New African articles from May 2008

New African archives from May 2008

China-Africa: why the West is worried.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... Thanks for you article on the relations between China and Africa (New African, March 2008). Like you correctly pointed out, the relations between these two great peoples date back to centuries ago. China has strived so hard and so ably to treat...

China: approach with care.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... Your main feature "China-Africa: Why the West is worried" (New African, March 2008) is quite elaborate, enlightening and revealing. However, while I am enthused with your adumbrations that "China is not an ordinary nation", I remain slightly...

Critical-thinking New African.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I was in my local library recently when I stumbled on your surprisingly excellent magazine! I spent quite sometime reading it and by the time I had finished reading your article on Fidel Castro, I was left with a great desire to read his book...

Viva Fidel! Viva Africa!(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I have been an avid reader of your magazine for almost two years. I cried while travelling on the train recently, after reading your article "Fidel Castro: Africa's great friend" (New African, April 2008). Baffour your honest journalism...

Castro praise very disturbing.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... It is extremely unfortunate that your magazine has confused the opportunistic actions of a Marxist dictator spreading "world revolution" with any sincere desire to help Africa. Your April issue's praise for Fidel Castro is disturbing,...

Thank you Cuba.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... The picture (above, right) of Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela together said it all. Would the world embrace the man like the great man (Mandela) himself did? Your article, "Castro of Africa", in the April issue, really educated me. I don't...

Well done Zimbabweans.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... As a Zimbabwean who has just witnessed and participated in the just ended 2008 harmonised elections, I wish to commend all Zimbabweans across the political divide for upholding peace before and during the elections! My university colleague...

South Africa: Echoes of apartheid.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I am greatly saddened by your report on the above subject matter (New African, April 2008). I had to read this story more than seven times and each time I found myself saying, please tell me this is not true! As an African I felt scandalised....

Divide and rule.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... It was no surprise to see that New African printed the letter by Zbigniew Brzezinski disclaiming authenticity of the Memorandum 46, "Black Africa and the US Black Movement". (New African, April 2008). Whether the memo is fake or not, there...

Leave us alone!(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... Regarding your story, "Do some blacks have a problem with Obama?" (New African, April 2008), I ask: Do some Africans have problems with African Americans exercising their freedom of expression and choice? As one who is a seventh-generation...

Keep up the good job.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I write to thank you for the good services you are rendering to your readers especially with Baffour's Beefs. I am a constant reader of New African and I really enjoy your writing skills and the analysis of your stories. May I ask Baffour...

Carina on the T-word.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I must congratulate Carina Ray on opening the debate regarding "tribes" as it is long overdue ("How the word 'tribe' stereotypes Africa" New African, March 2008) and I would like to extend the debate further: What are sometimes called...

Zimbabwe article lacked depth.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I would like to commend you on the good job you are doing in the New African. Each month, I look forward to getting a copy of your pan African magazine which contains in-depth analyses of African issues from an African standpoint. I however...

In the name of democracy.(Baffour's Beefs)(Dinner with Mugabe: The Untold Story of a Freedom Fighter Who Became a Tyrant)(Critical essay)
May 1, 2008... "He [Mugabe] was extremely magnanimous in allowing Ian Smith to go on in Zimbabwe--I wouldn't have, I really wouldn't--and I think that was partly because he didn't want to alienate whites. That attitude lasted for quite a long time, 15 years...

High noon in Zimbabwe.
May 1, 2008... President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party have been given their stiffest electoral battle since independence in 1980. As we went to press, Zanu had lost its majority in the lower House of Assembly for the first time in 28 years--by...

Zimbabwe: is a coalition government the answer?
May 1, 2008... Even after the presidential run-off, whoever wins the presidency will be saddled with a hung parliament, and will have very little room to manoeuvre. "In 1979, at Lancaster House, everyone made some concessions. In the early 1980s, Zimbabwe had...

Cameroon: L'etat c'est Biya? Whilst the world media's attention is resolutely focused on the perceived attempt by Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe to cling to power, elsewhere on the continent, another president has without any fracas, moved to lengthen his time in office. Tansa Musa reports from Yaounde.(For the Record)
May 1, 2008... Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, who has been in power for 25 years, had parliament vote in April, to scrap the presidential term limit in order for him to run for the presidency again in 2011. Which means if he wins at the next elections,...

