New African articles from March 2005

New African archives from March 2005

Why doesn't anybody care about blacks?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... With reference to your February cover headline (above), first, the question is not even true, as evidenced by the amount of world aid being constantly poured into Africa. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Second, to even ask such a question...

Aid not the solution.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I read with great interest your articles, Does Africa need its own tsunami? and Mbeki: Why can't we have the same aid and generous loans? (NA, Feb). I strongly agree with the notion that aid is not the solution to Africa's problems. This is...

Good governance before Marshall Plan.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Your February cover story, Why does nobody care about Black? poses a very interesting and intriguing question. The three writers (Cameron Duodu, Anver Versi and Stuart Price) have endeavoured to answer this question by asking more. ...

Africa: stop pitying, start employing.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Ensconced in the luxurious surroundings of Davos at the World Economic Forum, Tony Blair once again labelled 800 million odd Africans as "scars", and reinforced his confidence in the ability of his Africa Commission to find out how to rid the...

Why can't Somalia get tsunami aid?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... First off, next to my beloved Frontline magazine in Chicago, you have the most important magazine in the entire Diaspora, without a doubt. Now onto my question. My concern is pretty much the same as your February cover story. Why can't Somalia...

Where is the proverbial African solidarity?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... In order to support self-sustainable broad development of Africa, the blacks should care more about blacks, would be my equally provocative response to the title of the last issue of your magazine. Cameron Duodo refers to a "Marshall Plan for...

Wrong about Abia State.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I was impressed with your cover story Nigeria Moving On (NA Dec), but feel your Abia State report was not as well informed as it ought to be. The industrial soap plants that your reporter mentioned in Aba were established during the first...

More memoirs, but who will read them?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I am all for the idea that "black people should write more memoirs" (Stella Orakwue, NA Feb). But who will publish and distribute them, and who will want to read them? According to Kassahun Checole, founder of the Africa World Press,...

Mixed race, hot issue.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I applaud Carina Ray (The origins of mixed race populations, NA, Jan). We do need to widen the lens on our understanding of the causal factors for the origins of mixed race populations, with all their baggage--good, bad and indifferent. ...

A place in the sun.(Baffour's Beefs)(Column)
March 1, 2005... "There is something so terrible in watching a black man trying at all points to be the dark ghost of a European"--Ayi Kwei Armah, the Ghanaian novelist I don't normally like to respond to attacks on me arising from what I had written...

Kofi Annan: back from the brink?(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... The Americans wanted him out, and so, of late, it has been a rocky road for Kofi Annan, the Ghanaian diplomat and seventh secretary-general of the United Nations--a road whose direction, for a while at least, appeared unknown. Now he seems to...

Togo: after dad, it's my turn.(Around Africa)
March 1, 2005... At the time of going to press, the standoff between Togo and ECOWAS over the "unconstitutional" appointment of Faure Gnassingbe as president after the death of his father, was still on. But there were powerful indications that Lome was...

Zimbabwe.(InBrief)
March 1, 2005... The country goes to the polls again on 31 March to elect MPs for its 120-member parliament. The main opposition party, MDC, which had threatened to boycott the polls has changed its mind and now says it is "participating with a heavy heart and...

Kenya: Moi, the final adieu.(Around Africa)
March 1, 2005... Kenya's former "big man of politics", ex-President Daniel arap Moi has finally relinquished the last post he held in politics--chairmanship of KANU--leaving his chosen heir, Uhuru Kenyatta, to assume leadership of the erstwhile ruling party....

Nigeria.(InBrief)
March 1, 2005... The Swiss government has now agreed to return $458m of the $505m that the former Nigerian military leader, General Sani Abacha (above) and his family stashed away in various bank accounts in that country. Nigeria's finance minister, Ngozi...

Zambia: beware of the Aids bandwagon; "African governments should be conscious of attempts by imperial forces to narrow down the continent's immense problems to only HIV/Aids and corruption," Zambia's former president, Frederick Chiluba, has warned. Martha Kabwe reports from Lusaka.(Around Africa)
March 1, 2005... Former President Frederick Chiluba may have his own problems at home (with his former vice-president, Levy Mwanawasa, who is now president of the republic), but he takes no prisoners when attacked by foreigners. One such foreigner, Stephen...

Cameroon: you are late, you can't come in; After winning another seven-year term in office last October, President Paul Biya appointed a new prime minister tasked with cleaning up the public sector. He began by clamping down on workers' timekeeping. Tansa Musa reports from Yaounde.(Around Africa)
March 1, 2005... Grappling with the security guard outside his office at the Ministry of Public Services in the capital, Yaounde, the man managed to get an arm and a leg through the gate before he was pushed out. "You are late. I can't let you in," the guard...

DR Congo.(InBrief)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... It would seem that what goes up must come down. This is certainly the case with a six-metre-high statue of the Belgian colonial king, Leopold II, which was briefly erected in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, recently. The grubby bronze...

Liberia.(InBrief)
March 1, 2005... In the country's first elections of the post-Charles Taylor era, Liberians will have the chance to vote for a new president on 11 October. A power-sharing government led by Gyude Bryant (above) and including former rebels took charge of the...

Africa: oil company fights malaria; The Exxon Mobil Corporation has donated U$5m in community grants to help combat malaria in Africa, reports Tom Okello.(Around Africa)
March 1, 2005... As a large scale business with major oil and gas production operations in five African countries, Exxon-Mobil is keenly aware of the devastating impact malaria has on individuals, communities and economies. In response, the company has donated...

