New African articles from May 2007

New African archives from May 2007

Sometimes I weep for Africa.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... Oprah Winfrey (NA, Feb) is no role model for Africans! Africa is not America. Thank goodness! Aside from the crass Hollywood materialism displayed in the buildings of her academy in South Africa (the "art" does not even look very African to me)...

Don't' forget them.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... While remembering and celebrating two centuries of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, we must not forget to spare a thought for the unprovoked slaughter of 40 million of our brothers and sisters, the black Aborigines of the...

Dear Mr Blair, please apologise.(Letters)(Tony Blair)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... We at The 1990 Trust are writing to you to request that the British government formally and fully apologise for Britain's role in the enslavement, brutality and murder of millions of Africans as a result of the slave trade. In addition we...

With a heavy heart.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... I am writing this letter with a heavy heart. Why do we black people have such a short memory? I clinch when I hear BBC reporters say that London would like to see regime change in Zimbabwe. One even asked a member of Zimbabwe's opposition...

Mr Mazengwa, where did you lose your head?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... When reading "Mr Smith, you have been using a borrowed head" (NA March), I was quite astonished at some of the comparisons made by P. J. Mazengwa. He blatantly contradicts himself by appealing to a measure of justice that he derides throughout...

Harold & Carol Smith ahoy!(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... I discovered New African late last year and since then I have learnt a lot about Africa and people like you. It is sad to note that a lot of Africans do not know the truth about what happened, and what is happening, to their continent. And...

News from the African perspective.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... I am a new subscriber of New African. I was pleasantly surprised when I received my first issue (NA, March 2007) which focused on the celebration of Ghana's 50th independence anniversary. I am an African-American woman who was enstooled as...

'But we have President Kufuor': "Zimbabwe is not as bad as the BBC make it"--British engineer returning from holidays in Zimbabwe on 13 April 2007.(Baffour's Beefs)(Editorial)
May 1, 2007... Well, did anybody miss me? I can tell you, I did miss myself. It's been so long that Beefs has been on a well deserved sabbatical after 20 years on the front line. Sometimes it can get too much even for a beast to produce Beefs. But a...

Mugabe: "our cause is Africa's cause".(Robert Mugabe)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... After the recent events in Zimbabwe, which saw opposition leaders beaten up by the police, and the decision thereafter by the SADC to stand by Zimbabwe, our editor, Baffour Ankomah, went to interview the president in the eye of the storm,...

Jakaya Kikwete: 'SADC cannot abandon Zimbabwe'.(Southern African Development Community)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... Barely 24 hours after the SADC landmark summit in Tanzania on 29 march which asked the west to lift "all forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe", the tanzanian president, jakaya mrisho kikwete, (pictured) spoke with our editor, Baffour Ankomah, on...

Axioms of effective leadership (Part II). All successful leaders have positive attitude about their roles. They have adjusted their minds' "glasses" such that they see the brighter sides of things and are blind to the gloomy. They are incurable optimists, men and women of daring faith. Otherwise, they won't be able to birth visions and follow them up to reality.(Nuggets in a Nutshell)
May 1, 2007... In the first part of this article, I dwelt on the leader's love and its effects on the people and the organisation. Now, I discuss the rest--again as axioms. Can you name one effective leader in a million who never does anything new in his...

South Africa: a bad way to treat fellow Africans! The plight of Somali refugees living in South Africa has been especially heartrending in a country bristling with xenophobia. Since 1997, 470 Somalis have been killed in South Africa. So what is President Mbeki's government doing about it? Pusch Commey reports.(Feature)
May 1, 2007... What have we done to deserve all this?" Mohammed Abdi laments. As the coordinator for the Somali community in South Africa, he has been inundated with endless cases of Somali refugees getting the wrong end of the stick, for no apparent reason....

Uganda: the long, hard road to peace; After 10 months of protracted, stuttering peace talks that have given rise to hopes of ending Uganda's two-decade "forgotten conflict", protagonists are to take their seats at the negotiating table once again. Stuart Price reports from Kampala.(Feature)
May 1, 2007... In any situation of uncertainty or doubt, it is always best advised to proceed with caution. So has been the case regarding the negotiations between the Ugandan Government and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). [ILLUSTRATION...

Paul Kagame, the toast of Dakar: all roads will lead to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on 7-8 June when the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, is honoured at the African Gender Award ceremony. Tom Mbakwe reports.(Feature)
May 1, 2007... Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, will be the toast of Dakar when hundreds of people from across Africa and beyond assemble in Senegal on 7-8 June to celebrate the African Gender Award, which was given to him this year by the Geneva-based NGO,...