Racial politics of writing African history: "As a historian of African descent, I regard the decolonisation of knowledge as a crucial step in ensuring that Africans worldwide retake control of their own destinies and histories.".(Lest We Forget)
May 1, 2008... In my January 2008 column titled We Have a History, I documented the long history of racism towards global Africans. But the title appears to have given some readers the wrong impression, that I was suggesting that centuries of anti-Black...

DRCongo: the heavy price of the world's high-tech.(Feature)(Democratic Republic of the Congo)
May 1, 2008... As Africa's richest country by mineral resource, DRCongo gives the world some of its most strategic minerals. In this report Khadija Sharife looks at the agony brought by the exploration of Congo's coltan and cassiterite--two of the Western...

Botswana: who is Ian Khama? While the international spotlight is focused on Zimbabwe, most of the world is oblivious to the fact that, just next door in Botswana, a quiet handover of power has successfully taken place. Helen Brooks attempts to lure the world's attention to the new president of one of Africa's most stable nations.(Feature)(Biography)
May 1, 2008... The fact that there were sporadic world reports on the inauguration of Lt-Gen Ian Khama (full name Ian Khama Seretse Khama) as new president of Botswana on 1 April is perhaps not that surprising. Indeed although he has been in public life since...

Should Africa be grateful for colonialism? A British-born South African columnist, David Bullard, thinks Africa should be grateful for colonialism. But his black editor is fed up with his bile and has fired him, creating another race controversy in South Africa, reports Pusch Commey from Johannesburg.(Feature)
May 1, 2008... David Bullard, a popular columnist of the South African weekly newspaper, Sunday Times, has once again stoked the embers of what has been smouldering: the race issue. A witty, controversial writer, he has had the audacity to call Jacob Zuma,...

Nigeria: not yet at ease.(Feature)
May 1, 2008... A new Budget Bill has been signed by the government, President Umaru Yar'Adua has been rushed for emergency medical treatment in Germany, two ruling party state governors have been removed from office by the Appeal Court, and more revelations...

It's bonding time.(Feature)
May 1, 2008... Talk of political impatience, dithering peace negotiations, and a war-mongering media culture that had taken root in Kenya, have come to nought following the formation of the Grand Coalition government in April. Regina Jere and Otieno Aluoka...

Ghana: old faces give way.(Feature)
May 1, 2008... Ghana goes to the polls in December 2008 to elect a new president and a new parliament, but nine full months to election day, the nation is already bracing itself for a shakeup in parliament as a number of MPs from the ruling party have...

Bread and butter matters: fourteen months after President Abdoulaye Wade's election song to put things right, Senegalese people are today dancing to a different drumbeat. Abdoulie Sey reports from Dakar on the cheerless refrains brought by the rising cost of living.(Feature)
May 1, 2008... The capital of Senegal, Dakar, is now one of the most expensive cities in Africa. As such it was only a matter of time before simmering discontent was uncorked on its streets and in March it triggered running battles between rioters and the...

Who will judge the judges?(Under the Neem Tree)(Essay)
May 1, 2008... It is time for election officials who cause bloodshed in African countries by deliberately seeking to reverse the verdict of the people, to be rounded up and tried before international courts. There cannot be a different law for bandits who...

ICT powering development: one of the main conclusions of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's Information Economy Report 2007/8 is that the Information Communications Technology (ICT) revolution is spreading fast to the developing world and contributing to the rapid modernisation of their economies. Stephen Williams reports.(Special Report: Telecoms)
May 1, 2008... The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, writing in the foreword of this year's United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) Information Economy Report, observes that we are now midway on the timeline set by the international...

Celtel spreads its coverage: Zain, Celtel's parent company, has announced a new initiative, together with Ericsson and the GSM Association, to save lives on Lake Victoria by extending mobile coverage. Stephen Williams reports.(Special Report: Telecoms)
May 1, 2008... Over 200,000 fishermen work on Lake Victoria, and they will soon have the opportunity to use mobile phones to call for help if they get into trouble on the world's second largest inland lake. Celtel, the pan-African mobile operator,...

What ICT can do to governance in Africa; Stephen Williams reviews Gianluca Misuraca's book, "e-governance in Africa: from theory to action".(Special Report: Telecoms)(information and communication technology)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Published by the Africa World Press. $29.95. ISBN: 1-59221-579-3. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This book starts with the premise that integrating ICT into governance processes can greatly enhance the delivery of public services to all...

