New African articles from November 2005

New African archives from November 2005

A tale of two letters.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Sean Paterson's letter and the one by the anonymous writer from Southern Africa which you reproduced in Baffour's Beefs (NA, Augt/Sept) say all about the intolerance and inability of those who claim to be tolerant and democratic, to tolerate...

Christian and missionary?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Allow me to address the Southern African "white man/christian/missionarie" who wrote this in the August/September issue: "Very much interesting is to see how HIV/Aids is cleaning up Africa. I'm sorey (sic) it's not happening much faster." ...

True African star!(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... You are such a bright light and the New African such a wonderful source of well-researched and clearly thought-out information that I suggest we change the name to The Real African! The West has poured so much poison on what ought to have...

May God forgive the 'missionarie'.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... The first time I saw your magazine on the shelves, I immediately went for it. I read all the stories and comments. It is one of the few magazines that give the African side of the story. I must congratulate you for a good magazine. I can...

The truth as told by Africans.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... As an African-American, I was not surprised to read the comment of the angry white "missionarie" who said it was "very much interesting to see how Aids is cleaning up Africa". In America, we, African-Americans, feel that continental...

Unmissable reading.(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... From the time I first read your magazine, I have never missed a single copy. Apart from the professional magazines which are automatic to members, the only magazines I cannot afford to miss are New African and African Business. I have no...

In the name of the son.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... At the beginning of every month, I await your new edition with great expectation, and after reading it, I feel satisfied and happy. I have lived in Europe for more than three decades and I have been reading various magazines in different...

NGOs and Africa.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Your cover story on the NGOs (Aug/Sept issue) was quite interesting, and one particular quotation caught my fancy: "In the days of old-fashioned colonialism, the metropolitan powers sent their officials to live in Africa and directly run the...

NGOs not responsible.(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Although foreign governments and NGOs have not been effective in their claims of helping Africa, it is not they who are ultimately responsible for Africa's development. The much referred-to US Marshall Plan did not rebuild post-war Europe...

If only we had listened to Nkrumah.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Muammar AlGathafi's speech to the AU summit in Sirte, Libya, displayed a solid willingness on his part to put Africa's future into African hands. I applaud this greatly. AlGathafi strongly pressed for African unity in the following quote:...

Sending wrong signals.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... It's good to see a united front as NA's agile columnists embark on a ferocious campaign in defence of Africa's image in the international forum, but given the subjective manner in which they go about it, aren't they sending the wrong signals to...

What a travesty.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... As a Zambian who was born and grew up in a village, and has continued to conduct scholarly social research in my home country for the past 25 years. I was appalled that such vile trash produced by Sorious Samura was associated with my country...

Africa: killing us softly.(brain drain)
November 1, 2005... Slowly, and without many noticing, a new threat to Africa is taking shape through the mass immigration schemes for highly trained and skilled Africans such as America's Green Card Diversity Lottery and Britain's Highly Skilled Migrant...

Africa: the lost generation; In January 2002, the British government introduced its flagship Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), a scheme to allow "high fliers with exceptional skills", including Africans, the opportunity to live and work in the UK. Nandi Herbert reports on how such aggressive schemes are draining Africa of its best brains.
November 1, 2005... One of the greatest obstacles to Africa's development is the massive brain drain which has seen millions of Africans leave the continent to seek employment in the West. There is now increasing concern that this haemorrhaging of skills (which...

'The Rhineland's lost boy': while today's migratory patterns reveal an outward flow of people from Africa seeking better lives for themselves in Europe, there was a time when people living in Europe desperately sought asylum in Africa. Carina Ray continues her Tales from the Archives.(Tales from the archives)
November 1, 2005... Europe has become a prime destination for Africans seeking refuge from social, political and economic hardship. Africans risk, and sometimes lose, their lives as they cross the Sahara Desert on their way to North African ports, from where they...

South Africa: Zuma vs the state; The former deputy president, Jacob Zuma, appeared briefly in court on 12 November charged with corruption. The saga threatens the unity of the ruling ANC but if the rule of law is to be respected, the case must go on. Whatever the outcome, South Africa will never be the same. Zenzile Khumalo reports from Johannesburg.(Around Africa)
November 1, 2005... Hundreds of supporters of South Africa's former deputy president, Jacob Zuma, thronged the Durban magistrate's court on 11 October shouting: "Zuma my president, down with Mbeki". No wonder, the case against Zuma on two counts of corruption was...

Kenya.(constitution)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... As the referendum for the new constitution drew near, a nationwide TV debate was organised on 18 October to woo a skeptical public still not sure which way to vote on 21 November. Another TV debate was scheduled for 16 November, five days...

Africa: World Cup fever; The achievement of the four African nations--Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Angola--who will travel to Germany next year and make their debut on football's greatest stage is nothing short of remarkable, especially considering that three of the four are neighbouring countries. The other African qualifier is Tunisia. Stuart Price reports.(Around Africa)
November 1, 2005... Even back when the first qualifying games were played in June last year, no one could have predicted this final outcome--first, the surprising absentees from next year's international carnival of the beautiful game (football giants like...

Zambia: over my dead body, says Chiluba; The battlelines have been drawn between a former president facing corruption charges and a government backed by a former colonial power. Austin Mbewe reports.(Frederick Chiluba)
November 1, 2005... The corruption trial of the former Zambian president, Frederick Chiluba, continues to twist and turn as a bitter confrontation pitching him against the governments of Zambia and Britain looms large on the horizon. The Zambian government has now...

Oil.(World Petroleum Congress)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... In the wake of runaway oil prices, all attention turned to Africa in late September when the World Petroleum Council (WPC), the leading oil and gas organisation, held its first ever congress in Africa since its formation in 1933. With 57 member...

