New African articles from March 2004

New African archives from March 2004

The Commonwealth is right.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... Your report on the Commonwealth Conference and the African participants' reaction to Zimbabwe's suspension (NA, Jan) is depressing and tiresome, as indeed is the implied support of New African for the belief that Mugabe is being unfairly...

Let's leave the "club".(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... I was shocked to see in your January issue, my president, Olusegun Obasanjo, waving a white flag in front of his audience. If he had paid microscopic attention to the smiles of Michael Howard, John McKinnon and others in the audience, he would...

Let there be a referendum.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... Very interesting to read Africa Reacts (NA Jan 2004). While there are reactions from all over the world to the Commonwealth-Zimbabwe issue, there is a certain constituency that seems to be decidedly silent: the millions of Zimbabweans at home...

Commonwealth of what?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... Each time I hear or read about the Commonwealth, I feel angry. Commonwealth of what? Is it a Commonwealth of continued slavery, colonialism, exploitation or that of everlasting imperialism? I strongly think it is about time that the...

Lessons for Africa.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... It would have been a landmark achievement, if African countries which did not agree with the Commonwealth decision on Zimbabwe, had stormed out of the Abuja summit in protest. Africa should understand that it can only assert its voice on...

Great inspiration.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... Your interview with President Sam Nujoma of Namibia (NA, Nov) truly inspired me. It is encouraging to see this type of leadership on the African continent. It takes vision, wisdom and humility to know when to stay and when to walk away. A great...

OPEC-style not good for Africa.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... I would like to comment on Cameron Duodu 's article "We must go the OPEC way, if necessary" (NA Feb), which addresses two important points: that acting together will benefit all the African countries; and that African countries can learn from...

Forget the past, move on.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... Why do journalists who write on African affairs always seem to dwell on the injustices of the past--slavery, colonialism etc? Virtually every country in the world has suffered injustices. Once a nation has gone through these traumas, it is...

Correction: African election dates.(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2004... I write to draw your attention to a number of factual errors in your piece, "2004, the year of election" (NA Jan). * South Africa's elections are in April 2004 (not August). * Malawi's Bakili Muluzi did not win the 1999 presidential...

Great job, but why the animosity?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... Although your magazine does a great job of promoting African pride and uncovering hidden truths, it is quite disappointing to see your constant bashing of "the nations of European stock". How you can blame the mistakes of corrupt, greedy and...

Why African Pope?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... I am responding to Janet Jere's feature speculating on an African papacy (NA Nov) which was sensational and did not dig deep into the bureaucratic nature, clique and cabal and other intrigues that go into the papal conclave. The most...

Stella is wrong.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... I am incensed and deeply saddened by the language chosen by Stella Orakwue (NA Feb). I am a white female who did not choose to be born white or female; this was an accident of birth. I did not choose to be born, full stop. Neither you, Ms...

Nations Cup--high and low.(The Gallery)
March 1, 2004... Tunisia beat Morocco 2-1 to emerge winners at the 24th African Nations Cup finals held in Tunisia (24 January to 14 February). Here are some of the highlights of the tournament in pictures. Full story on p80. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Still we rise!(Special Feature)
March 1, 2004... After one year as the first ever Balfour African President-in-Residence at Boston University (USA), the former Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda, gave a rousing speech to a mainly African-American audience at Morehouse College before leaving...

Happy birthday, Senator Nascimento: ever heard of Senator Abdias do Nascimento (photo, opposite page)? A glorious fighter for the advancement of the African-descended people of Brazil, he was the first black Brazilian senator. He is 90 this month. May he continue to give longevity a good name for many years to come.(Lest We Forget)
March 1, 2004... March 14 is the 90th birthday of Abdias do Nascimento, the first black Brazilian senator in a country of 175 million people, where more than two-thirds were black slaves at independence in 1822, and still nearly half of the population are...

Rand strikes back: damned if you do, damned if you don't. That is the story of the South African currency, the rand, which is confounding its critics. Pusch Commey reports from Durban.(South Africa)
March 1, 2004... The rand rocketed to new heights in late 2003, spreading confusion among traders, speculators and the big players in the economy. From an all time low of R13.85 to US$1.00 and R20.20 to [pounds sterling]1.00 at the end of 2001, the rand has...