AfDB 2008 AGM--Maputo, Mozambique.(African Development Bank Newsletter)(annual general meeting )(Conference notes)
May 1, 2008... "We believe the AfDB can and must become the premier development institution in Africa, providing a strong voice for and within Africa so that Africans can take their rightful place at the forefront of continental economic stewardship. With...

Like father, like son ... It is not unusual for a son to follow in his father's professional footsteps, but as Gebrekristos Solomon, one of Ethiopia's most celebrated artists, explained to Stephen Williams, it might all have been so different.(Arts)(Biography)
May 1, 2008... Gebrekristos Solomon has spent much of his adult life painting in his small studio. Located at the rear of one of Addis Ababa's most popular souvenir shops in the Piazza district of the capital, this little shop gets its fair share of visitors...

Hollywood comes to Africa: Vito Echevarria reports on Hollywood's new-found "love affair" with Africa, but questions why much of it is concentrated in South Africa.(The Arts)
May 1, 2008... More and more films about Africa have come out of Hollywood in recent years. One in particular caught more than the attention it deserved--Nicole Kidman's 2005 film The Interpreter, a political thriller about the attempted assassination of an...

Africa's premier banking multinational.(Celebrating 20 years of Pan-African banking)(Ecobank Group)(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... Africa's first true multinational, the Ecobank Group celebrated its 20th anniversary by recording yet another outstanding performance. Figures released in April 2008 show that in 2007, the Group's total assets increased by 87% from $4.2bn to...

Birth of an African champion: how it all began.(Celebrating 20 years of Pan-African banking)
May 1, 2008... The 1980s have been described as 'Africa's lost decade' when the post-independence euphoria had given way to a series of political and economic calamities. Productivity and revenue had hit the nadir while the debt mountain grew ever higher....

Innovation takes banking to the people.(Celebrating 20 years of Pan-African banking)
May 1, 2008... In keeping with its position as the leading African bank on the continent, Ecobank has taken the lead in introducing innovative retail products in the market. The objective is to tap into two key areas: the preference for cash transactions and...

It is a pity! It is a pity that the people who voted against President Mugabe have no ability to remember the servitude they existed in prior to the last eight years.(Not in Black or White)
May 1, 2008... They did it for the money. What is the price of loyalty? It is a heavy price to pay when "your" people are prepared to buy and sell you for Western money. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Western money could not, and cannot, buy President Robert...

Press freedom under attack in Gambia & USA.(Opinion)
May 1, 2008... The harassment and imprisonment of journalists in America sends a bad message to countries such as The Gambia, where press freedom has been under attack for a long time. Alagi Yorro Jallow, a Gambian editor exiled in the US, laments the fact...

Let former colonisers follow Italy's example.(Opinion)
May 1, 2008... "It is not often that former colonialists apologise for the wrongs they inflicted on Africa. But Italy has chosen not only to do it in words, but also in kind by building a billion-dollar motorway across Libya, as compensation for its colonial...

1807 Act commemoration; What did we achieve? Did Africans gain anything from the commemoration of the 1807 Slavery Abolition Act? One year after the event, which was played big by the British government, Kwaku takes a critical look and asks: Was anything achieved?(Comment)(Viewpoint essay)
May 1, 2008... The celebrations, and the media coverage (including some deliberate misinformation) may be over, but it is important that issues flowing from the commemoration of the 1807 Abolition Act be put into a contemporary and Africanist perspective. ...

UK: it has not been all milk and honey.(Diaspora)(Caribbean and African communities in UK)
May 1, 2008... When you look back to the unrecorded, anonymous years of the black presence in Britain (from 1948 to 1958), it is difficult to believe that the country had a substantial, and increasing, black population. Fifty years on, black people have grown...

Back to Africa mission for Diaspora: under the auspices of the African Union, the Diaspora African Forum Mission based in Ghana has become a catalyst for the return of Diasporan Africans to the motherland. Kwadwo Gyan-Apenteng reports from Accra.(Diaspora)
May 1, 2008... Based at the Dubois Centre, itself a hub for pan-Africanism in Ghana, the Diaspora African Forum Mission (DAFM) plays a unique role in reinforcing the link between the African Diaspora and the motherland, in keeping with Marcus Garvey's "Back...

2010: Africa's date with destiny.(Coalition of Supporters Unions of Africa's Sarfo Abebrese)(Interview)
May 1, 2008... The Coalition of Supporters Unions of Africa (Cosua) was formed on 7 September 2006 in Ghana. The objective is to mobilise all Africans across the continent and in the Diaspora to provide unified support for the six African nations who will...