African Studies Blog

The premier of China Wen Jiabao pledged $10 billion in new low interest loans to African nations over three years, at the start of a two-day China-Africa summit in Egypt.  He said China would also forgive government debts of the poorest African nations that have relations with Beijing and would build 100 new clean energy projects for the continent. It would also gradually institute a zero-tariff policy on 95 percent of goods from some of the poorest countries. All this would take place over three years.

Read this at Washingtonpost.com

Guinea

West African neighbors of Guinea; Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire  and Sierra Leone are worried that the instability in that country could spill over to their countries. There are fears that the problems in Guinea could descend into civil war. The leaders of these countries who have all just ended bloody civil conflicts themselves often with foreign help recall how civil strife in one country has infected neighbours.

Read this at Economist.com

Rwanda

An article in the New York Times reports that a suspect in Rwanda’s genocide in 1994 was arrested in Uganda last week. Idelphonse Nizeyimana has been wanted  by International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for crimes against humanity, for his leadership and actions involving the murder of Tutsi civilians, families, and a ceremonial Tutsi queen.  He is to be charged, detained, and to stand trial for his crimes of almost 15 years ago.

Read it in the New York Times

Guinea

At the urging of trade union leaders, the government of Guinea has called for a national period of mourning, today and tomorrow (October 12- 13), in recognition of those killed in protests on September 28.  Businesses are closed, people are staying in their homes to mourn the deaths.  Riot police have been stationed in the areas to deter demonstrations, which have been declared illegal by the regime since the September 28th protest.

Read it in the Washington Post

Dr Steve Howard, Ohio University Director of the African Studies Program was honored Wednesday with the President’s Award from the President of Somalia in Columbus, Ohio.

The President of Somalia, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was in Columbus on a visit sponsored by African Studies in cooperation with the Columbus Council on World Affairs. The inscription on the statuette read, “Thank you for being a friend of the Somali community.”

Read it in  Outlook : Ohio University News and Information

Guinea Protests

Tensions in Guinea continues to rise  since last Monday when thousands demonstrating  against Captain Camara’s intimations of wanting to keep power were killed at  at point-blank range by his soldiers.  Reports say they beat and knifed many more, bashing elderly political figures and sending them to hospitals.

Read it in the New York Times

Uganda

An article in the New York Times titled “dialing for answers where Web can’t reach” describes an innovative service designed to get information to people in remote areas of  Uganda who have no access to computers. The service is called Question Box a  non profit telephone hot line operating at a small call center on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital city of Kampala.  The premise of Rose Shuman the creator of the service is that many barriers keep most of the developing world from taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge available through Web search engines.

Read it in the New York Times

Here are two news articles on the current situation in Guinea.  The articles describe recent protests against the current military government, and the government’s reactions to the events.

NY Times- Guinea’s Capital Fades Into a Ghost Town After Soldiers’ Rampage

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/world/africa/30guinea.html?_r=1

Washington Post- Guinea’s Military Leader Bans Demonstrations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/30/AR2009093000743.html

Africa was featured prominently in the news this week due to Secretary of State Hilary Clintons’s seven nation tour of the continent.  During the trip she met with rape survivors from Congo’s war, scolded Kenyan politicians for failing to put on trial the instigators of political violence, toured a refugee camp and talked about the oil business with Nigerian leaders. Here is a selection of articles in the newspapers this week.

A piece in the Washington Post titled In Nigeria Sharia fails to deliver discusses the disappointment of the people in Nigeria’s mostly Muslim northern states in the Islamic legal system or Sharia laws that was introduced when military rule ended.  The people had believed politicians’ promises that it would end decades of corruption and pillaging by civilian and military rulers.  According to the article this utopia did not happen and the residents find that the poor are still poor and miserable and politicians are still rich.

In another article in the Washington Post,  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo condemns attacks including rapes on civilians in eastern Congo and calls for the prosecution of soldiers and militiamen who engage in such attacks. She announced $17 million in new aid to provide medical help for victims of sexual violence and improve security in the region.

In an interesting article about Ghana in the New York Times writer Laban Carrick Hill describes vividly her experiences in Cape Coast.  The appealing culture of Ghana, the people, the food all combine to provide a joyous African experience.

The New York Times on Thursday described Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s visit to Liberia and her support of President Johnson Sirleaf who has faced criticism of late for her role during the country’s armed conflict of 1989-2003.

Hilary Clinton wrapped up her seven nation trip to Africa with a stop in Cape Verde, the New York Times reported in Friday’s paper.  The article states that in recent years, the country has had a string of democratic elections and surging economic output, with an average 5.7 percent growth from 1996 to 2006.

The Washington Post reports that security forces in Nigeria have killed militants in the northern city of Maiduguri. The militants known as the Boko Haram sect had been blamed for the violence in the mostly Muslim region of Nigeria.  The government forces shelled and stormed the group’s mosque and headquarters Wednesday night, setting off a raging firefight with retreating militants.

Read it in the Washington Post

An article in The Economist describes Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe’s tour of America and Europe as a hard sell to get funds for his country’s battered economy although he won recognition  for himself and his MDC party from the various leaders he met.

Read this at Economist.com

The Economist reports that Kenya has taken concrete steps to switch from connecting to the Internet by satellite links to fibre optic cable. Last week Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki plugged in the first of three fibre-optic submarine cables in Mombasa. This is considered a communications revolution in East Africa and will speed up Internet connection in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as bits of Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan. It is expected that the high bandwidth and the competition between the three cables will reduce communication costs and help create new business.

Read it at Economist.com

The Economist writes on how the coalition government in Kenya is functioning. After the election violence of 2007, the two main parties formed a government but the article states that arrangement is not working resulting in a dysfunctional government.

Read it at Economist.com