Djibouti: was it really an assassination? France's foreign policy spokesman is at the centre of a diplomatic row over a press communique he issued on behalf of the French government regarding the death of a French judge in Djibouti. Paul Michaud reports.(Around Africa)
March 1, 2005... France's principal foreign policy spokesman, Herve Ladsous, has become embroiled in a criminal complaint over a press communique he issued on 29 January 2005 regarding French relations with its former colony, Djibouti. Ladsous, a former...

Nigeria: at last, the national conference begins! President Olusegun Obasanjo has finally given Nigerians the sovereign national conference they asked for. Ola Sheyin reports.(Around Africa)
March 1, 2005... Despite the refusal of the Nobel laureate, ProfWole Soyinka, civil liberties activists, the elder statesman Chief Anthony Enahoro and Dr Bala Usman to accept their nominations to Nigeria's national political reform conference, President...

Malawi.(InBrief)
March 1, 2005... It was timely that on national corruption day on 5 February, President Bingu wa Mutharika quit his ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party following criticism over his national anti-graft drive. An internal power struggle, with former...

The Gambia.(InBrief)
March 1, 2005... The government of President Yahya Jammeh has sacked the police chief, Landing Badjie, who was arrested without explanation on 12 February, accusing him of "serious dereliction of duty". State television announced on Tuesday 15 February that...

The realities of aid discrimination; America gives Israel (population: 6 million; land size: same as Swaziland or Guinea Bissau) $3 billion annually in aid, while it gives 48 black African countries (population: over 600 million) just about $1 billion a year. Discuss.(Lest we forget)
March 1, 2005... The current political drama in the Middle East is occasionally spiced with some comic "Bushistic" sentence or new word that can bring a smile or laughter to lessen our emotions. Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, recently, instead of...

Mbeki: Africa, the truth and the Asian miracle.(Comment)
March 1, 2005... It is often said that at the time of independence in the 1960s, most African economies were at par with East Asia's, but while the Asians have grown into "economic tigers", the Africans have stagnated or even gone backwards. In this piece,...

Wangari Maathai: 'a people without culture feel insecure'.(Comment)
March 1, 2005... "Too often, when we talk about conservation, we don't think about culture. But we human beings have evolved in the environment in which we find ourselves. For every one of us, wherever we were, the environment shaped us: it shaped our values;...

Saving Central Africa's rainforests: a total of seven different nations have signed a joint conservation treaty designed to protect the future of the Congo Basin. Stuart Price reports.
March 1, 2005... In something of a first for the continent, the countries of Central Africa have pledged to protect the future of the region's rainforests. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said the region-wide conservation agreement was a historic milestone...

African Union: forward ever; Ben Asante was in Abuja to see African leaders break new grounds with their first ever mid-term summit attended by over 40 heads of state.
March 1, 2005... The African Union summit held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, in January broke new grounds as it was the first ever mid-term summit. The idea came about last year when the leaders decided that they could not accomplish all that they needed to...

Sudan: the peace between the pieces; Following the comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) that ended the 21-year-old civil war in the country, Rocco Blume looks at what the agreement offers to the rest of Sudan's political parties, opposition movements, and civil society groups.(Feature)
March 1, 2005... Witnessing the celebratory euphoria at the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ceremony in Nairobi, it became clear that many might have doubted this day would ever come. In an unprecedented show of cooperation and after so many previously...

'All men were brothers in Christ but not in South African churches'.(The Interview)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... In the 1950s, the South African journal, Drum, made a name for itself as the first magazine specifically for black people. Staffed almost entirely by black Africans, it set out to encourage its readers to hold their heads high, be filled with...

Kufuor: 'this is a good time to be a Ghanaian'; President John Agyekum Kufuor has delivered another State of the Nation address and spelt out his vision for the future. "This is a good time to be a Ghanaian. These are exciting times," he told his people. Kwadwo Mensah reports from Accra.
March 1, 2005... Records show that in 18 years at the helm of Ghana, former President Jerry Rawlings did not deliver a single State of the Nation address even though the national constitution he worked with explicitly demanded that he did so. It appears his...

Angola: inside Africa's forgotten country; "Angola today is a state in limbo. It is also a state which people know very little about--thanks to poor security and indifferent coverage in the international media," writes Brendan Salisbury, a Canadian university lecturer who went to teach there for six months. Here are his impressions.(Opinion)(Escola de Professores do Futuro)(Column)
March 1, 2005... I had been commissioned to work as a teacher in the coastal town of Benguela, over 600km to the south of the Angolan capital, Luanda. Ostensibly my job was to help out at a school called Escola de Professores do Futuro (EPF). Our aim: to train...

We were sold by our brothers. Really?(Diaspora)
March 1, 2005... This month, Cameroon Duodu engages in serious conversation with the African Diaspora--about the slave trade and other matters. He writes: "Some killing, or rampage, or raid, or kidnapping, took place in Africa every single day, of every single...

Martin's story: having spent three years without trial in American detention at Guantanamo Bay, Martin Mubanga, who holds dual Zambian-British nationality, wants to sue Britain for abandoning him.(Not in Black or White)
March 1, 2005... This is Martin's story. Who is Martin? Martin is an African who lives in England. He is a foreigner with access to a British passport. Actually, I tell a lie. This is a story about two Martins. One is white, one is black. One should have been...

Always something new & exciting out of Africa: ... Africa 05 season opens in Britain.(Arts and Culture)(UK Arts Council)
March 1, 2005... This year Africa will be the focus of important political and cultural events in the UK. Complementing the diplomatic and economic initiatives being led by Prime Minister Tony Blair and his finance minister Gordon Brown, Africa 05--a...