be regarded as part of the cause of Boko Haram. Can we deal with it? Yes. I believe there are two ways of dealing with it: the carrot and the stick. And you cannot rely on the stick alone. So you must bring infrastructure development, economic development and social development into that area. You have to raise it up to the level of the other geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
How can you ensure good governance and reduce corruption in Nigeria? When I was growing up things were never this bad. In fact when I was growing up, if you were a corrupt man and the community knew it, you would be isolated. Today, if you are a corrupt man, and society knows it, you will be exalted. Every leader, no matter their walk of life, must be a fighter against corruption. But if some people are fighting corruption, and others are encouraging corruption, it is like opening the tap to fill your bath, and also opening the plughole. You will never fill it. President Buhari received criticism recently for delivering his celebratory Eid al-Fitr message in Hausa, rather than English. Given the diversity of ethnicities and religions in Nigeria, how can the country be unified, moving forward? I think it is the responsibility of the leader. We all have many identities but I will raise my identity as a Nigerian higher than all the other identities. I am proud of being a Yoruba man, but if all that I am is a Yoruba man, I am diminished. I think in Nigeria people are increasingly seeing that it is not where a leader comes from that matters, it is what a leader can do for the country. If a leader is doing well for Nigeria, he will be doing good for the Yoruba, the HausaFulani, the Igbo. But if he decides that he only wants to do good for his tribe, he has failed before he begins. Unity is when people trust and believe in their leader. They don’t worry if he is Igbo, or Yoruba, or Muslim, or Christian; he is a Nigerian leader who will be even-handed and who will give to every Nigerian what he or she deserves. NA
“Dangote and people like him have become major drivers in the private sector, major drivers of our economy, and thank God for them. I wish we could have more Aliko Dangotes.” august/september 2017 new african 39
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Hidden Africa TUNISIA
Tom Sykes continues his journeys exploring Africa’s hidden treasures. This time he visits Tunisia and enjoys the marvellous cuisine of this ancient African country before delving into its rich historical legacy.
Tunisia
Delightful food and brimming history The tastes of Tunisia
When most people think of North African and Middle Eastern food, they think of Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and Israel. It’s a pity that Tunisian cuisine isn’t better known because its flavours, ingredients and cooking methods really make it stand out from the competition. The signature dishes are also gloriously healthy, given their dependence on fresh and scrumptious local herbs, fruit and vegetables.
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As every foodie knows, where you eat is as important as what you eat. The roof terrace restaurant of the 5-star Dar El Marsa hotel in Tunis offers both heart-stopping panoramas of the gleaming Mediterranean Sea and a mouthwatering plethora of traditional delicacies. A constant is harissa, an energising pâté of cumin, garlic, olive oil and desiccated chilli peppers that has a full-bodied, almost red wine-like tang. Harissa
The Al-Zaytuna mosque in Tunis
and crusty French dipping bread are often served at the start of a meal. Chic Tunisians make their way to high-end restaurants like the classically Islamic Palais Bayram, once the palatial home of the Hanafi Mufti. Derived from the Arabic word for ‘drink’, chorba is a hearty soup brought to you first so that you may quench your thirst after a long day of abstention. Chorba’s subtle flavour comes from a fine balance
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of sharp, overt tastes afforded by tomatoes and lemon juice and more earthy ingredients such as barley grains and dourade (sea bream). Normally you’ll then be served another uniquely Tunisian dish, brik, a delightfully dainty pancake with a crispy exterior and a velvety inside of melted cheese, tuna and runny egg. Next up in the giddying procession of appetisers is tajine – though of the Tunisian rather than Moroccan type. Reminiscent of Spanish omelette, tajine is a baked preparation of egg and stewed meat finessed with mint, olive oil and parsley. At this point there’s usually a course of rousingly zesty salads, amongst them salata tounsia – lemon and oil-drenched egg, tuna, onion, tomato and cucumber – and salata mechouia, comprising a chilled bed of mashed peppers, garlic and onion. If you still have room after all that, arguably the best main courses in the country can be sampled at the boutique hotel of Dar Ben Gacem, yet another renovated jewel of Muslim architecture, sited amid the cramped yet atmospheric streets of the old Medina of Tunis. Flawlessly fluffy couscous (dried,
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First-class ingredients help Tunisian cuisine to stand out. Above: A market vendor with his dates; red peppers, used in harissa, hung out to dry; fresh fish for sale in a Tunis market
steamed durum wheat) and supple chicken cooked in a liberal dollop of rosemary has at once a curiously English country feel – like a pasty from a village bakery – and an exotic undergirding of paprika and chilli that kicks in on the aftertaste. If you think sausages are the preserve of pork-eating cultures, think again: ojja merguez is a curry of piquant chunks of ground beef or lamb and a stirring sauce consisting of many of the herbs and vegetables aforementioned. Locally-sourced calamari and generously-sized prawns are sautéed till tender and jazzed up with the singular tabel spice mélange (caraway seed, coriander seed, chilli powder and garlic powder). Some say that the best part of a Tunisian meal is dessert. At Dar El Marsa’s buffet you’ll gorge on regional fruit from figs to pomegranates, baklawa (syrupy, buttery pastries), assidat zgougou (a honey and semolina mousse) and a mind-blowing array of rose water-blended and pistachio-topped yoghurts. As a fellow diner at Palais Bayram joked to me: “If you can travel to Tunisia that’s one thing, but whether you’ll be too fat to travel home is another!”
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Hidden Africa TUNISIA
The cultural marvels of Antique Carthage More than 2,000 years ago, an army from North Africa came close to conquering Rome, one of the greatest empires ever known. Hannibal, the military leader of the Carthaginian civilisation, led 60-100,000 troops and a company of elephants across modern-day Spain and France, over the Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges, and deep into what we know today know as Italy. Hannibal went on to win three decisive battles against the Romans and occupy much of the land around the city of Rome for 15 years. Nowadays Carthage is an upmarket suburb of Tunis, the comely and laidback capital of Tunisia, but many ancient buildings and monuments from the civilisation’s heyday remain intact. After Hannibal’s death in 181-183 BC, Carthage’s fortunes flipped when it was colonised by the Romans after the Third Punic War. Perhaps the most dazzling legacy of that period is the gargantuan Antonine Baths complex, which was originally supplied with water from the Zaghouan Mountains by an aqueduct built by the emperor Hadrian. Amongst the surviving highlights are an elegant granite structure inscribed with a dedication to Hadrian and two immense columns that, at sunrise
and sunset, look spectacular against the backdrop of the cobalt Gulf of Tunis and the misty peaks beyond. You need spend only a minute in these beautiful baths to understand why they have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Two kilometres south along the coast is the Punic Sanctuary on Rue Hannibal which contains hundreds of rectangular steles – some of them dating back to the 4th century AD – with simple, hieroglyphic-like designs commemorating children who were sacrificed to the pantheon of Carthaginian gods. To the west of the sanctuary is a wide open space, within which are three large plinths where statues of the most puissant gods used to stand. It is before these statues that the sacrifices would take place. Despite this site’s dark past, visitors can’t help but be seduced by the quiet, tranquil, green surrounds and the gorgeous perfumed whiffs of oleander, eucalyptus and bougainvillea plants. As if the steles of the sanctuary weren’t arresting enough as significant artefacts with much to tell us about the rich cultural history of Tunisia, the Bardo National Museum over in the city centre boasts probably the largest collection of Roman mosaics in the world. They are in unbelievably good
Below: The Antonine Baths in Carthage
condition, although the dubious decision to allow visitors to walk across some of them may reduce their life expectancy somewhat. The mosaics, many of them ceiling-tall, show classic scenes from Roman mythology such as Hercules performing his twelve labours and a trident-wielding Neptune holding court over his oceanic subjects. The Bardo also has various treasures from the Byzantine Christian period including a sarcophagus fragment with a frieze of the Good Shepherd on it. A magnificent goblet-shaped ornament features a marble carving of a wild procession led by Dionysus, the charismatic Roman god of wine, pleasure, fertility and religious fervour. One of the oldest items on show is an alabaster funeral urn from the 7th century BC, remarkable for its hardiness and simplicity of design. It is a shame that, since the terror incidents in 2015, fewer tourists have been coming to enjoy Carthage’s attractions. However, I found out that the security situation has improved immeasurably. We can now but hope that more and more people will travel here to see the old-world culture that has been so essential to the shaping of the modern world, whether we are talking Europe, Africa or the Middle East. NA
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PEOPLE With education reformers calling for more girls to take up sciences, there is no greater rolemodel to inspire them than the first-ever female President of Mauritius, Dr Ameenah GuribFakim. reGina Jane Jere spoke to her in Ghana where she was presented with the CePAT 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to public health in Africa and globally.
More girls should take up science
H
er CV is perhaps one of the finest and rarest in Africa. Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim (pictured right), elected as the President of Mauritius in 2014, is one of Africa’s most educated and respected heads of state; and as commander-in-chief and guardian of the country’s constitution, exerts major influence presiding over one of the continent’s most stable nations. The unassuming mother of two has also achieved many other firsts, including being the first female dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Mauritius. In 2007, she received the prestigious ‘L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award’ for her research on the exploration and analysis of plants from Mauritius and their bio-medical applications. She later created the first full inventory of medicinal and aromatic plants found in Mauritius and the neighbouring island of Rodrigues. Her analysis of the antibacterial and antifungal properties of plants from Mauritius is paving the way for their use as safe and effective alternatives to commercial medicines. Dr Gurib-Fakim has authored and co-edited over 28 books, journals and research papers on biodiversity conservation and sustainable development and has won multiple further awards. That alone should inspire a generation of future African women scientists.
“There aren’t enough women and girls taking up the sciences; the Women in Science Exchange will help girls to go into the field.” And inspire is what she did as keynote speaker and Lifetime Achievement awardee at the Centre for Pharmaceutical Advancement and Training (CePAT) Honours, held in Accra, Ghana, earlier this year. Supported by the US Pharmacopeial Convention, CePAT also used the occasion to launch its first-ever Women in Science Exchange (WISE). This programme aims at helping female students enter science and pharmaceutical career paths, particularly in drug regulation and manufacturing. “There aren’t enough women and girls taking up the sciences; the
WISE programme is such a great initiative and will help in building the confidence of young women and girls to go into the field… we need to see more girls in the sciences,” she told New African. She based the theme of her keynote speech, ‘Traditional Medicines: The need for standards and their role in advancing Africa’s economy’, on an area close to her heart and work. “I have spent a significant part of my professional life teaching, advocating and championing initiatives to modernise our traditional medicines’ manufacture and use. As scientists and researchers, it beholds us to ensure the quality and safety of our traditional medicines for the benefit of mankind.” Here are some of the highlights of what she shared with us:
Women in leadership positions, or the lack of
“It is work in progress and it may take time. But things are happening; here I am as a woman President. But, I have been advocating that we need to have better representation and there is a need to fix what we are all talking about – leaky pipe syndrome – which loses a lot of women in the pipeline, instead of bringing them along into systems and institutions. “But the onus is also on all Africans. People have to start asking the right questions.