Ghana: the race for Kufuor's mantle; Stephen Gyasi Jnr reports from Accra on the 15 aspirants from the ruling party who want to succeed President John Kufuor. It is one hell of a race.(Feature)
May 1, 2007... Several ministers and leading members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) have started canvassing for support ahead of the party's national delegates congress tentatively slated for September this year to elect a successor to President John...

Nigeria: the people decide; Mercy Eze on the surprises that came with the moment of decision on 21 April.(Feature)(Independent National Electoral Commission)
May 1, 2007... Over 60 million registered voters in Nigeria headed for the polls in mid-April to elect their new leaders at all levels of government--local, state, gubernatorial, parliamentary and presidential. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There was...

South Africa: the going is good, but for whom? Amongst the great historical challenges of our time, none seems as difficult as getting blacks out of poverty. In South Africa, the government is doing its best, however there is a big 'but' hanging over its efforts. Pusch Commey reports from Johannesburg.(Feature)
May 1, 2007... South Africa reported a budget surplus of R5bn (US$700m) in February this year. Now the big question is: Who has been feasting on the nation's harvest? "Not us," says some 90% of the country's population. "Not us," says 80% of blacks. "Not...

How now, Mr Wolfowitz? "Hey you guys. Have you apprised what's ongoing in Washington? Wolfowitz is being bandoogled!". The guy who is always saying corruption and bad governance is killing Africa. Well, he has been caught in a commingle himself.(Under the Neem Tree)(Paul Wolfowitz)
May 1, 2007... Although palm wine is, generally speaking, quite a nice drink, you've got to know about it before you can really enjoy it. Otherwise, it can be dangerous to your health. For instance, if you go to a palm wine bar too early in the morning, you...

Can another world be made possible via the World Social Forum?(Feature)
May 1, 2007... The World Social Forum (WSF) is supposed to be a meeting place for the poor as a counter to the World Economic Forum, which is a meeting for the rich. But what happened at this year's WSF held in Nairobi, Kenya, where an $8 registration fee...

Progress in Abidjan.(Feature)(Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Cote d'Ivoire's former rebel chief and now prime minister, Guillaume Soro (pictured) chaired his first cabinet meeting on 20 April since he took office under a fresh peace deal. The new transitional government, formed in early April days after...

When truth takes a holiday.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Movement for Democratic Change)
May 1, 2007... Since 11 March when some Zimbabwean opposition leaders, including Morgan Tsvangirai (leader of one of the two factions of the country's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change--MDC--party), were assaulted by the police, Western media...

Lift all forms of sanctions, says SADC: the Southern African Development Community (SADC) held an extraordinary summit in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam (28-29 March) to discuss the political, economic and security situation in the region. The final communique, reproduced below, has received little mention in the Western media.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... The extraordinary summit of the heads of state and government of SADC met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on 28-29 March 2007 to discuss the political, economic and security situation in the region, with special focus on the situations in Lesotho,...

Zambia's support.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... President Robert Mugabe won a show of support from neighbouring Zambia with its vice-president, Rupiah Banda, calling him one of the world's great leaders who had shown courage by embarking on his controversial land reform programme in the face...

Morgan Tsvangirai: "I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free".(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Movement for Democratic Change)
May 1, 2007... On 16 March, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of one of the two factions of the opposition MDC in Zimbabwe (the MDC split into two on 12 October 2005), published his account of what led to a brutal assault on him and other party officials by the...

The democracy facade of politics of regime change: George Charamba, secretary of information and publicity, gives the background to what culminated in the 11 March 2007 events during which Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues were beaten up by the police. "It was all part of the West's regime change agenda," he writes.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... On 4 July 2004, President George Bush's then secretary of state, Colin Powell, announced that the US and European Union had "ended all official assistance to the government of Zimbabwe", and that they were lobbying other governments to do the...

Zimbabwe: bombing statistics.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Chronology)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 16 February Police caravan attacked in First Street, Harare. Windows of vehicle smashed 18 February Zupco public transport bus set on fire by alleged MDC activists. Fortunately the...

Clare Short: one bad letter with long-lasting consequences.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... On 5 November 1997, Britain's then secretary of state for international development, Clare Short, wrote what has become one of the most defining landmarks in Zimbabwe's recent history--her letter to Zimbabwe's then minister of agriculture and...

Zimbabwe: the police speak.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... Zimbabwe's deputy commissioner of police (operations), Godwin T. Matanga, explains to Baffour Ankomah why his officers beat up Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders on 11 March. "It was in self-defence, because Tsvangirai and his group...

