New African articles from January 2003

New African archives from January 2003

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... You're right on SA land reform Firstly, congratulations on the outstanding article about land reform in South Africa (NA, Nov). For too long now, articles, papers and the like on the issue have steered clear of pointing out the urgency of...

In times of peace, prepare for war (final). (Baffour's Beefs).
January 1, 2003... "Be careful Paul, nobody has ever been closer to a member of my family than you were to Diana. There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge"--Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II to Diana's butler, Paul Burrel, two...

Living histories: historic moment as the sons and daughters of Nkrumah, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela came together for the first time. (The Gallery).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Living up to its cosmopolitan nature, London has been playing host to some of the sons and daughters of the great and good of the African world. As part of Black History Month, the Greater London Assembly and its mayor, Ken Livingstone, saw a...

Ghana so far, so good? (Cover Story).
January 1, 2003... President John Agyekum Kufuor will be two years in office this month but already his former opponents are queuing up to applaud his "sound" economic management. Yet ordinary Ghanaians at the sharp end of the same economy, say they cannot see...

Hypocrisy or deception? (Guest Column).(unfairness of foreign aid contracts )
January 1, 2003... Presssure is being put on the Ghanaian government to privatise its water supply or lose $300m in "aid". Why does the West want to take away from the people the most precious and indispensable commodity of all--water? We all live in one...

Oh God, let the rains come! having trounced the opposition to his land reform programme, President Mugabe and nearly 500,000 newly resettled farmers are now praying for the rains to come. (Around Africa: Zimbabwe).(Robert Mugabe)
January 1, 2003... From the vantage point of his house on the slopes of a mountain in Mhangura, in northern Zimbabwe, Malcom Rusere surveys a healthy sprouting crop of maize and soya beans on his 42-hectare plot below. "Not an inch of the farm is unplanted except...

Cure for Aids: a Cameroonian doctor has beaten the competition for an Aids vaccine. Surprise, surprise, his government is happy. (Around Africa: Cameroon).(Victor Anomah Ngu)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... There are concrete signs that the cure for HIV-Aids that the world has been waiting for, for 22 years may have been found. Prof Victor Anomah Ngu, a leading Cameroonian physician, scientist and researcher, has invented a therapeutic auto...

Paradise lost: there are more questions than answers in the ongoing investigation into the bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa. (Around Africa: Kenya).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... When the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel on Mombasa's Kikambala beach was blown up on the morning of 28 November--allegedly by the Al Qaeda network--serious questions were asked about what Kenyan and Western intelligence knew. Or who was behind...

Biya the stronger: President Paul Biya clocked 20 years in power in November, and like Johnnie Walker, he is still going strong. (Around Africa: Cameroon).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Cameroonians woke up on 6 November to a real surprise. Very unexpectedly, a decree signed by President Paul Biya declared the day a public holiday to mark his 20 years in power. However, most people in the capital ignored the anniversary...

Poor Obasanjo! He and all the 36 state governors want another four years in office. But the "second term syndrome" is proving difficult to sell. (Around Africa: Nigeria).(Olusegun Obasanjo)
January 1, 2003... When President Olusegun Obasanjo declared in April, in a very grand ceremony, his interest in a second term in 2003, he appeared unbearable. But six months later, he began to appear unelectable. His Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is now split...

Home of the Banjo: an intrepid Gambian researcher has traced the Banjo to its roots in western Gambia. (Around Africa: The Gambia).(Daniel Jarta)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The banjo musical instrument is believed to be the root of all modern music--pop, rock, reggae, blues and jazz--but nobody has yet "properly" traced its roots notwithstanding the fact that it has been a subject of intense research, especially...

Enough is enough: having endured years of arm-twisting by the EU, the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries now say they have had enough. (Around Africa: ACP-EU).(European Union)
January 1, 2003... The ACP countries are normally very polite... and amenable, So it has been since 1975 when EU-ACP Partnership was instituted. Now the ACP is fed up. And it made itself loudly heard on 25 November when the European Parliament tried to ban two...

What contradiction! Liberia has been under attack by rebels for three-and-a-half years, and the UN still does not want the government to acquire arms to defend the country. (Around Africa: Liberia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The UN Security Council yet again extended in early December the arms ban imposed two years ago on the Liberian government, even though the country is still under rebel attack as it has been since August 1999. The latest setback for President...

What about the women? (Lest We Forget).
January 1, 2003... In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, most women still remain "colonised" by customs and prejudices or by religious myths and distortions. Personally, I don't remember any male liberation leader ever referring to women's issues. The news...

2002 in review: the big ones that count; we are looking back at 2002, and have selected some of the important speeches, books, and documents that marked the year. (Flashback).
January 1, 2003... The healing truth One of the important events of 2002 was President Thabo Mbeki's landmark speech on 9 August at the funeral of Saartje Baartman, the South African (Khoi-San) woman taken to Europe 192 years ago and paraded in London and...