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Politicians, leaders, policymakers in normal democracies, are all accountable to the people. But, and I am sorry for saying this brutally, we get the government that we deserve. The one we vote in. It’s your vote.”
Science and medicine for Africans
“We need to focus not just on having women biochemists, but on medicine for Africans. Because of our pharmacogenetics profile, there is a great need to have more and more genetics from Africa on which we can actually test the drugs, so we can make them more appropriate for Africans, because genetics and genes matter in medicine.”
Quality, counterfeit and sub-standard medicines in Africa
“The quality of everything, in every sense of the word, knows no gender. And this is what we all need to push for, be it in medicine, food, education, agriculture – in everything that we do in all sectors. We cannot compromise on quality. “This is the message that we need to spread across our continent. And to get to the required degree of excellence and quality, we need to empower our youth, more so our girls, with the right tools and education that will take them to the highest levels.
A geneticist and a biology intern at work in the main lab of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Otjiwarongo, Namibia. Educational issues on the continent need to be addressed to increase the number of women in the sciences
“On the issue of counterfeit and sub-standard medicines, it is also down to the responsibility of the consumer – they need to ask the right questions, and ensure the medicine they are buying conforms with appropriate standards; that way we bring all the actors on board to make a difference.”
Girls in science
“Increasingly on the continent, women and girls are not being encouraged to do the sciences, and this is for many reasons. For example, if you look at the [teaching] textbooks, there is a lot of stereotyping in the way that the sciences are being taught to girls. If you look at the infrastructures in
schools, they don’t really cater for girls to stay. “These issues need to be looked at. We need more mentoring, more advocacy. We need to take the girls by the hand and make them believe that they can do anything. Building their confidence from a young age, telling them the sky is the limit, will lead to more in the sciences.”
Foreign aid, and the state of Africa
“Donors have been very generous to Africa, they have given us seed money to start projects. But 50 years post-independence, our education systems have been geared
towards producing managers of the systems – civil servants. Our system was not geared to train innovators and scientists. “We have had to change the systems, and those countries that have had to invest in human capital, in an ecosystem that researchers and those in the diaspora can come and work in, are the ones leading. “A lot can be said about some countries in the world that are not resource-rich and yet are giants today. There are also those countries which 50 years ago had the same per capita average as African countries, but they are giants today. So we could ask the question: What has made the difference? And the answer is leadership, vision, investment in human capital and, accountability. “It’s only when we have fully trained human capital that are able to ask the right questions and demand answers that we will be able to advance our own agenda. “Our own agenda is to be able to deal with the issue of energy, to have a better extractive industry which works for the people and the continent, to have a great agricultural sector that addresses the issue of food security, water and other basics. Any country needs to be energy-independent and sufficient, any country needs to be able to feed its people. The African agenda will only succeed with us. “I always acknowledge that donors have been very generous with their contributions, but we have to address African needs with African talent and we need to produce African knowledge. We can no longer be pacifists, we need to be activists.”
The brain drain
“If we only focus on individuals to halt the brain drain in Africa, then we have a problem. We need to focus on institutions. Institutions that deliver meritocracy. Like has been said before, you need to be defined by your competence and not by your birth. “This is the type of mindset change that Africa needs to develop if we are to resolve the problem, or we’ll still be having this discussion 10 to 15 years from now.” NA
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s s e r t s e h t y a w a g n i l l Ro
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Focus MOZAMBIQUE
the stress of life, of having to always think about how they’re going to survive and support their families.” He says that if he “lived his stereotype” he’d be consumed by crime by now. Instead, he was lucky to benefit from both informal and formal education and is now working for an IT company. Despite having what he sees as a privileged position, he still feels the stress of ‘what’s next?’ as his job is insecure. Sildo, a 13-year-old from Maxaquene, a neighbourhood outside the gridded downtown bubble, has recently won first place in a skating competition. He describes how the most important thing about skating is the psychological ease that it brings: “It’s something that comes from within. When I’m angry it chills me out. When I’m hungry it chills me out.” This is why Isard Pindula and Simba Sitoi are committed to developing skateboarding and urban culture in their city, not just as a fun hobby but as an informal education tool that can support the well-being of disenfranchised young people. Isard has been key in developing a skateboarding scene that is more accessible to a wide range of young people. In 2015 the Association of Mozambican Skateboarding was supported by the German charity, Skate Aid to build ramps and rails on a basketball court in the city centre. This is seen as the first skate park in Mozambique. Recently, Isard succeeded in raising money through crowd funding to build a concrete floor and rails in Maxaquene, for young people on the outskirts of the city to learn to skate. He believes that skating builds up confidence, resilience, and imparts principles that stay with you; in particular, “the falling down, getting up, do it again attitude builds in young people an attitude that they can overcome anything”. Simba Sitoi is a key figure in promoting skateboarding and urban culture more generally in the city. Much like Isard, he sees the development of the ‘not giving
skateboarding. Amor a Camisola also organises free workshops to introduce young people to a whole range of urban-culture activities, including skateboarding, street arts, dance, and poetry. Besides the benefits to mental wellbeing and life skills it brings, both Isard and Teotonio see skateboarding and urban culture as a small solution to youth unemployment, because of the potential they bring in the form of new markets, be it in clothing, equipment, events, or media. Teotonio has already developed a clothing brand named after his skate group: ‘monkey xxx’.
Growing the movement
“If the ghetto kids are skating, it keeps them away from the stress of life, of always thinking about how they’re going to survive.” - Joel up attitude’ as one of the most important principles: “Giving up on learning a trick is not in the equation for these kids, and if they carry it for their life, that’s pretty cool.” Simba is the director of ‘Amor a Camisola’ festival which literally translates as ‘love for the hoodie’, but in essence stands for ‘love for the game’. The hoodie symbolises a union between the different types of urban culture, be it skating, street basketball, or hip hop. He was inspired by the ‘Back to the City’ festival in Johannesburg, which is now Africa’s largest celebra-tion of urban culture. “We also want to bring in the thing about informal education – teaching young people without them knowing they’re being taught.” He sees a huge value in the day-to-day conversations that take place in a community that comes together with the shared interest of
Top: Joel showing off his skills at the Maputo skate park, in part created by the Association of Mozambican Skateboarding. Above (l to r): Tony, Claudio, Yuran, Deejay and Joel
Both Isard and Simba emphasise the need for them to assert themselves spatially and culturally. The Association of Mozambican Skateboarding had an ambitious project to build a fit-for-purpose skate park with a half-pipe and bowl. The funding was available but after a long journey of knocking on many doors, access to land was denied. Simba is slightly more optimistic and talks of lessons in learning the language of the decision makers in order to get what you need. He also points to the need to develop the identity of Maputo’s urban culture. He recalls when he was young, the irony of him and his friends copying a culture brought over by American hip hop groups who themselves had taken inspiration from Africa: “It’s like when we do it it’s not cool. When others do it it’s cool – and then we imitate them because it’s cool, but it’s not really what it was in the first place.” Although the skateboarding and urban culture scene in Maputo is in its embryonic stages, the further potential it offers as a resilience tool for the growing youth population is significant. Skating provides well-being, confidence, and skills to a population of frustrated young people who are facing little or no opportunities in life. If projects like these continue to grow, perhaps in the future the war cry ‘a cidade é nossa’ won’t be chanted in vain. NA
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Pres. Magufuli, punish the perpetrators, not victims
I
f there were ever a silver bullet for eradicating poverty, then educating women and girls would be it. Every extra year of secondary school increases a woman’s future earnings by around 15%. Imagine what that means for a country like Tanzania, eager to develop and keen to become a leading economy in Africa. That cycle of poverty gets closer to becoming a cycle of prosperity with every extra girl who’s educated. However, despite being a man seemingly dedicated to the task of improving the quality of life of his citizens, Tanzanian President John Magufuli recently warned schoolgirls – “After getting pregnant, you are done.” In June, at a public rally in Chalinze town – about 100km west of Dar es Salaam – Magufuli said that young mothers would not only be distracted if they were allowed back in school but would also “promote loose morals” in the school setting. “In my administration, as long as I am president ... no pregnant student will be allowed to return to school. We cannot allow this immoral behaviour to permeate our primary and secondary schools ... never. After calculating a few mathematical [sums] she’d be asking the teacher
in the classroom ‘let me go out and breastfeed my crying baby’... After getting pregnant, you are done!” His comments are based on a 1961 law that allows state schools in Tanzania to ban young mothers from attending. A second law passed in 2002 allows for the expulsion of pregnant schoolgirls for “offences against morality...and wedlock.” According to a 2013 report by the Centre for Reproductive Rights, over 55,000 pregnant Tanzanian schoolgirls have been expelled from school in the past decade. His recent comments directly contradict a promise set out in his party’s (CCM) 2015 election manifesto, which pledged to allow pregnant schoolgirls to continue with their studies – a promise which gained him popularity with the Tanzanian youth. It was Magufuli himself who last year was the first to crack down on school fees, making state schools completely free while also limiting the fees of private schools. Petrider Paul, a Tanzanian Campaigner for the Voice Out Against Gender–Based Violence Initiative, said that the ban “came as a surprise to many who consider President John Pombe Magufuli to be an ideal role model to Africa and Tanzania” and
SPE A K ERS’ CORNER Brennan Baylis
that the CCM’s popularity is at risk in the upcoming 2020 elections “considering the fact that the President has shown to defy and not prioritise human rights issues, especially those related to girls and women.” A coalition of human and women’s rights groups has strongly condemned his comments as both unconstitutional and a violation of international human rights conventions. The hashtag #StopMagufuli trended for weeks, while #ArudiShule (which means ‘she should go back to school’) gained a lot of popularity amongst tweeting Tanzanian youths, who were angry and confused about how preventing pregnant girls from returning to school would help end teen pregnancy. An online petition opposing the ban has gained almost 4,000 signatures.
8,000 pregnancyrelated expulsions
According to a Human Rights Watch report, at least 8,000 Tanzanian girls drop out of school every year due to pregnancy. Some wealthier families are able to send daughters that get pregnant to private schools once they are expelled from state
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schools, but the majority of girls affected do not return to education. This is where poverty becomes cyclical. The more impoverished a girl is, the more susceptible she is to child marriage or getting pregnant when young. And once she becomes pregnant and is kicked out of school, she is not financially able to continue in a private setting, ultimately landing her in low-paid work. Quality education – in particular secondary education – is what lifts families and communities out of poverty and increases a country’s economic growth. Right now, about 5.1m children aged 7-17 are out of school in Tanzania – for many children, education ends after primary school. Three
A woman walks past a billboard after President Magafuli’s electoral victory in 2015. His U-turn on allowing pregnant schoolgirls to return to school since then has dismayed many, who have pointed out the flaws in his thinking and the benefits of women’s education to the nation
out of five Tanzanian adolescents are enrolled in lower-secondary education, and even fewer actually complete it – many due to early pregnancies. What Magufuli has done for Tanzania cannot be ignored. He has worked tirelessly to root out corruption within both the government and the private sector, has cut back on superfluous spending by government officials, even cancelling expensive Independence Day celebrations in favour of a day cleaning the streets instead. Magufuli has shown that he will not tolerate corruption, laziness, or excessive bureaucracy. And both the Tanzanian economy and public are thriving in return. His strength as a leader is obvious, but he is showing weakness in this situation.