BBC eyewitness: "we fought the police".(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... On Tuesday 13 March 2007, the BBC published the following eyewitness account on its website. According to the BBC, a 32-year-old man, John ("not his real name") spoke to its correspondents from a secret location in the Zimbabwean capital,...

Arthur Mutambara: SADC summit 'is a victory for the people of Zimbabwe'; Prof Arthur G. O. Mutambara, (pictured) leader of the other faction of the opposition MDC, called a press conference in Harare on 2 April to react to the decisions of the SADC summit in Tanzania. We publish below his full statement.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Movement for Democratic Change)(Southern African Development Community)
May 1, 2007... The MDC National Executive Committee met on Saturday 31 March 2007, followed by the National Council on 1 April. The National Council considered the current national crisis. This press conference is pursuant to the discussions and resolutions...

David Coltart: 'why I cannot join Tsvangirai's faction'.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Morgan Tsvangirai, Movement for Democratic Change)
May 1, 2007... Last year, David Coltart (pictured), a former Rhodesian police officer and now the MDC's white MP for Bulawayo South, wrote a piece for the website, NewZimbabwe.com, explaining why he could not join Morgan Tsvangirai's faction of the MDC. His...

Prayer meeting or political rally?(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... For people outside Zimbabwe who might still be debating the difference between a "prayer meeting" and a "political rally", below is a taster. It is an advertisement published in the Zimbabwe Independent on 13 April by The Save Zimbabwe...

When Trudy was attacked.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Trudy Stevenson and the Movement for Democratic Change)
May 1, 2007... On 2 July 2006, Trudy Stevenson, an MDC white member of parliament, was brutally assaulted by youths loyal to Morgan Tsvangirai's faction of the MDC. The international community barely noticed, but some MDC members took special umbrage, which...

"Trudy! You've gone against Tsvangirai!".(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Morgan Tsvangirai, Movement for Democratic Change)(Viewpoint essay)
May 1, 2007... Morgan Tsvangirai is portrayed by Western governments and their media as the "blameless" leader of one of the two opposition MDC factions. But some MDC stalwarts who know what goes on inside the now divided party think otherwise. One such...

MDC on MDC.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Movement for Democratic Change)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... To its credit, last year's attack on Trudy Stevenson provoked heated debate within the MDC. Here are a few quotable quotes: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Welshman Ncube, secretary general of the MDC faction now led by Prof Arthur Mutambara:...

Welshman Ncube: "we saw an increasing tendency towards dictatorship and violence in MDC".(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Movement for Democratic Change)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... Professor Welshman Ncube, (pictured) secretary general of the MDC, was a close ally of Morgan Tsvangirai before the party split into two on 12 October 2005. In this interview first published by the Sunday News in Zimbabwe, he tells Reason Mpofu...

MDC's electoral strength.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Movement for Democratic Change)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... An impression has been created worldwide that Zimbabwe is ruled by a "dictatorship", but a dictatorship with an opposition represented at all levels of government--local, mayoral, parliamentary (both lower house and senate)--is a contradiction...

"Media hype more Western froth and bubble": Peter Mavunga, a Zimbabwean journalist based in Britain, writes about the "single-minded preoccupation of the Western media with demonising Zimbabwe and propping up the opposition, especially Morgan Tsvangirai, well above his station.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Movement for Democratic Change)
May 1, 2007... The British government and Western media campaign against Zimbabwe is notable for its rabid bias; what is said or written has no concern for the truth or balance, that is getting the other side's point of view. It has a single-minded...

USA: 'we are working for regime change in Zimbabwe'.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... For the first time, the US government has openly admitted that it is sponsoring regime change activities in Zimbabwe. The admission was contained in a State Department report, supporting human rights and democracy: The US record 2006, released...

Zimbabwe: 'fallen angels have no right to preach human rights to us'.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... Since March, two attempts by Britain and its European Union allies to use the UN system to condemn alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe have come to nought. Below are some of the exchanges on the floor of the UN Security Council in New...

How sanctions are making the economy 'scream': Britain and its Western allies claim that they have only imposed "targeted sanctions" and "travel bans" on the Zimbabwean leadership and not economic sanctions on the whole country. "Who do they think they are deceiving?," asks Dr Tafataona Mahoso, head of Zimbabwe's Media and Information Commission.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... There is a campaign of what I call "economic terrorism" against Zimbabwe mounted by Britain and its Western allies. "Economic terrorism" is what was meant by the former US president, Richard Nixon, when he instructed US spy agencies to "make...