More arms, less food? Kester Klomegah reports from Moscow on a new deal to upgrade Ethiopian MIG fighters.(Ethiopia)
March 1, 2004... Russia and Ethiopia have moved further towards sealing another agreement under which all military equipment, including MiG-21 figthers, purchased during the Soviet era will be upgraded and modernised, according to Russian government sources....

Is WHO promoting ineffective drugs? The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been accused of "medical malpractice" and violating its own policy on malaria treatment by encouraging the use of ineffective drugs such as chloroquine. Barbara Akakpo reports.(Africa/WHO)
March 1, 2004... Nothing could be more damning than this. "Institutional inadequacies" of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) have created a crisis leading to increased malarial deaths in children,...

Peace drawback feared: the slow pace of progress in the final stage of Sudan's peace process is beginning to cause concern that the government may not yet be ready to signal a final deal. Peter Moszynski reports.(Sudan)
March 1, 2004... The government's decision to suspend peace talks on 26 January to allow its chief negotiator, Vice President Ali Osman Taha, to attend the Hajj to Mecca was greeted with incredulity by the Sudan People's Liberation Army(SPLA), and the move may...

No place for 'Animal Farm': Roy Clarke, a British-born satirist, who tried to ride on the back of George Orwell's Animal Farm, has been brought to earth in Zambia where the government he compared to animals, wants him out of the country he has called home for over four decades. Samu Zulu reports.(Zambia)
March 1, 2004... According to the Oxford Advanced Dictionary, satire is "an attack on foolish or wicked behaviour, by making fun of it, often through the use of sarcasm and parody (amusing imitations presented in an exaggerated way)." In Zambia, the...

Victims accept UK payout.(Kenya)
March 1, 2004... More than 1,000 Kenyans have accepted a British government payout of US$950,000 as compensation for injuries they sustained from abandoned British army bombs. The offer was made at the end of January to 1,046 Maasai and Samburu people who...

Who says Africa is independent? This is the final part of our gripping debate on whether or not Africa is independent.(The Debate)
March 1, 2004... Audrey Malambo, Zambia: You have opened a very interesting debate about Africa--past, present and future. To begin with one is safe to simply say that Africa is not independent! Yes, we elect our own leaders, we have our own national flags and...

Great Lakes the shape of things to come: George Ola-Davies previews the international conference on the Great Lakes Region to be held under UN and AU auspices in Tanzania in mid-2004 with the aim of finding lasting solutions to the multifaceted conflicts in the region.(Feature)
March 1, 2004... The human fatalities recorded by the wars in the Great Lakes Region (specifically in Rwanda, Burundi and DRCongo) have been nothing but a tragedy. Not only did the wars stifle economic development, democracy, political stability or any other...

Technology: a new satellite for Africa.(Feature)
March 1, 2004... Satellites dedicated to Africa are oversubscribed and the bandwidths saturated. This means new broadcasters, transmitters and telephone operators cannot expand in Africa as quickly as they would like. To solve some of the problems, a new...

Empowering women: as women of all colours worldwide celebrate International Women's Month this month (March), Janet Jere reports on some inspiring activities that will take place in London to celebrate this important occasion in the women's calendar.(Women's Month)
March 1, 2004... For black women both in Africa, and the Diaspora, International Women's Month should not just be symbolic, but provide a wider-meaning and stimulating significance that pivots on their role and contributions in society and on the world stage....

Kufuor: we are on course; As Ghana celebrates 47 years of independence on 6 March, Baffour Ankomah, editor of 'New African' and a Ghanaian himself, looks at how the country has fared under President John Agyekum Kufuor's three-year-old government.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2004... The headline above belongs to Peter Jazzy Ezeh, a hard-nosed Nigerian and long-time 'New African' correspondent based in Enugu. He went to Ghana for the first time this February to deliver a paper at the W.E.B. du Bois International Cultural...