Unfinished issues
It is not enough to extend free secondary education to your citizens. One must deal with the repercussions. Repercussions like poor infrastructure – Magufuli’s abolition of school fees has left gaps in school budgets, which affect the purchase of learning materials, and the hiring of additional teachers. There are issues of protecting rural girls by accommodating them in hostels close to secondary schools, something the government planned but has not carried out. But more important than those unfinished issues are the issues of morality, law, and institutionalised sexism. Rather than blaming and punishing pregnant schoolgirls, it is more appropriate to tackle the causes – many of which have to do with sexual harassment and exploitation. A Human Rights Report notes that Tanzanian girls face sexual harassment by teachers and abuse by bus drivers and adults who ask them for sex in exchange for money or rides to school. The international legal organisation Equality Now points to neighbouring countries that have successfully introduced re-entry policies for young mothers. In Zanzibar for example, since 2010 girls have been allowed back into school after giving birth as a strategy for reduc-
ing the number of dropouts – and there is no evidence of an increase in student pregnancies as a result. Pregnant schoolgirls are not corrupting the morals of other children. Perpetrators of sexual violence and forced child marriages are the people constructive policy must engage with. In his same speech last month, Magufuli mentioned that men who impregnate schoolgirls should be imprisoned for 30 years and “put the energy they used to impregnate the girl into farming in jail.” In this he recognises the problem. But he must go one step further and actually enforce laws that prevent older men from taking advantage of young girls. The direction of blame must shift. Magufuli has made significant strides for free and fair education in Tanzania, but now he must round out his policy. Institutionalised sexism only becomes a barrier to effective prevention and prosecution. Improving infrastructure to create a gender-sensitive educational environment, providing sex education, and better training to teachers of both sexes – not entangling morality and sexuality with blame – is what will grow Tanzania into an even more incredible country. Preventing pregnant schoolgirls from returning to school is not only a violation of international human rights conventions, but also incredibly detrimental to the future of Tanzania. If all women had primary education, there would be 15% fewer child deaths, saving 900,000 lives per year. If they all had secondary education, there would be 49% fewer child deaths (saving 2.8m), 64% fewer early marriages, and 59% fewer young pregnancies. Magufuli has already demonstrated his care for his citizens, and for free education in general. Banning schoolgirls not only feels like backtracking on his former promises, but also an unproductive and morally wrong way of viewing the situation. Perpetrators of sexual violence and coercion are who we should be pointing our fingers at, not these schoolgirls. Give them education and they will thrive. Allow them to thrive, and everyone benefits. Even you, President Magufuli. NA
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Mo Farah, the ‘skinny little kid’ from Somalia who arrived in Britain when he was eight, will bow out of athletics at the end of the World Championships in August. Over this time, he has won the hearts of the British and sports lovers around the world like no other British sportsman – and kept Africa’s star shining brightly on many fronts.
LET TER FROM LONDON Clayton Goodwin
Mo – don’t go
T
here were tears as well as cheers when Mo Farah stormed down the finishing straight to win the 3,000 metres at the Müller Anniversary Games, part of the prestigious Diamond League, at the Olympic Park Stadium, Stratford in early July. The crowd, basking in the neartropical temperature, knew they were witnessing their hero’s last performance in London before he winds up his track career in the IAAF World Athletics Championships at the same arena at the beginning of August. Has there been a more successful British athlete, or one that has been as popular? Not in my recollection. His record speaks for itself. The achievements are so well-known that there is no need to repeat them. Well, if you insist: competing regularly at both 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres, Mo has won gold medals at the Olympic Games four times, the World Championships five times (plus one silver), the European Championships five times, the European Indoor Championships twice, and the European Cross-county Championships and the European Team Championships once each. As the 5,000 metres usually requires preliminary qualifying heats
as well as the final, that is a whole lot of running – let alone all the other races and training in between. The great Kenenisa Bekele is the only other man to have achieved the double of winning both long-distance gold medals at successive Olympics and World Championships. Mo’s life is an inspiration. He was barely able to speak English when he came to the UK as a child and has gone on to become a Knight of the Realm. For the record, he was born Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah on 23 March, 1983 in Mogadishu, Somalia. Mo spent his early years in Djibouti and moved to London at eight years of age to join his father. There he grew up in the Hounslow district of West London. As with most young boys, Farah’s initial ambition was to become a footballer, but his athletics talent was spotted by physical education teacher Alan Watkinson, who steered him in the direction of the track.
Special place in British hearts
The adoring British public have taken Farah to their hearts as they have no other athlete – even though for training purposes he has resided at Oregon, US. Everyone in the crowd at events – and athletics appeals
more than any other major sport to a family audience – and the even greater number of television viewers, feels that he is “one of us” (whatever that “us” may be). Will any rival dare to upset the seemingly pre-ordained script and deprive him of another crowning achievement in the World Championships on the track where he is undefeated and twice struck gold in 2012? The man himself is confident that he will make history yet again. “I love running here,” commented Farah, somewhat superfluously. “It is home to me and I cannot wait for the championships. The preparation is going well. I am ticking all the boxes.” Mo Farah has conquered as much by his character, and his personable demeanour, as he has with his unparalleled performance and his rise from the ranks of the under-privileged. It is impossible not to like him. Admittedly that ‘Mobot’ celebration gesture did look a bit silly but, I gather, it was thought up in a television studio. With Mo there has been none of the arrogance, the petulance or the hint of sleaze that has hung around other stellar athletes. Stories about Farah rarely
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travel from the sports to the news/ scandal pages. Some journalists have tried to pin on him a suspicion of drugs: that, though, is a rite of passage for all successful sportsmen. Even if they did come up with something, nobody would believe it. Mo is respected as a family man, often being seen with his wife Tania and his children Rhianna, Aisha, Amani and Hussain at his moments of triumph. Similarly, the athlete’s Muslim religion and culture are accepted without comment as being integral to his being. Coincidentally, at the same time that Farah was winning the 3,000 metres at the Müller Anniversary Games, across London, cricketer Moeen Ali, another exceptionally
Mo Farah winning the men’s 3,000 metres during the Müller Anniversary Games at the Olympic Park Stadium in Stratford, London in early July
popular player, was bowling England to victory over South Africa at Lord’s. That was a potent riposte to those in politics and the press who seek to divide Muslims from the national community on an “us and them” basis. There is no paradox in being an immigrant (or son of immigrants), a Muslim and a revered British icon: Mo Farah and Moeen Ali have shown that. Farah’s athletics repertoire has not been limited to the disciplines in which he has achieved distinction. He has run almost every distance, from 1,500 metres to the marathon. Now that he is about to bow out from the track, Mo will not be lost to us altogether as he intends to continue road-running (including, naturally, the marathon). Yet it is for the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres that he will be remembered – and sorely missed. The public had affectionately dubbed him “Sir Mo” long before the Queen did so officially.
Twilight of the gods
All around at Stratford, people were wearing T-shirts and costume, and carrying flags and bags, bearing the name and emblems of their country. The very distinctive yellow, black and green of Jamaica was predominant by quite a margin. These fans, too, were mindful that Usain Bolt, while absent on this occasion, is also due to take his leave of big-time athletics at the World Championships. He is perhaps the only athlete who could be compared to Muhammad Ali in physical size, personality, international appeal and nearinvincibility. I remember seeing Berlin’s streets, the underground railway system and the route to the stadium awash with those banners, and thronged by happy, cheering Jamaicans, including a good few who had adopted the nationality for the occasion, when Bolt dominated the World Championships there in 2009. It used to be the same for the West Indies cricketers in their prime: today things there are done differently. The taxi-driver from the station could talk of nothing but … have you seen Bolt, have you met him, how many gold medals will he win? The waitress at the hotel
pointed me out to other guests as having been in the same arena as the great man himself (yes, and so had thousands of other people). But as one sun sets, another is rising. His Jamaican compatriot, Elaine Thompson, is unbeaten in the 100 metres this year and is already a sprint double Olympic Games champion. Here she was hard pushed by Dafne Shippers, and it is asking for trouble to predict in advance of the World Championships, but the 25-year-old Jamaican, who does not – yet – quite exude the studied glamour and flamboyance of some of her rivals, has got the job done – and has done it very well. Is it to be “Goodbye Usain – Hello Elaine”? There is sadness too. We could be witnessing the Twilight of the Gods. As the athletes who have made this a Golden Age for Britain, and London the unofficial world track and field capital, since the very successful Olympic Games five years ago, are coming to the end of their careers, commentators have noticed that the cupboard is beginning to look quite bare. The standard of the country’s recent national championships was unusually low. Since the promise of the last decade, money – much of it lottery money – has been poured into athletics and the action has been rewarded with medals and yet more medals (and then more money). Has too much been invested in the star performers and too little in building for the future? When the medals dry up, will the investment be reduced, and with it the opportunities for future success? There is every reason to appreciate these World Championships as being the potential finale for an exceptional generation. Then all that will be left may be the memories. There never will be another one like Farah. NA Mo, please don’t go!
Mo Farah’s final track appearances in the World Championships were scheduled as: 10,000 metres on Friday 4 August – the first evening of the meeting; 5,000 metres on Saturday 12 August. He will also run one more time in the UK at the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on 19 August.
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EVENTS
Egypt’s Aly El-Shafei is the winner of this year’s Africa Innovation Prize. The award ceremony was held in Accra, Ghana in July. Entries for the $100,000 award came from 52 countries across Africa. NA’s Tom Collins was there.
Egyptian El-Shafei wins $100,000 innovation prize
T
his year’s annual Africa Innovation Prize (AIP) garnered the biggest return in terms of number of entries since the award was first set up in 2010. Coming from some of the continent’s most imaginative innovators, the entries spanned 52 countries and marked a ten-fold increase since the award was first instituted. The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) was set up by Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais – a Swiss-Angolan entrepreneur behind numerous businesses including Quantum Global Group and Banco Kwanza Invest, Angola’s first investment bank – in order to encourage informal innovators to bring their designs to the fore, and this year marks the seventh Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA), held for the first time in Accra, Ghana. Each year 10 nominees are shortlisted and given the opportunity to showcase their innovations and compete for $100,000 prize money. The ‘innovation ecosystem’ as Jean-Claude calls it, has been slowly growing in Africa, and this year the IPA welcomed inaugural pitches from the DRC, Liberia and Zimbabwe. By giving young innovators the platform to scale up their ideas, Jean-Claude hopes the innovative spirit will spread in Africa and that home-grown technology will be taken seriously. “The vision that drives us is that we want to shape and create
prosperity through African innovation potential,” he said. “The prize has one core goal – we wanted to create the innovative spirit. When I started I was told I was crazy, there was no innovation in Africa – we’ve now been able to prove this is not the case.” Accra certainly felt like a city hosting an Africa ready for substantial innovative change as the event was packed full of young entrepreneurs, keen to make their first breakthrough. Innovations ranged from healthcare to communications, all the way through to security. The winner of the $100,000 prize, Egyptian Aly El-Shafei has invented a smart bearing – the Smart Electro-Mechanical Actuator Journal Integrated Bearing – to increase efficiency in energygenerating turbines by up to 10%. The implications are enormous for power-nascent-emergingmarkets and Aly is hoping to take his bearings to a global stage – thereby reversing Africa’s image as a technology consumer to becoming a technology producer.
