600 Days of Protesting Paul Biya's Thirty-Year Dictatorship in Cameroon

Six hundred days ago, we here at FlourishingAfrica began protesting Pual Biya's dictatorship in Cameroon when he forced himself on the people once again in one of his thirty-year dictatorial machinations called an election. In most places around the world, it would be shocking to find a single person who has been subjecting people under his misrule for that long. However, with the help of France and the army, Paul Biya has perfected this anomalous regime in Cameroon as the people constantly groan. As a dictator, the man thrives in maintaining a low profile even as dictatorships in Africa and around the world crumble. It is our goal here to popularize his rapacious regime so that Biya may be known for the dictator that he is and so hasten the end of this misbegotten regime. Join the movement by tweeting this tweet daily!

Too Fat to Live In New Zealand

The good folks over in New Zealand (which, if I had my way, would be called The Netherlands) are expelling a South African chef from their country because, they say, he is too fat to live in the country. He weighs 136 kilograms or 286 pounds. And this, in a country with a 30 percent obesity rate, the third highest in the world. One more obese person, the government of New Zealand has decided, will, pardon the pun, tip the scale against the whole country. I am not sure what to make of this story but I look forward to hearing about it on Comedy Central. This story is so absurd that I can only imagine that the good folks over in New Zealand should be joking.

Islamists and Dictatorship in Africa

Islamists are dictators. In all the African countries where Islamists have been influential, there has been increased dictatorial tendencies. This can be seen in the Sudan, Egypt, and Tunisia. In an Africa that seems to be recovering from widespread dictatorship, the dictatorship of the Islamists is distressing. It was the dictatorial tendencies of El Bashir of Sudan that led South Sudan to fight for its independence. Egypt under Muhammad Mursi was heading so fast towards dictatorship that the army had to intervene. In Tunisia, Islamists had been killing those who disagree with them. This is not to say that secular regimes are better than Islamists. In fact, we have far more dictatorial secular regimes in Africa - think of Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Paul Biya of Cameroon, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. The point here is not that secular governments are not dictatorial. Rather, the point is that in an Africa that seems to be recovering from dictatorship, the rise of Islamist dictatorship is bad for the continent. Just like we need good constitutions to stave dictatorial tendencies everywhere, we need good constitutions to check the dictatorial tendencies of Islamists in Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, etc. The dictatorship of the Islamists seems more dangerous because they do not only not tolerate other views, they also seek the conversion of non-Muslims and sometimes this conversion may be procured under duress. See what Boko Haram is doing in Nigeria! Africans need to guard against Islamist dictatorship.

Chris Froome and the Question of African Identity

The current winner of the Tour de France is a gentleman by the name of Chris Froome. According to Wikipedia, he was born in Kenya and grew up in South Africa. Since 2008, however, he has been riding as a British citizen "on the basis of his passport and father's and grandparents' country of birth." The tortuous statement in quotes is apparently intended to show that he is somehow British. Now, there are many people in Kenya and South Africa whose parents and grandparents were born in Britain but having been born and raised in Kenya or South Africa, they now identify with these countries. I do not know the country Mr. Froome would claim as his own. However, the BBC and other British media have been doing everything in their power to make him "Britain's second successive winner of the Tour de France in its 100th year," even though people in Kenya are laying claim to him, too. It seems the human tendency to classify is suffering severe strain in our time. Just think of the Briton, Luol Deng, of the Chicago Bulls!

Spilling Government Secrets in Zimbabwe: The Method of Baba Jukwa

One good person may change a rotten government. How may this happen? A mysterious person inside the insufferable ruling government in Zimbabwe seems to have stumbled on an ingenuous method: Facebook. If you work for a corrupt government and you do not like what is going on in the government, you may change things simply by creating a Facebook page - under a pseudonym, of course. If you create a Facebook page using your real name, your enemies may easily find you out and kill you. But if you use a pseudonym, you may remain anonymous for as long as is necessary. Simply opening a Facebook page, however, may not help much - you need to be a trusted member of the inner circle of the government. Now, as a member of the inner circle of the government, make sure you attend all meetings where the government's devilish strategies are being cooked. After each meeting, publish the strategy on your Facebook page. This strategy is causing a stir in Zimbabwe. We need more people like Baba Jukwa.

Racism in Europe and America: A Reflection

It seems to me that in terms of race relations the United States is far advanced than Europe. This is not to say that there is less racism in America than in Europe but rather that racism in America is far more subtle than in Europe. In America, there is far more public display of contempt over open racists than seems to be the case in Europe. I say this because the kind of public display of racism one hears about in many European countries can hardly be seen in America. In American racism, events or comments that carry racist undertones, like the recent Trayvon Martin case, is said not to be about racism at all. Thus, it seems that people try to hide their racism in America because they feel embarrassed about it. Not so in Europe. In Europe, racists actually flaunt their wares in public and go on to prosper. Racism is demonstrated every week in football stadiums all over Europe and the teams with racists fans and players go on to prosper. Currently, there is a row in Italy, that stronghold of racism in Europe, about a member of parliament who has described a black, female minister of the country as an orangutan. He has, however, rejected calls for his resignation. I wonder whether a member of congress in America would survive such remarks. I wait to see the outcome of the Italian case as I watch how Europeans and Americans continue to teach their kids racism. It is quite a distasteful and distressing development.

