New African articles from February 2008

New African archives from February 2008

Kenya elections: a tragic setback.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... In the immediate aftermath of the Kenya elections, the Bush administration wasted no time in sending its glowing congratulations to President Mwai Kibaki. But despite the subsequent attempt to ignore the congratulatory message, and adamant...

Niger Delta crisis.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... Your cover story on the Niger Delta, (NA, Jan 2008) was an excellent historical account of the crisis. Insightfully informative with good underscoring of the milestones of this Nigerian saga. I convey many congratulations. The situation in...

Nigeria's man in London.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... I would like to comment on Chux Ugwaka's letter (NA, Jan 2008) in response to the interview by Nigeria's acting high commissioner in London, Dozie Nwana (NA, Nov), in which among other things, he talked about the perpetrators of the slave trade...

Fear of Western medicine justifiable.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... I read your article "Do Africans fear Western medicine?" (NA, Jan 2008), with great distress. Between 1994 and 1997, America's Harvard University School of Public Health conducted a study which revealed that many drug companies, in order to...

In defence of Bishop Sentamu.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... As a Zimbabwean, I was encouraged by Archbishop Sentamu's symbolic act of cutting up his clerical collar, signifying how Mugabe had cut up the identities of Zimbabweans. My compatriots and I are grateful and comforted by the archbishop's public...

My kind of democracy.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... The purpose of this letter is to register my disapproval of DSTV's decision to lease commercial airtime to New African magazine. While it is entirely possible for both reader and editorial staff to differ widely on opinions about different...

Selassie deserves praise.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... I have seen your advertisement on the South African TV network (DSTV), in which pictures of some great Africans--Nkrumah, Nasser, Mandela, etc--are highlighted. However, to my dismay and disbelief, you didn't include Emperor Haile Selassie who...

We have a future!(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... Carina Rays article, "We have a history!" (NA, Jan 2008) concluded by implicitly raising an existential question, about the viability and survival of a sustained and dignified global black race. It would be nice, to have, in real existence, a...

Correction.(Correction notice)
February 1, 2008... In our cover story on Niger Delta (NA, Jan), we published the wrong caption for the photograph we are re-publishing here, which should have read: "Senator David Brigidi (in brown jacket), chairman of the Presidential Committee on Peace in the...

Secret societies: Africa's way forward.(Cover story)
February 1, 2008... Powerful secret societies in the West and elsewhere rule their countries and the world behind the scenes. They meet annually or thereabouts in secret locations. They discuss and take decisions on major policies affecting their countries and the...

The dangers of 'brand aid': good intentions don't always produce good results. This month, Carina Ray examines how highly commercialised aid initiatives, like Product(RED), are branding Africa as a helpless continent, and asks whether in the final analysis these fundraising campaigns hurt more than they help.(Lest We Forget)
February 1, 2008... Last month I quoted the Oxford historian, Hugh Trevor-Roper, who in 1963 made the outrageous claim that Africa's pre-colonial history consisted solely of "the unrewarding gyrations of barbarous tribes". Europe, he argued, had "shaken the...

Kenya: what went wrong.(Focus on Kenya)
February 1, 2008... We have two reports, presenting the points of view of each side, on the disheartening events in Kenya, a nation once known as "the gem of East Africa". The Electoral Commissioner Samuel Kivuitu has publicly admitted that he had no clue as to...

Kenya: why the violence was so virulent; Charles Ouko reports from the ODM viewpoint on a chaotic post-election situation and why the violence took such speed and vehemence.(Focus on Kenya)(Orange Democratic Movement)
February 1, 2008... The furore over President Mwai Kibaki's win and the bloody clashes that followed, are the clearest demonstration (if any was ever needed) that for a democratically-elected leader's rule to be legitimate, his election must not only be fair, but...

Oh! That this should happen to Kenya.(Under the Neem Tree)
February 1, 2008... The election chaos in Kenya has made an eloquent case for UN involvement in elections likely to be rigged or lead to confusion. The UN has election machinery that has enabled it to successfully supervise, or be involved, in elections in such...

The emperor's children: Peter Strandberg went to meet one of the grandchildren of the former emperor of Central African Republic, Jean Bedel Bokassa, and came back with the fascinating story of a family still haunted and hounded by the deeds of the emperor.(Feature)(Biography)
February 1, 2008... Jean-Barthelemy Bokassa's life story could be out of a Hollywood-film script. He belongs to a large family spread out in exile around the world and his grandfather, Jean Bedel Bokassa, was crowned emperor in the heart of Africa 30 years ago....

Ghana: why Kufuor did not get his man.(Feature)(John Agyekum Kufuor)
February 1, 2008... There were as many as 17 aspirants hoping to succeed President John Agyekum Kufuor as the ruling New Patriotic Party's presidential candidate for the December 2008 elections. In the end, not even bare-faced arm-twisting at the party's crucial...

South Africa: it's getting dirty!(Feature)
February 1, 2008... In December when the ANC deputy president, Jacob Zuma, beat the incumbent Thabo Mbeki for the presidency of the ruling ANC party, the stage was set for more clashes to come. And they are coming and getting nasty! So, how did it all come to...