Support from governments needed
Indeed, a running dialogue throughout the IPA 2017 ceremony was how to diversify Africa’s import-heavy economy and how to bring added value to products being exported. Herman Kojo Chinery-Hesse, a hugely successful African innovator, said: “The old formula of exporting
goods and raw materials needs to be disrupted.” In its place he argued for an Africa which innovates goods on a basis of African needs, backed by a business-friendly and supportive public and private space. “Buy local. That changes everything,” he urged. At this, a member of the audience stood up and levelled criticism at Ghanaian government officials for wearing Western-made clothing and driving imported cars, when a made-inGhana car, the Katanka, was a perfectly decent automobile. Old habits die hard but there is significant cause for celebration in Ghana in terms of innovation. The new president, Nana Akufo-Addo, gave a detailed talk at the event, outlining how he is going to boost the Ghanaian economy and why innovation is central to these plans. A policy move enthusiastically applauded by Jean-Claude was Addo’s decision to dedicate 1% of Ghanaian GDP to innovation. The programme will be run by Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation. Government participation is greatly needed and has been lacking. Africa, in general, needs to publicly support its innovative potential and understand its importance in generating a dynamic economy. To put it in perspective, last year China and the US filed for around 50,000 patents each, whereas in the same period Kenya filed for only 11. Yofi Grant, CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion
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Centre (GIPC), argued that the government needs to be more proactive in helping innovators get patented and in pointing young entrepreneurs in the right direction for investment. Peris Bosire, a nominee and cofounder of Farm Drive, a Kenyan fintech company that has developed a mobile phone application to collect data and provide an alternative risk assessment model for smallholder farms, said: “There is a lot of room for governments to help. Most entrepreneurs need funding or access to basic resources, like office space, which doesn’t come easy when you’re starting out.
The prizewinners at the awards ceremony for this year’s Africa Innovation Prize: centre, the overall winner, Egyptian El-Shafei; and left, Dougbeh-Chris Nyan, winner of the ‘Social Impact’ prize
“The Africa Innovation Prize has one goal – we wanted to create the innovative spirit. We’ve proved there is innovation in Africa.” - AIF founder Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais I think the government can play a role in creating co-share spaces where innovators can access these resources as they start before they make the revenue to be able to pay the expense.” In this sense the AIF can help inspire governments into recognising the importance
of innovation and it can also operate as a platform between the public sphere and the young entrepreneurial class. Dougbeh-Chris Nyan, Liberian winner of the $25,000 ‘Social Impact’ prize for his invention of a rapid test that can detect and simultaneously differentiate at least three to seven infections within 10 to 40 minutes, said: “The AIF has been helping to guide us, in how we approach the market situation, how we approach investors, how we approach the government – making us available to the continent we serve and ultimately the whole world.”
Power to slum innovators
However, Jean-Claude was very clear about his advice for young investors. “I believe in the tight market,” he said, “constantly innovating more on the product rather than doing something and trying to protect it.” For him, young innovators should not let intellectual property rights stand in the way of the process of creating and innovating; they should innovate first and seek structural legitimisation later. Nor should young innovators
see government approval as their starting point; rather, JeanClaude sees them more as an aid to innovators than a beginning: “The main job of the government is to give a base infrastructure, to give spaces where people can go. It should give equipment and machinery for design and development.” In one of his latest projects, the Soap Factory in Angola, Jean-Claude has provided the blueprint for what this ‘base infrastructure’ is and hopes the model can be replicated by African governments. The Soap Factory is a creative space in a slum outside Luanda. It offers a variety of services to young, slum-born innovators. These services include; an incubator hub for advising start-ups, an accelerator hub to discuss financing and networking, a maker space which provides tools and equipment to create prototypes and a coworking space to ensure cultural collaboration. He believes that by harnessing the power of slum innovators, of Africa’s informal architects who create on a needs basis, the continent can effectively find African solutions to African problems and it can head towards an “innovation-led industrialised continent that the world will look up to”. This vision is one that is shared by many in Africa, and the AIF through its annual IPA has paved the way for its realisation. While much has been said about Africa’s growing youth dividend, very little has been said about exactly how the huge numbers will benefit Africa. Initiatives like the IPA and the Soap Factory give concrete modelled solutions which if expanded continent-wide, would help spread the seeds of innovation and definitively break the shackles of aid-dependent-single-resource economies. To all the young innovators, Jean-Claude’s advice was: “Continue to act like a child, be consistent in your idea, don’t abandon them, show your emotion, be creative, involve others, share, and most importantly, have fun.” NA
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Universities in Africa should stop using outdated foreign models designed for a different time and different place as their benchmarks. What Africa needs is a system that produces graduates who can immediately transfer academic knowledge to the real world and create jobs, rather than useless ‘trophy certificate’ holders.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER Fred Swaniker
Education with a purpose
I
n the last two decades, university rankings have gained prominence as a standard for benchmarking the quality of universities across the world. These rankings measure the performance of universities based on key factors needed in the production of graduates, scientific knowledge or technology – whether they involve financial, human, social or even reputational capital. Building a ranking system on such premises encourages universities to focus their energies on ‘input’ factors such as financing, the number of professors, the research facilities, the number of books in an institution’s library, the number of research publications, and so on. Within this system, there are gaping methodological problems. The most obvious is the false premise that the amount of resources expended on education is a good indicator of the quality of graduates. These problems beg the question of what purpose university rankings serve. What Africa needs is a ranking system that measures universities relative to their success in achieving Africa’s own goals, not one that aims to replicate institutions that were built for a different context and different time. This has important implications.
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Graduation at the African Leadership Academy, co-founded by our columnist. The ALA, for 16 to 19-year-olds, develops the next generation of African leaders. In a new higher education model, universities themselves should incorporate leadership training in their programmes, to produce graduates who will influence Africa’s development
First and foremost, ranking systems must have a purpose. We must rank universities against their ‘outputs’, not their inputs. Of all the output measurements that Africa needs at this moment, the most important is a university’s ability to impart skills that growing African economies need now and in the future. Ranking frameworks should track the percentage of a given university’s graduates who find jobs, the number of entrepreneurs the university creates, and how many jobs those entrepreneurs generate. They should assess the efficacy of skills transferral to graduates, and not only academic ‘credits’ (which are based on the number of hours students spend in class versus what they are actually learning in class). Africa’s advantage is that its higher education system provides a relatively clean slate to innovate
Africa’s advantage is that its higher education system provides a relatively clean slate to innovate an entirely new model. an entirely new model of higher education, unlike old Western universities that are set in their ways. This is the exciting possibility that a rigorous and relevant ranking system presents. The aspirational framework of an African learning system must aim at re-orienting education from abstract learning to targeted skillsbased learning. To demonstrate true mastery of concepts, for example, engineering graduates should be required to show a portfolio of applied projects versus simply a high score on a final exam. Critical thinking skills should be demonstrated through solving real-world problems and not by a graduate’s ability to recall facts and figures. Good university programmes should integrate entrepreneurship and leadership training in their curriculum, so that they produce
graduates who have the soft-skills to play an impactful role in Africa’s economic transformation, and who come out not as job-seekers but as job creators. Eventually, aligning education to the demands of the market requires that we measure how successfully universities fuse the lecture hall with the world of work. Learning should allow students to immediately apply their lessons in real world scenarios so that they understand how ideas work in practice.
Learning how to learn
Any framework that ranks universities presupposes a pedagogic context. We live in a brave new world of dynamic economies that demands constant changes in our ways of working, in the skills set required to perform particular jobs and in the creation and acquisition of new skills. Many jobs that existed 10 years ago are extinct today, just as many jobs that exist today will not exist in 10 years’ time. In order to keep pace with such a dynamic environment, it is critical that education becomes less concerned with the acquisition of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but for a purpose. The quality of a good graduate is therefore not only the skills they come out of university with, but their ability to learn new skills. In other words, the fundamental purpose of a university should shift from ‘learning facts and figures’ to ‘learning how to learn’. What is necessary is a pedagogical shift from the outdated, traditional ‘just-in-case’ learning to a more dynamic ‘just-in-time’ mode of education. ‘Just-in-time’ learning implies life-long learning of new skills in response to changing market needs. The shift means that, learning is not constrained within the limits of a four-year degree, but rather it is a pursuit that never stops. University moves from being a one-shot game to an experience that people rotate in and out of for the rest of their life, between periods of full-time work. Finally, a more relevant ranking system for African universities must encourage a new pedagogy oriented
towards addressing Africa’s unique challenges involving urbanisation, unemployment, education, infrastructure development, healthcare, governance and climate change. It should orient students to capture Africa’s unique opportunities in areas such as agriculture, natural resource management, arts and design, and tourism. With such ‘learning for a purpose’, students will be challenged to define a ‘mission’ for their life, and not simply to declare an academic ‘major’ from a set menu, as is the case today. For instance, if a student’s mission is to develop a solution for affordable urban housing in Maputo, her learning could be a personalised, self-designed inter-disciplinary study of urban planning, sociology, transportation, architecture, civil engineering, sanitation, water, and even how technology can be used to create smart cities. The point is to define a new set of standards for Africa, which will measure and guide progress towards an elevated pedagogy aimed at producing innovative, conscientious and employable citizens who are well equipped to solve Africa’s unique challenges and to catalyzing economic transformation. Too often, as Africans, we seek validation from the rest of the world. We lack the confidence to define our own standards. The existing global university ranking systems mimic university models created for an era that is very different from what we see today. By aspiring to so-called global standards, we risk limiting our progress in Africa. We have the opportunity to leapfrog and build the universities of the future in Africa. Our lack of legacy systems frees us from the tyranny of outmoded measures of quality and outdated methods of pedagogy. We have an unusual chance to set a new standard that the world will follow instead. When it comes to university education, it is time for African nations to be bold, have confidence in ourselves, and adopt ‘new practice’, not blindly copy so-called global ‘best NA practice’.
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AROUND AFRIC A DRC
Joseph Kabila’s strategy of glissement, or ‘slippage’ has worked and there will be no elections in DRC this year. In the meantime, while the opposition is becoming more vocal and there are violent uprisings, the challenge to Kabila has become fractured. The question is, will he keep his word not to stand in the next election or will he once again glide out of it? Tom Collins reports.
