New African articles from June 2002

New African archives from June 2002

Letters.
June 1, 2002... Zimbabwe: I shed a tear It's just after 4am on a Thursday morning here in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. I have just finished reading Baffour's article, Zimbabwe: Life After the Election (NA, May) and I must congratulate him profoundly for his...

How America helped Savimbi and Apartheid South Africa. (For the Record: Angola).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Newly declassified American documents show that Washington intervened in Angola weeks before the arrival of any Cubans, not afterward as America has claimed since 1975. This article by Howard H. French debunking the US claims was originally...

African majesty: Vlisco, the Dutch textile giant, controls what most Africans wear, but traditional weaving is not dead yet. (Culture: Textiles in Africa).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Across Africa, there has existed, since time immemorial, a tradition of textile weaving which was only suppressed or pushed into the background when Western methods of textile production took over the continent. Now traditional weaving is on...

Now the bet is on the rand. (South Africa).
June 1, 2002... The South African currency the rand, subjected to a severe battering last year, made impressive gains against major currencies, trading at 10.25 to the US dollar in early May. It hit an all time low of 13.85 to the dollar in late December 2001....

Muluzi wants third term? (Malawi).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Malawi's constitution allows for only two consecutive five year-terms of office for the president. But if President Bakili Muluzi's men have their way, Section 83 (3) of the constitution will be amended to allow him to go for a third term....

Patasse's friend from the north. (Car).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... President Ange-Felix Parasse of the Central African Republic (CAR) owes a lot to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. When rebels led by a former president, Andre Kolingba, attempted a coup against Patasse in May last year, entering the president's villa...

Yes, so what? (Kenya).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... If you are an African victim of the bombings of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998, hoping to be compensated for your ordeal, forger it. So say the Americans. The US government has just started a legal process...

'When will this end?' (Liberia).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... With such look of despair, President Charles Taylor intoned, "...when will this end? It's not good for business. We are really hurting despite our investment. War is nor good for anything." When asked why he was contemplating evacuating...

Funding the union. (Africa).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The OAU Eminent Persons Advisory Panel is looking for innovative ways of financing the African Union outside the old structure of membership dues which are now in arrears to the tune of $54.5m. Three new ideas are now being studied. The...

African Union in danger of being stillborn. (Cover Story: African Union).
June 1, 2002... All roads lead to Durban, the South African Indian Ocean city, on I July. The OAU will make way for the African Union (AU) to be born. It will be a joyous occasion to be attended by Africa's great and good. Amara Essy, the OAU secretary general...

African women put the men to shame. (The Gallery).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Whether in London or New York, in Accra or Add is Ababa, in Stockholm or Hamburg, they are distinctive and unapologetic about their culture: African women. While the men usually hide their inferiority complex behind Western suits and ties,...

Amara Essy: 'we will deliver the African Union in Durban'. (The Interview).(Interview)
June 1, 2002... When Amara Essy, the Ivorian diplomat of long standing and renown, was elected as secretary general of the OAU last July, he was given a mandate to transform the OAU into the African Union (AU) within one year. A tough job in normal times, it...

Mandela as you didn't know him. (Photo Feature: South Africa).(The World that Made Mandela -- A Heritage Trail of 70 Sites of Significance)
June 1, 2002... The World that Made Mandela -- A Heritage Trail of 70 sites of Significance. By Luli Callinicos. Published by STE Publishers, 143 Hunter Street, Bellevue East, Johannesburg, South Africa. 339 pages (including index). [pounds sterling]35...

Mobile phones: changing Africa's landscape. (Telecoms Special Report).
June 1, 2002... In 1996, there were 15 million phone users in the whole of Africa (both mobile and landline). Today, there are 50 million - a quiet revolution worth writing home about. But how has the revolution affected the lives of the African consumers?...

The way forward after Savimbi: the long and painful past has led the new generation of Angolans to realise that the country can only have a better future if its nationalism is constructive and prospective. (Feature: Angola).
June 1, 2002... In the first decades of independence, the efforts of most new African governments, within the constraints of the lack of resources they found and the new pressures they met, were perhaps comparable to trying to strengthen the shadow of a...

The end of the empire days. (Not in Black or White).
June 1, 2002... Le Pen? Immigrants? You bet. What we are now seeing is the beginning of the real end of Europe's Empire days. The real striking back, as the Empire unloads more and more of its peoples into Europe's unwelcoming but needy arms. The colonies have...

Nigeria targets the 'gnomes of London': the government finally gets $1 billion of Abacha's loot. And the Abacha family gets $100m. Discuss. (Under the Neem Tree).
June 1, 2002... For years, those of us in developing countries who are aware that our leaders tend to be often corrupt and incompetent, have silently endured the insults of Western journalists and politicians, who pontificate endlessly that the hunger and...

Malawi: hunger stalks the land; the drought affecting the Southern African region is wrecking havoc in Malawi. (Feature: Southern Africa).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... When a Malawian woman was found trying to sell three of her five children on 23 February, only so that she could afford to feed the other two, the nation was dumbfounded. There was more shock in store -- Margaret Phiri's plight was only the tip...

Saartjie Baartman is finally, finally home. (Feature: South Africa).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The saga of Saartjie Baartman finally came to rest on 3 May when her remains were flown from France to Cape Town, 186 years after her death. It comprised of her skeleton and two bottles containing her brain and external genitalia that had been...

The clash of histories of civilisations. (Diaspora).
June 1, 2002... Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics. Published by Duke University Press. Martin Bernal's sustained attack on the academically established views about ancient history continues. In this latest broadside, he shows...

The most influential black person in Britain: our corespondent Clayton Goodwin went to meet Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, the most influential black person in Britain. (Diaspora).
June 1, 2002... Bill Morris is indicative of something special that has gone out of British public life, and the absence of which is regretted by many -- not only by those who share his point of view. He is a prominent trade union leader of the old-fashioned...

George Padmore - the forgotten man of history: on 13 June, the pan-African community will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of George Padmore's birth. Lester Lewis traces the illustrious life of the man who trained Nkrumah. (Diaspora).
June 1, 2002... In a 1971 lecture on "Nkrumah, Padmore and the Ghanaian Revolution", C.L.R James described George Padmore as "one of the greatest politicians of the 20th century". That he was, and very few Africans are aware of this fact. Further, James...

Sculpture in Zimbabwe. (Diaspora).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... "A good sculpture must not be tested. It has to speak for itself," says Charity Manhizwa, 27, from Zimbabwe who is leading a team of Zimbabwean exhibitors in the northern German town of Westerkappeln, in Westphalia. Charity travelled for...