Christmas: A Celebration of Homelessness

Today is Christmas Day, the day Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus who is called the Christ. It is a happy occasion in part because Christians, like most people around the world, generally tend to celebrate births. However, at the time the birth was happening it was not all happy. I am not only talking about Mary's birth pangs but the fact that she gave birth in a homeless shelter, in fact, in far less than a homeless shelter - in a place where animals live. That is how Luke 2 tells the story. How this child, born in such an ignominious condition, evolved one of the days in which people make billions of dollars around the world even as they still shove aside the homeless, is a strange tale to tell. But that is the reality - that we celebrate a homeless man without a tinge of irony in what we do. Should Christmas not rather make us to be ashamed of how we treat the wretched of the earth?

How the West Trades Death for Money

The 2014 list of biggest sellers of weapons in the West is out and it is topped by companies in the United States and Europe. This is how capitalism trades death for money. Little wonder that there are so many gun deaths in the United States. See graphs in this piece from Jeun Afrique. According to Jeun Afrique, no African company is in the top 100 sellers of arms, yet, many of the deaths from these weapons happen in Africa.

The External Nature of Personal Transformation

It is sometimes thought that authentic, personal transformation can only happen from the inside, from a change of heart, so to say. Languages of conversion are based on this view of personal transformation. Conversion is often seen as a matter of the heart, of turning over possession of one's heart to something or someone else. Personal, external transformation is often seen as only superficial, as can be seen from the very name given such transformation - cosmetic. Rather than the deep transformation that is often thought to transpire in the inner recesses of the heart, external or cosmetic transformation is seen as not quite essential. It is often associated with the superficiality of Hollywood. But what if it is not correct that authentic transformation should come from the inside-out? What if it is the case that authentic transformation also begins from the outside-in?

The Cameroonian musician, Jean-Pierre Essome broaches the idea that transformation begins from the outside-in. For him, external appearance is critical for internal cohesion. It has long been noticed that good-looking people get their way in life more than people who are not good-looking. This shows that external appearance is valuable, at least, culturally. But what if such external appearance is valuable ethically? From ancient to modern times, many scholars have argued that what we are inside is often not very different from where we have been outside. In other words, morality is created by the environment. Change of heart is therefore something that does not just happen. It is created by an environment (the outside). This seems to demonstrate that what is important is not just a change of heart but also the environment in which one lives. There are environments that are not conducive to change of heart. Also, there are external states of affair that may create a darker interior. Jean-Pierre Essome is himself a very good dresser. He seems to think that being well dressed affects the way one feels inside. Perhaps looking good in public may create a person who is good inside and in private also. Perhaps wearing good clothes and living in a good house may improve what goes on inside. Perhaps major transformation does not need to only happen inside but also needs to happen outside.

The African Ethic of Duty and the "Big Bang Theory"

My students have often looked very surprised when I tell them that marriage and other family relationship in the African society I come from are based more on duty than on love. They seem concerned when I tell them that in their over 35 years of marriage, I never heard my parents tell each other that they love each other. My students seem even more concerned when I tell them that my parents never told me that they loved me. They seem to think that my upbringing was seriously skewed because of lack of such sentimental utterances. However, I remind them that the way my parents showed their love for us was not by saying that they love us but by showing that they love us. Such is the case with the relationship we have in the family. We do not tell our relatives that we love them. We show love by what we do for them, by how we treat them. And what we do for them is what we have the duty to do. The Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu has described this way of relating to each other as an ethic of duty, noting that this way of life is common to many African societies. In this context, relationships are held together by the obligations which people have to be there for each other both in times of need and in times of plenty. This ethic of duty is also connected to the name of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant but Kant addresses the question differently and we shall not get into that here.