KABILA TO STAY PUT
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ttempts at overcoming the DRC’s simmering political crisis are all but dead and buried now as President Joseph Kabila (pictured, right) has declared that 2017 elections will not be possible, thereby contradicting a deal he signed last New Year’s Eve that said the opposite. Corneille Nangaa, head of the Electoral Commission, announced that due to logistical and budgetary complications arising from badly updated registration records, with a possible 7 million young voters not included, holding an election this year is not achievable. Kabila’s opponents, however, see the move as a continuation of what is fast becoming known as glissement or ‘slippage’, where he finds excuses to cling to power, all the while mobilising and entrenching his patrimonial structures. Ida Sawyer, Central Africa Director at Human Rights Watch, said: “We’ve seen one excuse after another for why elections haven’t been able to be organised yet.” Similarly, Félix Tshisekedi, newly appointed leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) opposition party, did not mince his words when he said it was: “A declaration of war on the Congolese people.”
Kabila flip-flops
Kabila was constitutionally obliged to step down in December 2016 but clung to office by citing electoral roll issues, arguing the election
community in a country which has never seen a peaceful transition of power. However, a darkening cloud quickly appeared on the horizon as Kabila then backtracked and stated there would be no such election. In a rare interview with German publication Der Spiegel, Kabila did not deny the possibility of a third term and gave no concrete idea of when or if the next election will come.
Divided opposition
“The debate about who would become prime minister was felt to be a mere distraction from really pushing for elections to happen and Kabila not showing any real will to step down.” would come; just not yet. Following widespread violence, particularly in Goma and Lubumbashi, Kabila was pushed into a 31 December deal mediated by the Catholic Church, which stipulated that elections were to be held by the end of 2017 and that he would not run himself or try and change the constitution. This agreement was widely lauded by the international
Opposition to Kabila ranges from political parties to violent separatist insurgencies on the ground. No consensus has been built and Kabila has – at times – cleverly exploited the space remaining. A major crack emerged in the largest opposition party, the UDPS, following the death of its fabled leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, earlier this year. Tshisekedi had co-founded the party in 1982 and it was the first organised opposition movement against Mobotu Sese Seko. His son, Félix Tshisekedi, has now taken command, but in a country blighted by ruling families, many see this move as improper and it is causing the party to splinter. Some believe that the lack of a strong opposition ultimately led Kabila and his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) to ignore the December agreement, seeing no need for compromise. Moreover, Kabila has overtly
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exploited the fractures by naming a previously high-profile UDPS deserter, Bruno Tshibala, as prime minister in early April. The former deputy secretary general of the UDPS fell out with his party over the appointment of Félix Tshisekedi as leader, and consequently went to work under Kabila. Incorporating opposition rebels into Kabila’s fold is a move that has worked well for Kabila as it delegitimises the opposition party as well as exposing their fissures and weaknesses. Ida Sawyer of Human Rights Watch said: “Many people in the population are increasingly disenchanted by their political leaders, including the opposition, as they feel that most of them are only interested in their personal position and getting posts. The debate about who would become prime minister was also felt to be a mere distraction from focussing on really pushing for elections to happen and Kabila [not] showing any real will to step down.” The only real group left with the weight to oppose Kabila democratically, is the Catholic Church of DRC, which was instrumental in brokering the New Year’s Eve deal in 2016. However, now that arrangement has been broken, they seem to be at the end of their tether and have recently called on the Congolese to stand up and take their destiny into their own hands, squarely putting the blame for the county’s failures on the continual delay of elections. Many hope for the return of Moïse Katumbi, one-time governor of the mineral-rich Katanga Province and a popular opposition figure, who was forced into exile in 2016, accused of hiring foreign mercenaries to overthrow Kabila. The Economist named Katumbi the second most powerful man in the DRC, and like a fireman rushing back into a burning building, he is expected, at some point, to return and provide real opposition to Kabila.
Rebel groups
Over 5,000 people have escaped from prison in recent months and Kinshasa is embroiled in longstanding rebellions in both the
Saywer said: “We have seen increasing frustration with the political, security and economic crises. There is a lot of frustration, anger and unemployed youth so it’s possible that armed groups and militias could gain more and more support and influence. “We are likely to see more demonstrations and protests, and unfortunately Congo security forces have brutally repressed these gatherings in the past, so there is a possibility we will see more violence in the coming weeks and months.”
Kasai and Bas-Congo regions. In Kasai Province, the death of a local chief known as Kwamina Nsapu or ‘Black Ant’ at the hands of security forces in 2016 has sparked violence, reportedly killing more than 3,300 people and displacing hundreds of thousands. The rebellion is now known as the Kwamina Nsapu rebellion and encompasses a militia made up of mainly Luba people from the region. According to the United Nations, the government has responded by creating its own militia known as the Bana Mura, which has wreaked havoc in the
region. Mass graves are alleged to have been identified and discussions about investigations are ongoing. In the Bas-Congo region, a selfstyled prophet named Ne Muanda Nsemi, has been leading a separatist movement called the Bundu dia Kongo (BDK). This is much smaller than Kwamina Nsapu and pushes the ideological goal of returning to an ancient African kingdom: the Kingdom of Kongo (see New African, June 2017). Violence has intensified between supporters and police in the regional Bas-Congo capital of Matadi since 2008, and Ne Muanda Nsemi was sprung from a Kinshasa jail earlier this year. Commenting on the groups,
Overcoming the impasse
There have been many protests over Kabila remaining in power. In the ‘dead cities’ strike action of October 2016, demonstrators showed Kabila the ‘yellow card’ over his plans to stay on beyond his mandated term
With Kabila looking increasingly likely to run again, and a large amount of vocal and often violent opposition, it is very likely that the impasse imposed on DRC through glissement will not last. One way or the other, power will either be cemented, or there will be change. In terms of a transition of power, Kabila has, broadly, three possible moves ahead of him. The first is to not concede power at all. Based on his recent backtracking in respect of the December agreement, this seems the most likely. Changing Article 220 of the Congolese constitution would alter the length of the presidential mandate and allow Kabila to run for a third term; much like East African neighbours Paul Kagame, Yoweri Museveni and Pierre Nkurunziza. The next option would involve seeking the continuation of the Kabila administration, through giving power to someone in the family, and holding an election. The last possibility is naming a non-related successor from within the PPRD, and holding an election. This would undoubtedly please international observers and to some extent the local opposition, but care would have to be taken so as not to create a power vacuum. Naming a successor, however, seems unlikely as he has made no public intimations of such an intent, and has always kept quiet on the subject, leading many to feel sceptical about his commitment to there being any election at all. NA
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AROUND AFRICA ZIMBABWE
The joy of a bumper harvest in Zimbabwe is being erased by a severe cash shortage at the banks, making life unbearable for millions of people, who spend hours and days queuing to withdraw their own money. Baffour Ankomah reports from Harare.
SWEET AND SOUR
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he tenacity of Zimbabwe as a nation and Zimbabweans as a people is now being sorely tested as the country goes through a sweet and sour experience where the joy of a bumper harvest in the 2016-17 farming season is being cancelled out by a severe cash shortage that is making life difficult for millions of people, even as presidential and parliamentary elections loom on the horizon. For the first time in many years, Zimbabwe had a good harvest in the 2016-17 agricultural season, thanks to good rains and a government “Targeted Command Agriculture” programme said to be the brainchild of First Lady, Grace Mugabe. Introduced in July last
year, this grain import substitution programme was put under the supervision of Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Under the programme, more than 2,000 farmers whose farms were near water bodies, who were capable of dedicating at least 200 hectares to maize, were targeted by the government with loans in the form of irrigation and mechanised equipment, inputs and chemicals, and electricity and water payments. Each farmer was to produce at least 1,000 tonnes of maize and commit to selling five tonnes per hectare to state-owned buying agencies as a repayment of the loan given them by the government. The remainder of the produce could
A tractor bringing back farm hands from the fields in Mvurwi, 91km from Harare. This season’s agricultural success has spurred hopes of doing even better in the 2017-18 season
be kept for the farmer’s personal use. The whole $192m programme was funded by private money from a local oil company, Sakunda Holdings, that put its faith in the hard work of Zimbabwean farmers and in a government that wanted to attain food self-sufficiency and replenish its strategic grain reserve. As fate would have it, the heavens opened, the rains came down in generous quantities, and the programme became a great success. The final production figures are yet to be released but are expected to total more than the 2m tonnes the government envisaged. As a result, the government will not import
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maize (Zimbabwe’s staple food) this year. There were also bumper harvests in tobacco, cotton, and soya beans. Wheat (which is now in the fields) is likely to go the same way. Also thanks to a Presidential Input Support Scheme by which, every year, President Robert Mugabe gives free agricultural inputs and assistance to disadvantaged smallholders, the yield of small farmers increased exponentially in the 2016-17 season. As expected, this season’s success has spurred an even greater desire to do better in the 2017-18 agricultural season, which begins in November. Already the government has secured $487m, via Sakunda Holdings and other private sector partners (including Barclays Bank, CBZ Bank, and Ecobank) to put into the second year of the Command Agriculture programme. This time, instead of the 172,000 hectares planted last year, the government is targeting 350,000 hectares, made up of 290,000 hectares of maize and 60,000 hectares of soya beans. Of the $487m, a good $153m will be put into the Presidential Input Support Scheme for smallholders. Delivery of inputs (70% of which is locally sourced) started on 1 July and will continue until the end of September, by which time all beneficiary farmers would have been covered. The government is also providing tractors on a district-by-district basis to plough smallholder fields as an incentive to farmers to grow more. A parallel programme for livestock is also underway. All of a sudden, the optimism in agriculture is back, and the talk now is of big yields next year, in a country that had seen maize production collapsing to 700,000 tonnes a year for the past several seasons. As Zimbabwe’s economy is based on agriculture, the increased agricultural production is expected to positively affect industry and other sectors.