Nontetha, the martyr. (2002 in Review).(Nontetha Nkwenkwe)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Ever heard of Nontetha Nkwenkwe, the black South African woman who braved government censure to fight for freedom for her people, and as a result was officially declared "insane" in 1922 and hospitalised by the government? There is...

Peter Piot: "my objective was to politicise Aids". (2002 in Review).
January 1, 2003... On 7 July 2002, Dr Peter Plot, executive director of UNAIDS, spoke at the 14th International Aids Conference in Barcelona. "We're approaching the time that politicians will be elected or kicked out of office in function of their performance in...

Straw the sins of our fathers: Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, owns up to the sins of his ancestors in an interview published on 18 November by the New Statesman. (2002 in Review).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... John Kampfner, the New Statesman's political editor asked Jack Straw: "And what of another more recent mantra devised by a former foreign policy adviser to Blair, Robert Cooper: 'liberal imperialism' in which Western powers would be able to...

Globalisation when corporations govern. (2002 in Review).
January 1, 2003... "Globalisation is not a policy choice--it is a fact," said Bill Clinton. Today USAID boasts on its website to "integrate GM into local food systems". No wonder Africa still cannot find its way through the globalisation logjam. Choice is to...

A great friend of Africa is gone: June Milne (Nkrumah's research assistant, later publisher and literary executrix) on the life of Douglas Rogers, one of the Westerners who helped to shape crucial, turning points in Africa's history. (2002 in Review).
January 1, 2003... The sudden death of Douglas Rogers on Sunday 13 October, will be keenly felt not only by those who It knew him, but by countless others who came to know him through his political work and his writings. A lifelong socialist and courageous...

The magic of Kilwa Island. (Feature: Tanzania).
January 1, 2003... "Kilwa is amongst the most beautiful of cities, and elegantly built," wrote Ibn Battuta, the great Moroccan-Berber traveller in 1331. Our correspondent, Nick Hordern, in a pale imitation of Ibn Battuta's travels, went to Kilwa Island to catch...

Mozambique inquiry into Machel's death reopens: the South African special investigation unit, The Scorpions, have re-opened the inquiry into the mysterious death of the former Mozambican president, Samora Machel. (Feature).
January 1, 2003... Following leads brought to light during the sittings Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a team of expert investigators led by the deputy director of public prosecutions, Tone Pretorious (who worked on the Wouter 'Dr Death'...

'Driver stop! I am like palm wine'. (Under the Neem Tree).
January 1, 2003... Growing up under a colonial system provided us with some extreme examples of how almost everyone wanted to be like the white men who ruled us... The reminiscences of a Ghanaian boy in the 1950s, continued. Growing up under a colonial system...

Inching towards reform: Africa's banking and financial sector is being restructured as part of the overall reforms on the continent. Here, Jon Offei-Ansah, provides an overview of what is happening. (Banking in Africa).
January 1, 2003... When it comes to discussing developments in Africa, the mistake generally made is to view Africa as one region. Africa offers vast contrasts. Geographically they range from tropical rainforests to deserts while the climate varies from hot to...

Maximising the growth potential: "those who think that Africa is just one big non-performing continent are as misinformed as those who treasure the ideas of lions and elephants roaming the streets of our cities". (Banking in Africa).
January 1, 2003... The banking and finance sector in Africa is critical to the economic development of the continent. Although capital markets are developing, banks still serve as the primary sources of capital. In recent years, and in response to trends in...

Angola: A country in deepest transition: "The problem is you make these questions as if we are a European country. As if we had a 'middle ages'. Our problems are African and they take time to recover... Please give us some time". (Not in Black or White).
January 1, 2003... What is it about attending conferences and listening to people dissembling or being overly diplomatic or evasive that makes me do two things? My mind wanders onto connected and unconnected topics. But most frequently, my thoughts run an...

USA so who stole the black vote in Florida? (Diaspora).
January 1, 2003... Once upon a time the black vote in America was pure Republican, then the African-Americans grew up and moved on to the Democrats. And now the Democrats appear to have taken the black vote for granted, and are suffering for it. Perhaps, the...

Slavery time for some home truths. (Diaspora).
January 1, 2003... Lester Lewis on why reparations for the Atlantic Slave Trade should cut both ways. "The current African ruling classes must make reparations to the African masses by repairing the damage caused by the former African rulers' participation in the...

Sculpture ancestral voices: Beverly Andrews on the inspiring work of the Ghanaian master, Al Anatsui. "Through his sculpture, he presents an Africa seen on its own terms". (The Arts).
January 1, 2003... The Ghanaian sculptor, Al Anatsui, during his long career has become one of Africa's foremost artists. Having lived and worked in both Ghana and Nigeria, Al Anatsui draws on the broad spectrum of indigenous African cultures as inspiration for...

The massacre at Hornkranz. (History Report: Namibia).
January 1, 2003... We now resume the serialisation of The Blue Book published in 1918 by the British government on German atrocities in Namibia. The book was destroyed in 1926 because complained that it was "a great wrong", not just against Germany but "against...