Mugabe: putting Zimbabwe first; Zimbabwe marked 27 years of independence on 18 April. Below are the highlights of President Mugabe's speech.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Robert Mugabe)
May 1, 2007... Today, 18 April, marks the 27th anniversary of our hard-won independence and freedom from the shackles of British colonialist and imperialist domination. We celebrate not only our 27th year of sovereignty and self-determination, but also our...

Sanctions, which sanctions? For those who still don't believe that Britain, America and their Western allies have imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, here is one such law--the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act--passed by the US Congress in December 2001. Baffour Ankomah reports.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... The punitive Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (readers should not be deceived by its sweet-sounding title), was signed into law by President George W. Bush on 21 December 2001. On that day, President Bush issued the following...

Bishop of Croydon: 'we see a lot of propaganda on our TV'; This was the verdict of the Bishop of Croydon in South London, Rt Rev Nicholas Baines, who led a delegation of Anglican clergymen to Zimbabwe in April: "we see a lot of propaganda on our television stations but we cannot see the evidence [here].".(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... The Bishop of Croydon, Rt Rev Nicholas Baines, has criticised the British media for "peddling lies" about the situation in Zimbabwe, insisting that London has no right to dictate how Harare should run its affairs. Speaking at a welcome...

Sanctions are 'more deadly than warfare': sanctions are having a debilitating effect on the Zimbabwean economy, writes Dr Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (the central bank). "Economic sanctions unless carefully targeted have the capacity to kill more people than armed warfare," he says.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)
May 1, 2007... Sanctions in Zimbabwe and indeed any other country are a declaration of war on sovereign states and result in a barbaric siege against weak countries, targeting the vulnerable groups and civilians at large. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The...

Mugabe thanks SADC & security forces.(ZIMBABWE: Sponsored supplement)(Robert Mugabe addresses Southern African Development Community)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... In his address to the nation on 18 April, marking the 27th independence. anniversary of the country, President Mugabe said: "I wish to express Zimbabwe's gratitude to those countries in the international community and especially to SADC for...

Which is most powerful, the body or the brain? Young black men are 18 times more likely to be under psychiatric care in mental institutions than white people in the UK. How did this happen?(Not in Black or White)
May 1, 2007... I am going to continue with the stuff on the brain and the African mind that I started exploring in my April column. A little birdie tells me that I will be occupied with it for a considerable time. Absolutely. I intend to make it my passion...

Angola: keeping secrets; Angola is like an unspoilt dream, yet I would be lying if I said everything runs like clockwork. It is a haphazard country--but it is safe, the people friendly, and its beauty unsurpassable, writes Kate Eshelby, just back from a tour of Angola.(Travelogue)
May 1, 2007... If I mention Angola what comes to mind--amputees on crutches, landmines and war? Well, the world is full of surprises and Angola is certainly one of them. Angola was once like this, but not anymore. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Watch me,"...

Diamonds: rings on your fingers or blood on your hands? "Diamonds are forever," so the slogan goes, whetting the appetite for the ultimate purchase. But are they rings on our fingers or blood on your hands? The makers of the new film, Blood Diamond, think it is the latter, reports Nick Hordern, the veteran British journalist/broadcaster.(The Arts)(Movie review)
May 1, 2007... Is Blood Diamond a gem of a film--or a critical flashpoint for the jewellery industry's provenance record? Hollywood seems on a run of setting movies in Africa with a moral message that clobbers multinational corporations. For example, the...

When the spinning stops: I have to admit that Blood Diamond is a powerful thriller. The acting, particularly DiCaprio's, is stunningly good. As a credible recreation of Sierra Leone's tragic story, well, that is another matter altogether, writes the Sierra Leonean journalist and author, Lansana Gberie.(The Arts)(Movie review)
May 1, 2007... For brief, fleeting moments almost every decade now, the rich world tends to embrace Africa as a pet project. Africa as the object of the fantasies of the West is an old pathology, and it is not limited to the entertainment industry--though...

Gambia: coup plotters convicted; On 19 April, 10 suspected coup plotters in The Gambia were sentenced between 10 years in jail to life imprisonment by a military court in the capital, Banjul, in mid April.(Endtail)
May 1, 2007... The ex-army officers were convicted of attempting to overthrow President Yahya Jammeh's government in March 2006. The suspected mastermind of the coup, Colonel Ndure Cham, the former army chief of staff, fled the country after the 19 suspected...

China's time is right.(Interview)
May 1, 2007... Adama Gaye is the author of China-Africa: The Dragon and the Ostrich. Published in French last year--with an English translation to follow--the book gives an African academic's thoughts on the new Sino-Africa relationship. With the African...