New African articles from November 2004

New African archives from November 2004

Greatest African of All Time?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... I am a regular reader of your informative magazine which I feel is an asset to all self-respecting Africans. However, the results of your 100 Greatest Africans of All Time survey (NA Aug-Sept) tell and confirm a rather sad story for our beloved...

Speak English!(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... Early this year, I made a suggestion to my class that it would be far better for us to use our own language at school as it would make us better students and also help push the development of our country into the fast lane. I cited...

Nigeria: Ogoni conflict.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... The fact that Nigeria--acknowledged as an active role player in Africa--has responded so slowly to the conflict in Ogoni is more than a shame. This conflict raises questions about the position of Nigeria in the region. It is high time that...

Canada's first African MP.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... First of all, as any Canadian schoolchild can tell you, Canada's first African MP was not, as your magazine claims (NA October), Maka Kotto, but rather Lincoln Alexander, who became our first black MP in 1963 and later went on to become the...

Zambia: help for Barotseland.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... As a suppressed Lozi, I was most disappointed to find that the SADC meeting in Mauritius in August did not address the long-standing issue of the colonisation of the people of Barotseland in Zambia. The abrogation of the Barotseland...

Big brother is watching!(Baffour's Beefs)
November 1, 2004... "There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well-prepared to meet the enemy"--former US president, George Washington. For those who for the first time heard, in this column last month, about the ECHELON spy project, welcome to...

Why Africa is treading water.(Cover Story)
November 1, 2004... Trade, not aid, makes the world go round. In Africa, sadly, the reverse is true. But, as Osei Boateng reports, if Africa is to make any real progress economically, the current global trading system presided over by the PWorld Trade Organisation...

Behind the scenes at the WTO.
November 1, 2004... When African delegates return from WTO negotiations with not much on their plates, they are often criticised for their "spinelessness". But, as Fatoumata Jawara and Aileen Kwa reveal in this extract from their book, the sheer bullying,...

WTO: a game of high intrigue; A revealing insight into how big power pressure and inducements carry the day at the WTO, including even the appointment of director generals. Fatoumata Jawara and Aileen Kwa report.
November 1, 2004... The 1994 Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO provided for a Secretariat to support the organisation's work. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the Secretariat has around 550 regular staff, headed by a director-general (DG). They are divided...

South Africa: gone with the wind; Edward D. Fagan, the flamboyant American personal injury lawyer, who made international headlines with both the Holocaust and apartheid claims cases, has gone to ground, leaving his South African clients in a huge lurch and damaging their cases in the process. Terry Bell reports.(Around Africa)
November 1, 2004... Edward D. Fagan has disappeared from sight, accused by his former South African colleagues of being "a destructive opportunist" and dumped by his erstwhile American partners. Now there is a $3.2m malpractice judgement against him issued by the...

Kenya: a shining example.(Around Africa)(Interview)
November 1, 2004... On 8 October, Professor Wangari Maathai, the endearing environmental activist and campaigner, and currently Kenya's deputy environment minister, became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In announcing the decision, the Nobel...

Nigeria: the rebel who outfoxed Obasanjo; He sneezed and the world oil price soared to $50 per barrel, and President Olusegun Obasanjo, known for his scorched earth tactic in dealing with opposition groups, wilted. Meet the rebel from Nigeria's Rivers State. Pini Jason reports.(Around Africa)
November 1, 2004... His name is Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo, an Ijaw from Buguma, Rivers State, and leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF). On 27 September, he issued an ultimatum to the international community to withdraw their nationals from...

Sierra Leone: martyr of press freedom? Paul Kamara, editor of Sierra Leone's popular newspaper, For Di People, has been jailed for the second time in two years. This time, his supporters say he is a victim of a government witch-hunt. An international campaign for his release is already underway. Mike Butscher reports.(Around Africa)
November 1, 2004... Paul Kamara's newspaper, For Di People, is the longest surviving private newspaper in Sierra Leone, but the future of the paper is now in doubt after Kamara was sentenced to two years imprisonment on 5 October, having been found guilty on two...