Solid achievements--the 2003 balance sheet: last year, the main objective of the Kufuor government was to consolidate the remarkable achievements of the 2002 fiscal year. This is how the macroeconomic front panned out in 2003.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)
March 1, 2004... In the 2003 budget, the government set itself a real GDP growth of at least 4.7%; a reduction in the year-to-year rate of inflation from 15.2% at end-December 2002 to 9% by end-December 2003; an overall budget deficit of 3.1% of GDP; a domestic...

Kufuor: "we are on course"; In this interview, President John Agyekum Kufuor tells Baffour Ankomah about the great strides his government is making on the economic front, how he sees pan-Africanism and African development, and how he felt "betrayed by the international community" on President Charles Taylor.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)
March 1, 2004... Q: Is a presidential term limit for a developing country like ours necessary and progressive? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A: Four years is too short. Even in America where there are developed institutions and enhanced awareness, people see...

PSI, a sure winner! The most exciting industrial news in Ghana must surely be the President's Special Initiatives designed to find new ways of mass producing non-traditional exports to help accelerate economic growth. Baffour Ankomah reports from Accra.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)
March 1, 2004... Called PSI for short, the 'President's Special Initiatives' could make any mouth water, especially when you hear it so eloquently described by none other than the minister in charge of the programme, Alan Kyerematen, who also doubles as the...

West African single currency.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)
March 1, 2004... Ghana made remarkable progress regarding the planned second West African single currency in moving from the achievement of one convergence criterion in 2001 to achieving two additional criteria in 2003. Member countries have four criteria...

The challenges of education: in this article, Ivor Agyeman-Duah traces the challenges of education in Ghana and argues that if the first president, Kwame Nkrumah, did so well in Africanising the education curriculum, it behoves the Kufuor government to work towards using technology to achieve economic goals.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)
March 1, 2004... In 1954, two significant events took place in the United States and Britain that impacted on the de-colonisation of Ghana, especially its education curriculum. The United States' Supreme Court had ruled in the famous 'Brown vs. Board of...

The philosopher and foreign policy: the Kufuor government has deep roots in liberal democratic thoughts. Ivor Agyeman-Duah examines the man, Joseph Boakye Danquah, who first laid the theoretical foundation in 1948 from which the Kufuor government takes inspiration.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)
March 1, 2004... Joseph (Kwame Kyeretwie) Boakye Danquah (1895-1965) was the "ancient" philosopher and lawyer who gave intellectual power to liberalism in the pre-independent politics of the Gold Coast in the 1940s. A royal of Akyem Abuakwa in the Eastern...

The media in an election year: Ghana's media are playing a very important role in democracy. Though there are lapses, others think with time the media will overcome their deficiencies and mature. Ivor Agyeman-Duah assesses the media scene in this critical election year in Ghana.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)
March 1, 2004... The media have become a vital and indispensable part of Ghana's evolving democracy. In 1990, there were just four state-owned newspapers in addition to the 60-year old Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (with its radio and television divisions)....

Osafo-Maafo: 'we are in control'; Ghana is doing very well under President Kufuor's government, says finance minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo, and it is not true that the country is being run by the IMF/World Bank as people allege. "We are in control," he tells Baffour Ankomah, in this interview.(A Country on the March: Focus on Ghana)
March 1, 2004... Q: Your government is now into its fourth year in office. Would you say the economy is better today than when you met it? If yes, what have you done right, and how does it reflect in the lives of the people? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A: I...

Portugal-Africa: 30 years after the Carnation Revolution.(Feature)
March 1, 2004... On the morning of 25 April 1974, the Portuguese military started in Lisbon what became known as the Revolution dos Cravos--the Carnation Revolution. It was led by soldiers convinced from their experiences in the field about the futility of...

Tanzania: saving the forest birds of Usambara.(Feature)
March 1, 2004... The Usambara Mountains in Tanzania contain the highest diversity of plant and animal species in East Africa, many of which are not found anywhere else in the world. But this biologically unique area is rapidly being destroyed. Natalie Pritchard...