Zimbabwe: come rain or shine, elections will be in March.(Feature)
February 1, 2008... One month to Zimbabwe's March elections, Morgan Tsvangirai's faction of the divided MDC opposition appears to be backing out of the deals reached at the inter-party talks mediated by South Africa, and even threatening to boycott the elections...

Somalia: pirates beware; Thomas Land reports on a UN-backed programme combating piracy off Somalia's 3,008km coastline.(Feature)
February 1, 2008... Two United Nations development agencies backed by several African governments have persuaded the major maritime powers to mount an intensive, collaborative policing exercise to make safe the continent's vital shipping lanes. Piracy affects...

Slavery: the case for reparations (2).(Feature)
February 1, 2008... Kwesi Quartey, Ghana's deputy high commissioner to the UK and a historian in his own right, concludes his two-part article setting the legal basis for slavery reparations, and asks: "Will Great Britain be able to mobilise the moral courage to...

Namibia: 'let's die fighting rather than die of maltreatment'.(Feature)
February 1, 2008... "If we rebel, we will be annihilated in battle since our people are practically unarmed and without ammunition, but the cruelty and injustice of the Germans have driven us to despair and our leaders and our people both feel that death has lost...

Why serious visioning and visioners are strangers in Africa.(Nuggets in a Nutshell)(Viewpoint essay)
February 1, 2008... Despite the damage colonialism has done to Africa's capacity for holistic development, the continent is still endowed with enough development potentials that servant leaders with native wisdom may process and deploy to launch Africa into the...

Worthy achievements of 2007.(Opinion)(Viewpoint essay)
February 1, 2008... "No race can accomplish anything till its mind is awakened," said Booker T. Washington, a legend in the collective history of Africans--which, according to Dr Hippolyte Fofack in this opinion piece, makes Oprah Winfrey, on account of building a...

Kenya: the people's will should prevail; Oheneba K. K. Busia writes about the sad events in Kenya and says it's no longer about Kenyans alone but us all: African governments, opposition parties, the progressive civil society, the AU, UN, Western countries, and above all the African people.
February 1, 2008... Except for President Kibaki and his Party of National Unity (PNU), there seems to be a general consensus that Kenya's presidential election was characterised by irregularities, a diplomatic euphemism for rigging. Therefore, a re-run under...

'I feel optimistic about Africa'.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the erudite pride of Africa, who boasts numerous honours and awards, now sits pretty in one of the world's high-profile posts--managing director of the World Bank. During her illustrious career, this daughter of...

How do most people encounter change?(Not in Black or White)
February 1, 2008... People talk a lot about change but it is meaningless talk. Real change is unmanageable, unwanted, irreconcilable without serious work. But being serious these days is boring. Yet, as black people, we know a lot about change. Change has been our...

Divide and rule: ... how Africans and African-Americans are prevented from working together.(Diaspora)(Report)
February 1, 2008... "Special clandestine operations should be launched by the CIA to generate mistrust and hostility in American and world opinion against joint activity of [Africans and African-Americans], and to cause division among Black African radical...

Brazil: the fall of a 'racial paradise'.(Diaspora)
February 1, 2008... In 1923, a Brazilian congressman declared that "Black Brazilians will disappear within 70 years". Afranio Peixoto, a renowned Brazilian author, added that, "in 200 years, the black eclipse will have passed entirely". As one of the most racially...

The rise and rise of black consciousness: Santorri Chamley traces the roots of black consciousness movements which are growing from strength to strength, spawning a multi-billion-dollar industry ranging from reggae music, Afrocentric book publishing to African heritage tourism, fashion and beauty products.(Diaspora)
February 1, 2008... When enslaved 18th century African-American preachers began praising Ethiopia's wondrous ancient civilisation, they could not have imagined that their fledgling ideology would inspire an intriguing array of influential black consciousness...

Why Africa?... the art taking Europe by storm: Jean Pigozzi is a man with a passion. He has been collecting contemporary African art for nearly two decades and has built the world's most important collection of modern African art. Stephen Williams went to Turin in Italy to meet him and view the "Why Africa?" exhibition.(The Arts)(Interview)
February 1, 2008... Jean Pigozzi has a grand vision--to eventually build a museum in the West, whether in Europe or America, dedicated to African art. "I want to be an ambassador for as much of Africa as I can," he says. "It's clear to me that Africa has much to...

Don't Africa me: in a new book (titled as above), a Nigerian author domiciled in the USA, C. P. Eze, criticises the corporate media, Hollywood celebrities, black immigrants, NGOs and others for hurting Africa's image worldwide through their portrayal of the continent as a "basket case". Tom Mbakwe reports.(Don't Africa Me: "Their" geo-branding war, "Our" trade, tourism wounds, and Winning like China)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Though Nigeria is tainted by advance-fee fraud and China by lead-laden toys, a Nigerian in America is still called an African (by his continental identity) while a Chinese is called a Chinese (by his national identity). Many "African"...