What I want to get into at the moment is that this ethic of duty manifested in an African society can be seen in a very popular American TV show called the Big Bang Theory. The characters in the show include four male scientists (technically, three male scientists and one engineer) and two female scientists and one actress/waitress. However, the life of the show seems to turn around one of the scientists (Sheldon Cooper from Texas) who is a social misfit. One of the major characteristics of Sheldon is that he can be very annoying and is often seen as a burden to the group. This is because he thinks that he is too advanced a human being to learn a basic, necessary skill, such as driving. Because he cannot drive, it falls on his friends in the relationship to take him to work and other places he would like to go. His relationship with his friends is sometimes fractured by this very thing. Yet their friendship is sustained not so much by profession of love as the understanding of the obligation they have towards him. What would happen to him if they did not help him? One of the things that seem to maintain their relationship with Sheldon is the sense of duty that they have towards him.

Such is the case with African ethics. Just ask Africans abroad who have to send money to relatives back home almost every month. It is annoying and burdensome but such is the case with an ethic of duty. It is sustained by obligation not love.

Stand-up Comedy Has Come to Nigeria . . .

and The New York Times is just noticing it. Nigerians have in fact been laughing for a very, very long time and there have surveys to prove this. Sample the musical stand-up of Klint the Drunk below:

Pope Francis Has Already Broken With The Past In African Visit

With his current visit to Africa, Pope Francis has already significantly broken with the past even before he makes any formal statements. Since the time of Pope John Paul II, there appeared to have been a tacit understanding that the first port of call when the Pope visits Africa would be the English- and French-speaking country of Cameroon. In both his visits to Africa in 1985 and 1995, Cameroon was the first port of call for Pope John Paul II. When Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa in 2009, his first port of call was Cameroon.

For Pope Francis, however, his first port of call is Kenya, not Cameroon. This is remarkable given that the person who was president in Cameroon at the time both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI visited is still the person in power today. Paul Biya, Cameroon's dictator of 33 years, has been blessed with three papal visits. By making his first stop in Kenya, Pope Francis is breaking with this tradition of blessing dictatorships in Africa thus giving a tacit rebuke to  Paul Biya, who is himself a Roman Catholic. Kenya is a budding democracy in Africa and so it is fitting that it should be the Pope's first port of call. We however need to hear a clear rebuke from the pontiff, especially directed at those members of the Roman Catholic Church who are Africa's dictators today. The Roman Catholic Church has been a champion of democracy in many African countries but this remains to be the case in Cameroon where most Roman Catholic bishops are in bed with the 33-year dictatorship of Paul Biya. In both Uganda and Central African Republic we need to hear the Pope's unambiguous condemnation of dictatorial tendencies in Africa.

Where Do African Countries Go Wrong In Football?

The finals of the just ended Under-17 FIFA World Cup was played by two African countries - Nigeria and Mali. Nigeria won the trophy for a record fifth time. This is something to be celebrated. The celebration is however dogged by the troubling fact that the farthest an African country has gone in the senior FIFA World Cup has been the quarter finals, which was first done by Cameroon in 1990. The question this raises is why is it that two African countries could reach the final of the Under-17 World Cup but none could move farther than the quarter finals of the FIFA World Cup. Where do African countries go wrong between the Under-17 division and the senior division of the World Cup? An honest response to this question is critical to the future of football in Africa.

1421 Days of Protesting Paul Biya's 33-Year Dictatorship in Cameroon

Paul Biya, the dictator of Cameroon, came to power November 6, 33 years ago. Today is the anniversary of his misrule. He is currently one of the longest serving dictators anywhere in the world. FlourishingAfrica has been protesting the misrule of Paul Biya in Cameroon since the machinations of the last election that returned him to power. The was over 1420 days ago. Each day we send out a tweet as protest against this continued misrule in the country. His years at the helm of the state in the country has not brought the medical system to a level he could entrust with his own health, that is why he keeps spending more time in Europe for medical purposes. For most Cameroonians, however, this is not an option. Whenever they suffer from a serious ailment, the option left open for them is to pray for a miracle or die.

Even as the country  is currently fighting Boko Haram in the north of the country, with many Cameroonian soldiers losing their lives there, Paul Biya has hardly been engaged in the issue. The country apparently does not even have money to engage in the fight as citizens are being asked to donate money towards the fight. All the while, the dictator spends more time out of the country, minding his own business in Europe. There is no good reason why he should continue to remain the head of state in Cameroon, given that he is hardly present there.