A muzungu in Namibia: Martin Rudiger, a German student, studied at the University of Namibia (UNAM) in 2002. This is his impression of a country originally colonised by his native Germany.(Feature)
March 1, 2004... "Seek knowledge, even if it would be in China", says an old Arab proverb. Visiting a different country is a good way to learn new things, and to get to know how wealthy other cultures can be. As a German, the first prejudice I had to get out of...

You don't want me to die? Mac the Man would not die at the Korle Bu Hospital in Accra, where (in the long, long past) people only went when they were at death's door. To see him dead in London, after all that, has been a staggering, incredible blow.(Under the Neem Tree)
March 1, 2004... He placed "Mac" in front of his name because, he claimed, he could no longer bear hearing his Ghanaian name "butchered" by the British. But ironically, by calling himself "MacAsomasi", he made his name more unpronounceable to them than ever....

Blood is thicker than water: it is rare for an African president to visit the Caribbean, yet blood and struggle are the ties that bind the Caribbean to Africa. Lisa-Anne Julien reminisces on the strategic alliances between Africa and the Caribbean, and the contribution made by Caribbeans to African liberation.(Diaspora)
March 1, 2004... The intention as well as the culmination of the recent visit by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa to the Caribbean island of Haiti (on the occasion of Haiti's 200th independence anniversary on 1 January 2004), remains steeped in...

Guyana: ritual and identity; Joy Richardson (below), the Guyanese-born painter, is a woman to meet. Beverly Andrews went to see her and they talked about her inspiring work. This is her report.(Arts and Culture)
March 1, 2004... With more and more African visual artists now taking their rightful place among the world's elite, it is perhaps an appropriate time to look at how the work of those of African heritage has fared. The Guyanese-born artist, Joy Richardson, is in...

Lucky Moyo, a living legend: the Zimbabwean musician, Lucky Moyo, helped form one of Africa's greatest bands, Black Umfolosi. At the end of his "new life" in England, this living legend tells Trevor Grundy that he is now ready to go home.(Arts and Culture)
March 1, 2004... Born in 1966 and educated at one of the best boarding schools in the then freshly independent Zimbabwe, Lucky Moyo went from the classroom to the recording studio after helping form the massively acclaimed Black Umfolosi Band and has never...

Oh, the poor spies! "We got it wrong." Who did? British secret service officials start leaking to the press when politicians start insinuating. American ones say: "You looking at me? You looking at me?" Get out of here.(Not in Black or White)
March 1, 2004... I have never met a spy. Leastways I don't think so. Have you ever met a spy? You never know, you could have sat next to one and not been the wiser. Is that woman following you? Why does she appear and disappear so mysteriously? Is that bloke...

Simply the best: meet Saint Mutola, the undisputed champion of the women's 800 metres and the top female competitor in world sports for 2003. Clayton Goodwin profiles her.(Athletics)
March 1, 2004... We live in an age of great athletes. There have always been stars of the track who have defined their age--not least Jesse Owens whose name now adorns boulevards, avenues and stadia throughout the world. Seldom, if ever, has there been so many...

Kenyan triumphs in Tokyo Marathon.(Athletics)
March 1, 2004... Kenya's Daniel Njenga took 2:08:43 to win the Tokyo International Marathon on 8 February beating Japan's favourite Satoshi Osaki into second place by just three seconds. It is his first big win, but it establishes that there is more to come...

The return of the Queens: now we see them, now we don't. Ola Sheyin on the careers of the Williams Sisters who are eyeing other things outside tennis.(Tennis)
March 1, 2004... Little breaks, like most measures meant to be temporary, can have a nasty habit of becoming permanent. Venus and Serena Williams, domineering tennis star sisters, planned to take just a little break to catch a breath or two, attend to injuries...

Voila les rois: the 24th African Nations Cup came to a gripping conclusion on 14 February with the hosts, Tunisia, writing a new name on the trophy. After an absorbing all-Arab final with Morocco, the hosts finished 2-1 winners at a packed Rades stadium in Tunis to trigger a massive national celebration. Peter Law reports.(Football)
March 1, 2004... After a three-week tournament of 32 games and 88 goals, Tunisia prevailed in a tournament packed full of drama and incidents. In a competition that was a huge improvement on Mali 2002, the spills and thrills were spread out across the whole...