Ghana: courage is Kufuor's greatest asset; Whether he wins re-election on 7 December or not, Ghana's president, John Agyekum Kufuor, can take pride in the fact that over the past four years he has remained steady and calm at the helm of a peaceful country, writes Cameroon Duodu.(Analysis)
November 1, 2004... President John Agyekum Kufuor's courage has been admirable. He first offered himself to be elected president in 1996 in circumstances that would have deterred other politicians. And when he was defeated by the incumbent, Flt-Lt Jerry John...

Kofi Annan: 'today the rule of law is at risk around the world'.(For the Record)
November 1, 2004... "Every nation that proclaims the rule of law at home must respect it abroad; and every nation that insists on it abroad must enforce it at home. Yes, the rule of law starts at home... The vulnerable lack effective recourse, while the powerful...

Bush: 'we stand for peace and human rights'.(For the Record)
November 1, 2004... "The American people respect the idealism that gave life to this organisation [the United Nations]. And we respect the men and women of the UN, who stand for peace and human rights in every part of the world. During the past three years, I've...

Mugabe: 'the west should spare us their lessons on human rights ...(For the Record)
November 1, 2004... "At the 58th Session [of the General Assembly], I spoke about the need to reform the United Nations and its related bodies so as to make them more democratic. I stressed the perils inherent in the status quo, particularly with regard to the...

Mbeki: 'it is perhaps time that we the poor and powerless abandon our wheelchairs and begin to walk unaided'.(For the Record)
November 1, 2004... "In the Millennium Declaration, we used inspiring words to sum up our response to [the world's] problems. We said: 'We have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level. As...

Darfur another view; The Americans insist that genocide is being committed in the Darfur region of Sudan. The African Union says no. Here, Bob Astles, an old African hand, supports the AU: "it has not been genocide but a mass movement to safety well away from a rebel war," he writes.(Comment)
November 1, 2004... Events in the western Sudanese province of Darfur have hit the headlines under US pressure for weeks now, although there are other explosive issues in Africa that are continuing to cost far more in terror and life agony but of which there is...

ECOWAS new monetary zone will take off if ...(Interview)(Interview)
November 1, 2004... In 1999, ECOWAS decided to fast-track its integration process through a second monetary zone. This is expected to merge in the future with the CFA Zone that already exists for Francophone West Africa. Called the West Africa Monetary Zone...

What Africa wants from Tony Blair: Africa is tired of being handed down readymade solutions to problems that concern it. Africa may be poor, but it doesn't mean it has no sense.(Under the Neem Tree)
November 1, 2004... Tony Blair may be sincere in his desire to help Africa sort out its serial blood-letting, by calling for the establishment of a European military force that could intervene, at short notice, in conflicts like Darfur's. I wonder, though, whether...

Humans are not the sole intelligent, thinking beings on earth.(Environment)
November 1, 2004... Dame Jane Goodall, the British primatologist and world's foremost authority on chimpanzees, lived for 30 years in the wilds of the Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Nobody knows chimpanzees better than her. And she says, emphatically, that...

The times of utopia: "now do not dream; Good patient friend; That you have seen; The search's end; That's beyond me; That's out ahead! By you--to be continued ...".(Lest we forget)
November 1, 2004... The revolutionary slogan "Aluta continua!" (the struggle goes on) was echoed throughout Southern Africa at the time of independence in Mozambique and Angola in 1975. Now, after nearly 30 years of disappointments, many in the two countries...

Caribbean: in the eye of the storms; This year's hurricane season in the Caribbean Basin has undoubtedly been one of the most intense of recent times. The countries of the region experienced mixed fortunes, some faring much worse than others. But why has the 2004 season been so ferocious? Is it indicative of things to come? Stuart Price reports.(Diaspora)
November 1, 2004... For many in the Caribbean, this year's hurricane season (August to November) has been the most prolific and devastating in many decades. An unusually high number of hurricanes have smashed through the region in close succession, causing...

UK Black Enterprise winners.(Diaspora)
November 1, 2004... This year's Black Enterprise Awards ceremony was held in early October in London. Nine categories of the best of black British businesses were up for grabs. The premier award, Black Enterprise Champion, went to Prof Geoff Palmer of the...