Understanding Angola.(Lest we forget)
November 1, 2005... Just in time for commemorations on 11 November to mark 30 years of independence, Angola has been celebrating its qualification for next year's football World Cup. It is a sporting feat of considerable political significance for a country in...

Ghana: once bitten, twice shy.(foreign investments)
November 1, 2005... President John Kufuor's government is negotiating with foreign multinationals to build an integrated aluminum industry in the country. The mistake Ghana made in the original Valco agreement with Kaiser in 1962, was in setting power tariffs...

Sierra Leone: the killing of the journalist.(Harry Yansaneh)
November 1, 2005... In July, a mob loyal to a Sierra Leonean member of parliament assaulted a newspaper editor in Freetown. Harry Yansaneh, the editor, finally died of his wounds. The case has since thrown up several issues, including the abiding sense of impunity...

Namibia: where others wavered ... The filming of an epic movie on the life of former President Sam Nujoma and the country's liberation struggle has just been completed (see NA, Nov 2003). Uazuva Kuambi, the executive producer, reports on how it all came about and the obstacles his production team encountered.(Feature)
November 1, 2005... "It's a wrap!" These were the words that the crew and cast had been waiting for on Day 85 of principal photography. Then, in the early, chilly hours of 6 September (at 4am to be exact), the African-American film writer/director, Charles...

Zimbabwe: why donors can't stand free speech (2); In August, Western donors asked the organisers of the Zimbabwe International book fair never again to invite our editor, Baffour Ankomah, to speak at the fair. This is the concluding part of his rapporteur general's report that so angered the donors.(Feature)
November 1, 2005... Part I was published in our last issue and ended with Ahmed Motala, an NGO activist from South Africa, still at the podium and saying: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Those who argue that Africans were not entitled to pursue rights as peoples...

What are NGOs doing in Africa? Rotimi Sankore replies to Action Aid's rejoinder in our last month's issue.(Right of Reply)
November 1, 2005... I read with great astonishment the response by Otive Igbuzor, director of Action Aid Nigeria to my report in the August/September issue of New African. He said my piece was "premised on factual errors and misinformation which if not repudiated...

Welcome to Ajegunle, Nigeria's 'Jungle City'.(Feature)
November 1, 2005... On 21 July this year, the Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka, one of Africa's best-known authors, called for sanctions to be imposed on Zimbabwe, describing the situation there as "a disgrace" to Africa. Speaking in a radio interview in South...

Africa Report: a unique platform to the world for people who make things happen in Africa.(television series)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Africa Report is a weekly television series broadcast on the world's leading business channel CNBC Europe. AFRICA REPORT provides a unique platform reaching out to over 60 countries for the people who make things happen, the political and...

Nairobi beckons again.(Under the Neem Tree)
November 1, 2005... This year's CNN African Journalist of the Year Award was won by an enterprising Kenyan TV journalist, Angelo Kinyua. His piece was superb, but what wouldn't I have given for an investigative piece sketching out how one small African country...

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2): this is the concluding part of John Perkins' interview with Amy Goodman of the New York-based TV/radio station, democracy now, on how America's intelligence community recruits and trains "Economic Hit Men" to entice world leaders into a vast network that promotes US commercial and political interests around the world. Perkins was an Economic Hit Man himself.(Books Special)(Interview)
November 1, 2005... Amy: And what were your thoughts at the time? I mean, you continued doing this work. Perkins: It was a very pivotal point for me that, throughout my work, as I describe in the book, my conscience was torn. And to me this is one of the most...

Think, think, think: how long does it take you to work something out? All day? One hour? 10 minutes? How long does it take something to sink in and make sense (or nonsense) in your mind? Half-an-hour from when you saw, heard, watched, it? 15 minutes? Here's an experiment for you.(Not in Black or White)
November 1, 2005... How do you think? How do you think things through? Readers, here's an experiment for you: why don't you watch yourself think? Really hard. Carefully. How would you do it? That thinking-thinking thingy. Does your mind bore you? How accursed to...

Goodnight, good knight: Anver Versi, editor of African Business, pays homage to Setorwu Gagakuma, a member of the New African family and our former correspondent and representative in Ghana who died on 8 October.(Appreciation)(Obituary)
November 1, 2005... In my profession, I meet many people, from many countries on a day by day basis; some become good acquaintances, a very few become good friends. Setorwu Gagakuma (or Seto, as we called him) was the best friend I had not only in Ghana but...

Dying for America in Iraq: Leslie Goffe reports on the Africans fighting America's war in Iraq--and returning home in bodybags and coffins. "I say to myself, how many mothers have lost a child? I wonder how many more are going to die and I thought I do not believe in this war," says a Nigerian mother, Virgina Onwordi, whose son came back in a coffin.(Diaspora)
November 1, 2005... Justin Bialiolisa Onwordi, Segun Frederick Akintade and Francis Chinomso Obaji paid a very high price for their adopted country, America. Born in Nigeria, all three lost their lives fighting for the US military in Iraq. [ILLUSTRATION...

Is America selling itself short? Cameron Duodu writes about the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the Gulf States of America, and asks: "by ignoring the suffering of the victims for so long, did the Bush administration act as a 'government of the people'? Is America selling itself short?(George W. Bush)
November 1, 2005... In June 1948, the Soviet Union, in defiance of the agreements it had reached with the US, Britain and France at the end of the Second World War which conferred a "Four-Power status" on Berlin, the capital of defeated Germany, placed a land...

Senegal's queen of fashion.(Oumou Sy)(Interview)
November 1, 2005... Oumou Sy is one of Africa's most important contemporary fashion designers. Yet she is much more than a couturiere--she is a poet, a playwright, an activist, and a cyber pioneer who opened West Africa's first internet cafe, in the Senegalese...