The cash crisis
However, the joy of the bumper harvest is being threatened by a serious cash crisis where, since
early 2016, the banks in Zimbabwe have routinely run out of US dollars and thus have not been able to meet the demands of their customers. The government tried to stem the tide late last year by introducing ‘bond notes’, a quasi currency backed by an Afreximbank $200m facility, but to no avail. Though pegged one to one with the US dollar, the Bond notes have not been the saviour they were thought to be. Therefore, the second quarter of 2017 has seen a serious deterioration of the cash crisis, to the point where people spend hours and days in winding queues at the banks only to get, sometimes, $20, $50, and at the most $100, or on bad days nothing at all. Zimbabwe introduced a multicurrency regime in February 2009 after an implosion of the economy in the early 2000s saw the local currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, decimated by hyperinflation. The trauma of those days has left a severe psychological scar on the psyche of Zimbabweans, so much so that they do not want to see their own local currency. As such, the US dollar has been the main medium of exchange in the country for the past eight years. Unfortunately, the use of the US dollar as Zimbabwe’s ‘local currency’ is not sustainable, as every dollar in the system has to come from the sale abroad of the country’s minerals, goods, and services. Therefore, if the government or the private sector is not able to sell enough minerals and goods abroad in any one month, it affects the stock of US dollars available locally, thus leading to shortages at the banks. The government has tried to encourage the use of plastic cards, but though there has been some success, some retailers and service providers refuse to accept cards and insist on cash only. Unluckily, because Zimbabwe decided to use the US dollar as its local currency without permission from Washington DC, there is not much Harare can do other than soldier on unilaterally and hope –
just hope – that a lasting solution can be found soon. But time is the enemy as the nation moves closer to elections in the first half of 2018. President Mugabe, now 93, is still the official candidate of the ruling Zanu-PF party, but speculation is rife that he might step aside for Vice President Mnangagwa to assume his mantle. Mnangagwa has worked closely and continuously with the president for the past 55 years, before and after independence. However, a survey published in early May 2017 by Afrobarometer (the pan-African non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, and related issues in more than 35 African countries), showed that 64% of Zimbabwean adults still trust Mugabe ‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot’, while 36% distrust opposition parties. The survey showed that “there is more trust in the President in rural areas (69%) than urban centres (55%).” In late July however, his wife, Dr Grace Mugabe, threw a spanner in the works and did the unthinkable by publicly asking her husband to name a successor that the ruling Zanu-PF party could rally behind. The First Lady made the request at a Zanu-PF Women’s League meeting at the party’s headquarters in the capital, Harare, where TV cameras were rolling. “His word will be final, mark my words; his word will be final. Let him name a successor and see how much I, and all of us, will rally behind him.” At the time of going to press, Mugabe had not commented on this astonishing development. Does this imply that he will, after all, not contest the elections? The opposition has been trying to form a united front for months, but differences in opinion between the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (who has been recovering from cancer of the colon) and Joyce Mujuru (Mugabe’s former vicepresident, who was sacked from Zanu-PF in 2014), have not helped the opposition cause. NA august/september 2017 New African 61
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AROUND AFRICA UGANDA
Uganda has become Africa’s largest sanctuary for refugees fleeing political violence in neighbouring states and its internationally lauded generous policies aim to integrate these refugees into local communities. But the system is under severe strain through a lack of funding from international donors. Epajjar Ojulu reports from Kampala.
LACK OF FUNDS THREATENS ‘BEST IN THE WORLD’ REFUGEE PROGRAMME
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he continuing conflict in South Sudan and eastern DR Congo, and the political uncertainty in Burundi and Somalia, have triggered an unprecedented influx of refugees into Uganda. The East African nation is now the number one host of refugees in Africa. According to Rocco Nuri, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Public Affairs Officer in Uganda, an average of 2,000 South Sudanese enter the country daily. He says there are currently 1.3m refugees in Uganda. Of that number nearly 1m are from South Sudan, 220,000 from DR Congo, 44,000 from Burundi and 41,000 from Somalia. Other refugees are from Kenya, Pakistan, Eritrea and Tanzania. An international conference to galvanise support for refugees – co-chaired by the UN SecretaryGeneral, António Guterres and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni – took place in Kampala in June. The UN and 57 other donor agencies working in northern Uganda sought $1.4bn to help Uganda cope with the refugee influx into the country. The Ugandan government, on the other hand, presented a plea for $2bn per year, or $8bn for four years to finance its refugee programmes. Only 18% of the amount needed for the current year has been pledged, says Nuri.
Urgent funding is needed to safeguard Uganda’s refugee policy, lauded as one of the best in the world. It gives refugees most of the rights enjoyed by its citizens.
Exporting internal wrangling This policy is, however, being stymied by the animosity between South Sudanese Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups, who have extended their conflict to the refugee camps. A refugee official who declined to be named told New African that there have been physical clashes between the two ethnic groups in the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in Moyo district. Officials have now created separate villages for each group to avoid further clashes. Despite the strain on Uganda’s resources, President Yoweri Museveni says his government will continue to back its liberal policy on refugees, saying they can be harnessed to become a significant
South Sudanese refugees queuing for water and food at a settlement in Adjumani District in northern Uganda
force in the country’s economic development. Refugees in Uganda live in settlements, alongside local communities, rather than in camps, as is the case elsewhere. Under the Uganda Settlement Transformative Agenda refugee policy, refugees receive plots of land on which they build homes and grow food. The policy aims at making refugees less dependent on handouts. This policy has registered success in refugee settlements in the western part of the country, which has for long hosted Rwandan and Burundian refugees. Since they live side by side with locals, the policy encourages their long-term assimilation into local communities. However, the lack of funding pledged by international donors could scupper the programme. Nuri says UNHCR urgently needs $500m to provide household items, food, water, shelter, education, livelihood support and psychological assistance to all the refugees in the country this year. At the moment only 10% of that amount has been provided. In Moyo district, home to over 200,000 South Sudanese refugees, about 40% of the population is comprised of refugees. With a continuing influx, the number of refugees may soon equal or outnumber that of the local residents, a district official predicts, further illustrating the scale of the ongoing funding needs. NA
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AROUND AFRICA GHANA
The horrific lynching of a Ghanaian army captain, mistaken for a robber by a an irate mob, has brought into sharp focus the increasing incidents of ‘mob justice’, often meted out on the flimsiest of excuses. This rising trend of public recklessness, writes Femi Akomolafe, reflects the tide of corruption now marring Africa’s most mature democracy.
MURDER OF ARMY CAPTAIN LINKED TO LOSS OF SOCIAL VALUES
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aptain (posthumously promoted to Major) Maxwell Adam Mahama of Ghana’s 5th Infantry Battalion, who commanded a detachment of soldiers at DenkyiraObuasi in the Central region, was deployed for duties in the Upper Wassa Forest Reserve, to guard against illegal mining, or ‘galamsey’, said to be rampant in the area. One morning in May, he went for a dawn jog along a road in town when it is alleged that a woman spotting his service pistol, mistook him for an armed robber. She alerted local people who quickly formed themselves into a mob and attacked him. The young captain, a father of two, was stoned to death and his body set on fire. In the aftermath, soldiers incensed by the killing of Major Mahama demanded that military police should take over the investigation. A high-powered fact-finding team, led by the Chief of Army Staff, was dispatched to the area. Col. Aggrey Quarshie, Ghana Armed Forces’ Director of Public Relations, was quick to allay fears about reprisals: “We are not going to expect that they [troops] will go and attack the community,” he said. “We will leave the security agencies that are responsible for investigating such things to do their work and we hope that all the culprits will be picked up and brought to book.” As it turned out, the murdered soldier was a cousin of former
President John Mahama, who spent Father’s Day with the bereaved family. Former President Jerry John Rawlings released a statement where he advised the security agencies to inspire confidence in the populace by acting swiftly when crimes are committed, to avert such acts by civilians in future. Ghanaians were outraged and shamed as videos of the horrific killing went viral on social media. The government scurried to douse the anger. The captain was posthumously promoted to major. A foundation was set up in his name and the government announced that it would erect a statue of him in the town where he met his death. Horrifying as it was, the major’s death is not an isolated case. In fact, lynching and mob action occur in the country with alarming regularity. Just a day before the death of the soldier, a 67-year-old widow, Yenboka Kenna, mother
Barbara Mahama, widow of the late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama, lays a wreath during the state funeral ceremony
of four, was accused of witchcraft at Pelungu market in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region. She had finished praying in church and gone to a market shed where she plaited hair for a living. An irate mob lynched and killed her. A few months before this incident, the nation was shocked to learn that a young woman was stripped naked and abused by a mob in Kumasi. She was allegedly caught attempting to steal from a shop in the PZ area in Adum, Kumasi, an allegation later found to be false. A few years ago, in the port city of Tema, a 72-year-old grandmother, Ama Hemmah, was tortured and burned to death by a mob after a pastor pronounced her a ‘witch’. Elderly Ghanaians scratch their heads and wonder how and when things went awry for their once proud, decent and disciplined land. Manifestations of a lack of respect for the law abound, including on the roads, where traffic rules are seen as mere suggestions, leading to maximum chaos. There is little doubt that corruption plays a big role in the degeneration of values. Corruption is pervasive and there is little to suggest that fighting it is a real government priority. The feeling among many Ghanaians is that if the high and mighty can break laws with impunity, why should they have to toe the line when their needs are more urgent. NA
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AR0UND AFRICA ANGOLA
President José Eduardo dos Santos will not be contesting the national elections in August and for the first time in 37 years, the country will have a new head of state. Will this signal a real change in the country or will it be business as usual by other means? Tom Collins reports.
PLUS ÇA CHANGE…?
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or 37 years President José Eduardo dos Santos has ruled Angola, overseeing an end to the civil war, an African Cup of Nations and an oil boom. On the streets of Angola, his face is everywhere – on billboards, on money and on ID cards – but on 23 August, the ballot boxes are open and he is finally due to step down. It is widely held that João Lourenço, Defence Minister for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), will take his place. In the last legislative elections of 2012 the MPLA took 71.84% of the vote and the main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), is again polling low. With the MPLA fortress set to remain in place, does Lourenço signify change for the country?
Who is Lourenço?
Lourenço has presented problems for analysts; on the one hand he comes down hard on corruption, but on the other, he has a military background and maintains strong ties with many from the barracks. Born in Benguela, he worked his way through the army ranks and became a general, at which time he entered politics, starting as the MPLA leader in parliament and then becoming the defence minister. He is a political moderate and is thought to have been chosen by Dos Santos due to his ability to bridge divides within the MPLA ruling clique. He has campaigned
to end corruption and to improve the health and agricultural sectors. Whether or not Lourenço symbolises any credible change from a predecessor who has muted all opposition, all depends on whether the ceding of Dos Santos’ power is notional or actual. While it is likely that Dos Santos will continue to exert a degree of influence, factors including his wilful retraction from office and a party seemingly growing tired of their former leader, suggest it may be waning. Dos Santos’ has made his son the head of Angola’s sovereign wealth fund, and his daughter the chief executive of Sonangol, the allpowerful state oil company. Indeed, some have argued that he has spent the last few years positioning his family and attempting to spread his power base, perhaps fearing the loss of his own. The potential loss of power could be explained by his ailing health (he has been to Barcelona many times for healthcare), he could be making a choice, or he could
João Lourenço, the MPLA’s candidate in the presidential elections, on the campaign trail in March
be being turfed out. Dos Santos has certainly angered many in the MPLA by his recent moves to appoint family members to high positions. For now, Dos Santos and Lourenço may be the picture of unity, but with Lourenço’s tough stance on corruption, it remains to be seen for how long. If Dos Santos does take a back seat, Lourenço will start to take precedence and change, in whatever shape or form, will likely come. The other argument, of course, is that nothing will change and that this transition of power is merely theatrics, that Dos Santos will continue to pull strings through his grip on the most powerful institution in Angola – oil. Regardless of the power makeup, the Lourenço-Dos Santos nexus looks set to rule and the next administration faces a number of pressing issues. Firstly, there is a growing political crisis in the north, as instability in the DRC is throwing hundreds of thousands of Congolese refugees into Angola’s Luanda Province, souring relations between Luanda and Kinshasa. Secondly, an economic crisis caused by the collapse in the price of crude oil continues to blight the country, demonstrated by Emirates’ recent decision to scale back its flights to Luanda, citing trapped Angolan currency due to the government’s depleting foreign reserves. Lastly, Luanda is under pressure from numerous rebel and separatist groups, notably in the Cabinda and Lunda Norte regions. NA
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Arts ARCHITECTURE
Each year, London’s most popular contemporary art gallery, the Serpentine, located in the city’s Kensington Gardens, invites a leading global artist to create their first structure in the capital, dubbed the Pavilion, which becomes a major visitor attraction during the summer. This year, the unique honour was bestowed on an Afrian architect – Burkina Faso’s Francis Kéré. Story by Juliet Highet.