Gay Rights Activist Murdered in Cameroon

Eric Ohena Lembembe (pictured below), a Cameroonian gay rights activist, was murdered in Yaoundé, according to this report. See more of the story at this blog. Eric contributed to the book on gay rights seen below:

Of Expired Butter and the Removal of Mohammed Morsi

An Egyptian explains the removal of Morsi from power in the form of a proverb couched in a question: "If you bought a packet of butter and found it expired, what would you do? You would throw it away," said 49-year-old Mohammed Gad. Would you throw it away? Read more here.

France Under 20 National Team Are Champions!: Colonialism Pays Off

The French Under 20 national football team that won the just ended Fifa World Cup might be mistaken for a team from Africa. Such a mistake will be quite justified.

World Corruption Index: Where Do African Countries Rank?

Click here and navigate the map for more information. The picture is not pretty.

Miracle: A Finely Written Story

This short story is the winner of the Caine Prize. It is a finely written story. These lines from the play caught my eyes because I have hardly heard the matter put so bluntly: "This is what I learned during my first visit to a Nigerian church: that a community is made up of truth and lies. Both must be cultivated in order for the community to survive." Let me hear what you think.

 

 

 
 


 

Pope Francis Did Well

Pope Francis has just completed a visit to Lampedusa to bring attention to the plight of Africans, many of whom drown in the Mediterranean Sea as they struggle to seek what they believe would be a better life in Europe. This is an issue which is hardly highlighted by African leaders themselves, who should bear the blame for why their citizens are fleeing their countries. The study of migration is now a popular academic theme but scholars themselves are hardly concerned with the circumstances under which these migrants reach, and sometimes even fail to reach, their destinations. Pope Francis has done well to draw attention to the plight of African migrants.

 

theSOFTtribe: A Leading Software Developer in Africa

See their story here.

 

 

The Vision of a Young African Prodigy

See a follow-up video here.

How Paul Biya is Ruining Cameroon's Football

I have repeatedly pointed out in this blog that the declining state of Cameroon's football, like the declining fortunes of the country, is directly connected to the misrule of Cameroon's dictator, Paul Biya. Some have however failed to see this connection. Perhaps the connection should be clearer now that Cameroon has been suspended from participating in Fifa competitions because of government interference in the management of the country's football. According to Fifa regulations, the government of a country should not meddle in the footballing activities of that country. In this way the organization attempts to do the impossible - separating a country's football organization from the politics of that country. However, Cameroon's government has often been involved in managing Cameroon's football. It is the government that hires coaches for the national teams not the federation. It is an open secret that government ministers even interfere in the selection of players for the national teams. The constant meddling of Biya's government in the affairs of the team only became too clear when Cameroon's military helped install as president a candidate who has not been elected for the position. This event was a microcosm of how Paul Biya has been ruining the country through the help of the military. What he is unable to do through persuasion he does through the military, thus forcing actions on the country that continues the country's decline. The current suspension of the country is just the latest demonstration of such misrule.

Who Takes the African Union Seriously?

The African Union has just suspended Egypt from the body because of the recent removal of former president Mohammed Morsi from power. According to the African Union, it is unacceptable to remove a democratically elected president from office. Well, newsflash to the African Union - the rules of the game have just changed! Perhaps we should say that the rules of the game have been elevated - democratic elections are not the sole basis of democracy.

Most African leaders have been ruling under the pretext that conducting a so-called democratic elections is all that is needed for a country to be called a democracy. Thus, but for the fact that regular sham elections are being organized, most African presidents are dictators. They have engineered constitutions to circumvent every democratic means of living in a country. In a country like Cameroon, for example, the government appoints what is called government delegates to supervise mayors of big cities, even though the mayors are elected by the people. Elections for the senate were just held in Cameroon. However, the president has the authority to appoint a number of members to the senate. That is, a senate that is supposed to be made up of democratically elected members will have many members appointed by the president. These are just the few means by which African leaders circumvent democracy while conducting elections as a cover. President Morsi was well on his way to making himself the same kind of democracy. The Muslim Brother Constitution that he engineered and his desire to put himself above the law - in fact, most presidents in Africa are above the laws of their countries - were just a few signs of how he intended to create his own version of democracy in Egypt.

The main difference with the Egyptian situation is that Egypt has a very vocal and restless populace as opposed to the rest of Africa. After having successfully removed Mubarak from office, they came to see that people power can remove dictators from office. With the help of the army, the people have removed a dictator from office. And that is how it should be. One other difference in much of Africa is that the army often supports the dictators so that many of the governments are military dictatorships passing for civilian administrations. This is the case with countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Congo, the Gambia, etc. These countries are military dictatorships in disguise.

Thus, no one can take seriously an organization made up of dictators such as Paul Biya of Cameroon, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, etc., when they suspend a country for the removal of a dictator in the making like Morsi. That is why no one takes the African Union seriously when it suspends Egypt from that unremarkable body. The Egyptian authorities should lose no sleep over this.