Burkinabé architect
KÉRÉ’S
unique vision celebrated in London
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iébédo Francis Kéré’s marvellous Serpentine Pavilion has ‘landed’ like a glorious African spaceship on the manicured lawns of London’s Kensington Gardens. Kéré (right), who heads a Berlinbased practice, Kéré Architecture, is the 17th international architect to accept the invitation of the Serpentine Gallery to create a temporary Pavilion in its grounds. The concept of this annual commission is for a leading global architect to create his or her first structure in London. Each Pavilion, which is in place for about four months, is a leading visitor attraction during London’s summer season. The Pavilion, which opened in June, has attracted rave reviews in the national newspapers and on television shows. It has become a ‘must visit’ site for the capital’s millions of visitors as well as locals. Kéré says: ‘I have an overwhelming feeling of honour, what with the long list of respected architects who have designed the Pavilion in the past; and also because London is one of the most important cities for design. “I am fascinated by how the artificial landscape of this grand park offers a new way for people in the city to experience nature. In Burkina Faso, I am accustomed to being confronted with climate and natural landscape as a harsh reality.” Kéré has created a Pavilion that aims to connect visitors to nature, and to each other. A soaring wooden roof, supported by a delicate central steel framework, references the canopy of a great tree and its trunk, and allows air to circulate freely during the sometimes hot, humid English summer, and provides shelter from the alternating rain. When the heavens do open, an oculus funnels water to create a spectacular waterfall effect, before it is drained away for use irrigating the park. The Pavilion has four entry points into its central courtyard, where visitors can perch on wooden stools, and ideally share with each other the striking and unusual beauty of the building. “My architecture is intended
The beginning
“My architecture is intended to serve human beings, but also to involve them with nature, which is always a leitmotif for me. So I used the tree as an inspiration for the Pavilion.” - Francis Kéré
Left: Kéré is the 17th international architect to build a Pavilion in the grounds of the Serpentine Gallery, London. At night, his ‘spaceship’ structure looks like it’s going to take off, with its twinkling lights
to serve human beings, but also to involve them with nature, which is always a leitmotif for me. In my home town in Burkina Faso, during the heat of midday, everyone gathers under a huge, shady tree and converses with each other. So I used the tree as an inspiration for the Pavilion. “I am interested in exploring new ways of using materials, especially those that are local to the site. We chose to use wood for the Serpentine Pavilion, not only because it’s sustainable, economical and locally available, but also, by adjusting the angle of the cut wood [for the ceiling spokes], we added depth and shadows.” By day, the effect is lyrical – pools of dappled shadows inside, which move when a cloud passes overhead. “Light is fundamental, it shows the presence of energy, and that presence is carefully studied. This is how architecture becomes dynamic,” he says. At night the Pavilion ‘spaceship’ looks like it’s going to take off, emitting twinkling lights. The walls of the Pavilion, which are perforated to provide ventilation, are painted indigo blue. “This colour is important in my culture. For an important date, both young men and women have to wear indigo blue – it’s the colour of celebration,” Kéré explains.
Kéré was born in the hot dusty town of Gando in Burkina Faso. He was the eldest son of the town’s chief. He left home at seven years old to attend primary school far away, leaving his family, friends and close-knit community. When he asked his mother why, she told him that: “The community is contributing to your education. One day you’ll come back and contribute to the health and wellbeing of our people.” Which is exactly what has happened. Then Kéré won a scholarship to study carpentry in Germany in 1985. “What a great privilege – to move from Burkina Faso, to escape my environment and to enter another, where everything seemed possible.” There he received additional training in architecture, and while still a student, kick-started his own architectural practice, as well as a non-profit organisation called School in Gando Association, laying the foundation for creating an educational infrastructure there. “I thought to myself – what to do with this privilege I’ve had? I dreamt of making things better for my community. When I attended school in Burkina Faso, it was dark and hot inside. I have the distinct memory of struggling to focus in my classroom. There were only a few small windows, and my class was overcrowded. “I started to think then about how the school could be built differently and better.” And so began the extraordinary career of architect Diébédo Francis Kéré. In a sense, this memory was one of the inspirations for him to build the Gando School, which was completed in 2001. In 2004 he won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for its outstanding design and in recognition of his role as a significant practitioner of socially engaged contemporary architecture. Very few architects have ever managed to lay the groundwork for such lasting international success with their very first work. What also makes him unique is that he was still studying. The associated prize money was very important
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Arts ARCHITECTURE
to fulfilling Kéré’s dream of having the opportunity to provide lasting benefits to his family and community, not only through monetary contributions – the usual way – but also by building structures for his people. “I asked myself how to build in Burkina Faso with its colonial legacy? To start with, I chose to build with clay bricks rather than concrete.” The school’s reddish earth colouring fits organically into its natural surroundings, and its raised roof structural form, which Kéré consistently uses, makes spirituality as well as functionality an architectural statement. With his commitment to human values and reaction to local conditions and needs, he mobilised the local Gando population into construction – training unskilled people, so that many of them became top-notch craftspeople. He linked traditional building methods with new resource-saving technologies, and in essence, handed his people the chance for an education and the opportunity to better their lives with successive structures.
Giving back to the community
Burkina Faso is a poor country financially, with a very low average income and high rate of illiteracy. However, following the social context of strong family ties that exist in so many parts of rural Africa, it’s expected that any family member who makes good in professional and financial ways, should do his or her duty by helping out relatives. For Kéré, with an enhanced sense of social awareness, this included both his community and his family – as well going further than his home town, since the Gando School now teaches about 700 students. Using his prize money from the Aga Khan Award (and later awards as well), Kéré’s horizon broadened and in 2013 the Women’s Centre opened in Gando. The aim of the building is to improve the living situation of the 300-plus women of the region.
In rural areas of Africa, women bear most of the burden of underdevelopment and poverty. While the men leave for work, the women and children remain in the villages and are often responsible for the farming. The concept of the Women’s Centre was to work with the Soontaba Cooperative, founded by women in 1999 to create an educational facility, meeting place and much more in Gando. The women were directly commissioned by Francis Kéré to build their centre in 2010. The Women’s Centre comprises two spaces which are physically separated. The rectangular area is used for a classroom, a meeting room, an office, a kitchen and sanitary facilities, while the curved area is used for agricultural storage, for crops to later be sold in the market. Part of this building, the curved area, is modelled on the traditional round huts used for storage. Kéré’s ambition was to encourage the women to install large clay pots within the building structure to store crops. The pots are raised high above the ground to protect them against water damage and termites. Since fewer crops now spoil due to this expert storage method, the Soontaba is experiencing an increase in profits. Ventilation slots at ground level provide fresh air. The local women were so inspired by Kéré’s initial concept that they made the clay pots, and also constructed the walls and floors of the building. Francis Kéré’s creations seem endless, particularly in Burkina Faso. In 2014, a Surgical Clinic and Health Centre was built; then came a secondary school in Koudougou, the Lycée Schorge, as well as the Noomdo Orphanage there, completed in 2016. Many other local projects have been completed. The latest commission, and most prestigious, is the new Parliament House in Ougadougou – still a work in progress. Further commissions in various African countries are being handled by Kéré’s Berlin-based company. These include projects in Mali (of
“The role of the architect is to bring society forward, to motivate people. Architecture can be inspiring for communities, enabling them to shape their own future.” - Francis Kéré
Clockwise from top left: Interior of the Serpentine Pavilion, London; the Lycée Schorge Secondary School in Koudougou, Burkina Faso designed by Kéré; and his pop-up shop for shoe brand Camper, installed at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhine, Germany to coincide with the ‘Making Africa’ exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum
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which two have been completed), Mozambique (completion expected this year), Sudan, and Kenya, with the Obama Legacy Campus. Kéré Architecture has also undertaken numerous international projects, and its work has been exhibited globally. There are a number of internationally celebrated African architects, such as David Adjaye, Kunlé Adeyemi, Mokena Makeka and Mphethi Morojele, to name a few. But none of them have backgrounds that are rural or indeed traditional. Kéré’s unique and extraordinary achievement is to negotiate both worlds – the global and the indigenous. The Gando Primary School and the Chicago Place for Gathering could not be more different, yet they are not. They have constructional traces in common, and both are graceful, highly innovative structures, like the Serpentine Pavilion. Since the economic crash of 2008, architecture has been radically repositioning itself, setting socially aware standards. Kéré’s work, going back long before that dire date, has always been socially motivated, whether for his African projects or the rest of the world. These are not new interpretations of the vernacular. Instead, they are original creations, synthesising two worlds into a third way. “The role of the architect,” says Kéré, “is to bring society forward, to inspire people. Architecture can be inspiring for communities, [enabling them] to shape their own future.” His work unites social relevance and personal commitment with innovative, relevant design concepts, and not least, highly pleasing aesthetic standards. His buildings position human values as paramount, an attitude not much acknowledged in architectural practice. NA he Serpentine Pavilion is open until 8 October 2017, at Kensington Gardens, London. Radically Simple, a book on Diébédo Francis Kéré, is published by Hatje Cantz. ISBN: 978-3-77574217-7. august/september 2017 New African 69
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Sport MEDIA
Women of African origin in the diaspora have dominated many sporting arenas – particularly in athletics – for decades, but more recently in the UK, some of them have been moving into mainstream commentary. Their entry has injected originality, humour and an unexpected degree of expertise into what is still a male-dominated sector. Clayton Goodwin supplies the words.
Saying it loud and clear – diaspora Blacks move into mainstream commentary
W
omen have been accepted in so many positions that were formerly male preserves that it has ceased to be newsworthy – except when the area is exceptionally traditional and hidebound. Nothing could be more hidebound than ‘The Ashes’, the traditional international cricket matches between England and Australia which go back over a century. Ebony-Jewel Cora-Lee Camellia Rosamond RainfordBrent, who has breached that redoubt by joining the almost legendary ‘Test Match Special’ (TMS) radio commentary team, is indeed exceptional – so much so that her colleagues have got round the difficulty of her name by calling her ‘Ebony Heavenly-Sent’. Ebony comes to the job with the greatest credentials. Although she is only 33 years old, her experience of the game is considerable. RainfordBrent was the first Black female player to represent England in cricket and one of the few to come from a working-class inner-city background. She was born on 31 December, 1983 in Lambeth borough, which encompasses Brixton and Herne Hill, the districts most associated
2009 saw the peak of Ebony’s performance, winning the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 title and the much cherished Ashes.
with Jamaican immigration, and within the ‘Howzzat’ appeal range of the iconic Kennington Oval cricket ground. Her life changed when the Cricket for Change initiative visited her primary school. Ebony’s first challenge was to choose which sport to specialise in, as she was also proficient at football and basketball and competed in various disciplines in the English Schools Athletics Championships. When she did decide on cricket, it seemed that ill-health would curtail her career, for at 19 years old she suffered a serious back injury. Although she was indeed forced by ill-health into premature retirement, that was not until she had enjoyed a successful career with Surrey and England. The year 2009 saw the peak of her performance. Rainford-Brent was part of the England team which won the World Championships, took the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 title, and retained the much-cherished women’s Ashes against Australia. The same year she made a career-best score of 72 not out against West Indies. On top of that, she is a qualified coach, tutor, and master practitioner of neuro-linguistic programming. Ebony certainly
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knows her cricket. Yet none of that, nor her reputation for hard work, which is often cited as making her a good role model, is what has marked her as such an excellent commentator. Rainford-Brent, an exceptionally good-looking young lady, has an engaging personality, great facility for communication, and a real love for the game. Not just for cricket, but life, really – because she is skilled also at playing several musical instruments. When Michael Henderson wrote cynically in the specialist The Cricketer magazine, criticising female commentators for not sounding “convincing”, readers leapt to the defence of the latter and
“especially Ebony Rainford-Brent”. It is no surprise that Ebony’s communication skills are in considerable demand. She is a public speaker of record, advocate of several charities and of national programmes to assist disadvantaged and disabled young people, works as director of women’s cricket at Surrey, and – this makes the many male veterans who have spent a lifetime trying unsuccessfully to obtain membership green with envy – she is a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the MCC of hallowed memory. The general public not interested in cricket (and there are such people!) will be aware of Ebony through her appearances in popular
England’s Maggie Alphonsi (c), now a respected commentator, is tackled during the final of the 2010 Women’s World Rugby Cup, won by New Zealand. Opposite (top): Ebony interviewing cricketer Kevin Pietersen at the Oval, London; and (below) with Prince Charles in the run-up to the 2017 Women’s World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy, held in the UK
television quiz/game shows, such as A Question of Sport and Pointless Celebrities. Recently she was captain of a team of sportswomen in Celebrity Eggheads (a TV quiz programme) whose panel-members included Maggie Alphonsi, another current commentator, whose appearance, personality and career-pattern echo her own. They were even born within 11 days of each other and from a similar background in South London. Alphonsi’s accolade, however, has been influenced by her success with a ball of a different and larger shape. Margaret (“Maggie”), whose family came from Nigeria, too, had to overcome an early
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impediment. In her case, it was the determination to recover from childhood operations for a club foot which led her into rugby union, a sport in which running and tackling are vital. She made her name as a flanker with Saracens, one of the country’s leading clubs, before becoming a member of the England team which competed in two World Cups, and shared in a record seventh successive Six Nations title and a sixth Grand Slam in seven years. Even so, she is most proud of receiving the MBE. She retired after England won the World Cup in 2014, for the first time in 20 years. Since her retirement from active participation, Alphonsi, who is deemed to be an excellent speaker, has become a television commentator – the first-ever former female player to commentate on men’s international rugby – and a promoter/supporter of the London Youth Games and various charities. Her awards are so many that it is easiest to describe her simply as being the face of international women’s rugby. That’s not bad progress for a girl from Lewisham who started out working for McDonald’s in her first job. Denise Lewis, now 44 years old,
is the doyenne of female sports commentators. She, too, has a distinguished – very – performance record, an attractive personality and an arresting physical presence. I encountered Lewis first when she was hardly known and was on lunch break in the cafeteria with several score other athletes and supporters – and she was instantly recognisable with those clear, sparkling eyes. Denise’s track and field honoursstudded career culminated in her winning the heptathlon gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, and with her social achievements too, she received an award of the MBE and then an OBE. Her extensive record of
Top: Denise Lewis is the doyenne of female sports commentators. On screen, she forms a near-perfect commentating quartet with fellow former athletes Colin Jackson (r), Michael Johnson and Steve Cram. Bottom: Adedoyin Adepitan is a prominent member of the Paralympics commentating team
television appearances – outside athletics – range from reaching the final of the very popular TV dance competition show, Strictly Come Dancing to appearing on Pointless Celebrities with her father-in-law, the comedian Tom O’Connor. On screen, Lewis forms a nearperfect professional commentating quartet with fellow former athletes Colin Jackson, Michael Johnson and Steve Cram. Raised in a terrace house in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, where her parents were Jamaican immigrants, she cannot remember a time that she did not want to be an athlete (unless it was an infant fantasy to be a nurse). She still brings that enthusiasm, commitment and an understanding of competitors to her commentating, and says that she is very happy being herself. Nor is gender the only area of sports commentating in which Africans are breaking new ground. Adedoyin (“Ade”) Adepitan, who was born in Lagos 44 years ago, is a prominent member of the Paralympics presenting team, with other TV appearances as an actor, presenter or guest to his credit. He contracted polio as a baby, which caused him to use iron calipers and then a wheelchair for his sport. Ade was brought up from a young age in the East End of London, though he did spend some time in Spain, and came to wheelchair basketball when he was 12 years old. He was a member of the Great Britain team that won the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens and gold at the 2005 Paralympic World Cup in Manchester. Adepitan has been awarded the MBE and uses his position to campaign against racism and disability discrimination. For many years, Jo King, a statistician, was the only female in the England cricket press-box/ media-centre. On meeting her, wags quipped: “A woman in the press-box? Gracious, you must be joking.” Now, it is no longer a joke. In every main UK mediacentre there is a respected female commentator ... and she is as often as not of African heritage. NA
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AFRICAN UNION
AFRICAN UNION
UNION AFRICAINE
UNION AFRICAINE
UNIAO AFRICAN
UNIAO AFRICAN
Procurement Number: AUC/DCMP/G/19-26
Procurement Number: AUC/SSSD/G/85
Supply and delivery of Printing and Conference Equipment.
Supply and delivery of Security Uniform under three Years framework contract
The African Union Commission has reserved some funds towards the procurement of the above mentioned services.
The African Union Commission has reserved some funds towards the procurement Security Uniform Under three years framework contract.
The African Union Commission now invites bids from interested bidders for the Supply and Delivery of Printing and Conference Equipment for the Directorate of Conference Management and Publication
The African Union Commission now invites bids from interested bidders for the Supply and Delivery of Security Uniform for the Security and Safety Services Division of the AUC. More details on the above requirements are provided in the bid document. Interested firms can collect the bid documents from the African Union website: http://www.au.int/en/bids. The closing date for the submission of bids shall be 11th AUGUST 2017 15:00hrs. For further inquiries please use Tel: +251-11-5517700, Ext 4305. E-mail Tender@africa-union.org
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The items are categorized in different lots LOT 1. Printing Equipment LOT 2. Conference Equipment Bidders can bid for LOT/LOTS of their preference More details on the above requirements are provided in the bid document. Interested firms can collect the bid documents from the African Union website: http://www.au.int/en/bids. The closing date for the submission of bids shall be 11th AUGUST 2017 15:00hrs. For further inquiries please use Tel: +251-11-5517700, Ext 4305. E-mail Tender@africa-union.org
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With Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in the US, the Western world is in flux. This is the most dangerous time for Africa, with various players looking to the continent to bolster their strategic depth.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
European colonialism redux?
Onyekachi Wambu
T
he UK’s Brexit and the US’s Donald Trump are leading to a dramatic reconfiguration of the Western world, which will have profound consequences for Africa, particularly in the military spheres. Historically, the greatest danger to Africa, has come when such a general reconfiguration is underway in Western geopolitics. The UK, after Brexit, will have lost the strategic depth provided by its membership of the EU. Without that connection to a bigger entity, whether that was its Empire in the past, or the EU now, the UK is a small island with limited natural resources. As in the past, the UK will increasingly see Africa again as a place that will enable it to enhance its strategic depth. Similarly, it is obvious that the EU sees Africa as a place to promote its relevance and military prestige. The French have already shown this in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali, and, together with the British in Libya, how easy this is. Meanwhile, President Trump’s ambivalence towards NATO, the EU, and Germany in particular, has produced a predictable reaction. Talk of an EU army has grown, especially given Trump’s focus at the last NATO summit in May, on members states’ contributions, and his seeming to
link this to the US’s commitment to defending them under Article 5 of the NATO treaty. For EU leaders, the penny has dropped. Influential EU countries such as Germany are beginning to see the US as a transactional and unreliable security partner, and have begun to make alternative plans for an EU army, whose facilitation will now be easier, given the withdrawal of the UK, one of the biggest obstacles to the emergence of such an army.
Huge issues at stake
In the short to medium term, there will be huge issues at stake as the EU army emerges and is seen to be in direct competition with NATO. There will be controversy about duplication of resources, as well as a watering-down of the united front of the West. Denials aplenty will follow that parallel structures are not being created. The word ‘army’ will not be mentioned, with new euphemisms, such as ‘security union’, deployed to hide the reality of plans already under consideration by the EU. These include a defence fund and the setting up of a permanent structured cooperation (PESCO) framework, enabling EU countries to ‘move from the current patch-
It is obvious that the EU sees Africa as a place to promote its relevance and military prestige. The French have already shown this in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali.
work of bilateral and multilateral cooperation to gradually increased defence integration’. The discussions between the EU and NATO will become tense but the factors leading to disintegration appear to be inevitable, and the emerging EU army will initially focus on areas where it can rationalise that it enjoys a comparative advantage. One can already see this rationalisation taking place with the thoughts of the German defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, revealed in a Strasboug speech to MEPs in June. According to her, Brussels needs its own army so that European countries can more readily intervene in theatres around the world where NATO is absent. She spoke of the EU raising its game and developing serious plans for a ‘European defence union’, which would be centrally controlled and could act globally, while at the same time denying that this would mean an EU army. She said that Brexit and the election of Donald Trump had shocked the continent and spurred it into further integration of its defence and security apparatus. “It was clear from then on that Europe had to understand that out of our own interests we Europeans have to make sure we have our own defence in our own hands so that we’re able to react to crises in a decisive and immediate action... Since then the question has no longer been whether we need a European defence union but rather how we organise it,” she argued. Her next words were perhaps more ominous for Africa, as she sought to define where the EU might enjoy its comparative advantage vis-à-vis NATO: “If Europe is going to be trying to create stability in Africa I can’t see NATO there very often but I see the EU [being] very active on the African continent...That’s why I see different theatres where NATO might be required and other areas where the EU has got broader instruments and can perhaps be more effective.” A Europe in flux is again eyeing a weakened and vulnerable Africa. We have been warned. NA
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