The Legacies of Bill Cosby and John Howard Yoder

Many people have heard of the name of Bill Cosby both before and after the rising accusations of sexual predation brought against him. Cosby is the famed American comedian whose The Cosby Show entertained and continues to entertain America and many around the world. John Howard Yoder is however little known beyond the circles of Christian theologians. He was a Professor of Christian theology both at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and the University of Notre Dame and one of those who have significantly shaped what may be known as post-liberal Christian theology and ethics. Ordinarily, there would be no direct connection between the comedian and the theologian unless we take it that theology could be understood as an exercise in divine comedy.

However, what ties Cosby and Yoder together is that they have both been accused of sexually molesting women. While the number may vary, so far over fifty women have accused Cosby of sexual molestation. A similar thing may be said of Yoder. It is said that he was accused by about one hundred women of sexual molestation. What seems interesting, however, is the kind of reaction that both of them have received. Yoder was for a while disciplined by his church, the Mennonite Church. However, he died in apparent respectability. Today, there are few theologians around the world who are as influential as Yoder. His Politics of Jesus is required reading in all graduate programs of theology in the United States. In fact, anyone trained in the United States, especially at Duke Divinity School, can hardly go through the program without a good dose of the work of Yoder.

Yoder's history with women, however, troubled many students who have bought into his vision of what it means to be a Christian. Some of these students, who are now professors at many universities and colleges around the United States, have struggled to make sense of what to do with the work of such an influential theologian but who was at the same time a sexual predator. This is a broad conclusion of what they proposed to do with Yoder's legacy:

"At this point, we shift to analyzing Yoder’s behavior from a theological point of view. To begin, we address some of the current challenges in approaching the issue. To conclude, we offer a preliminary way of thinking about Yoder’s behavior in relationship to his theology. To state it bluntly, when judged by standards internal to his own writing, what Yoder did makes a lie of what he said. Yet, rather than entirely dismissing what he said, we take certain aspects of his theology to be constructive and even hopeful in the wake of the devastation his actions have caused so many."

Compare this response with the reaction Bill Cosby has received so far. One of the most pronounced is the fact that Cosby has been stripped of many of the honorary degrees granted to him by some universities, including those where many of Yoder's followers now teach. While treating what Cosby is accused of in utmost seriousness, is it possible to evaluate it as the theologians have done with one of their own or are the theologians wrong to have evaluated Yoder the way they have done so far. Must Yoder's works simply be jettisoned because it made "a lie" of his own actions?

America Sends 300 Soldiers To Cameroon to Prolong the Dictatorship of Paul Biya

It was reported this week that the United States has sent 300 soldiers to Cameroon, ostensibly to fight against Boko Haram. However, this is going to feed into the narrative of stability which is often the pretext for maintaining dictatorship. The narrative of national security has fed into Paul's Biya's dictatorship for over 31 years and the sending of American soldiers to Cameroon does not only serve the public transcript of fighting Boko Haram but also the private transcript of supporting Biya's dictatorship. This is not to suggest that the United States has been averse to supporting dictatorships but it should make us suspicious each time Barack Obama waxes sanctimonious about the nature of leadership in Africa.

A while back American soldiers were sent to fish out the Lord Resistance Army's Joseph Konyi from the forests of central Africa. Nothing has come of that. Just as nothing has come of the fact that soldiers were also sent to #BringBackOurGirls. Would something come out of the fact that 300 soldiers are being sent to help fight against Boko Haram, something which thousands of soldiers from Central Africa and Nigeria could not do? If anything is sure to come out of this, it is the prolongation of the dictatorship of Paul Biya in Cameroon.

1400 Days of Protesting Paul Biya's 31-Year Dictatorship in Cameroon

FlourishingAfrica has been protesting the misrule of Paul Biya in Cameroon since the machinations of the last election that returned him to power. His years at the helm of the state in the country has not brought the medical system to a level he could entrust with his own health, that is why he keeps spending more time in Europe for medical purposes. For most Cameroonians, however, this is not an option. Whenever they suffer from a serious ailment, the option left open for them is to pray for a miracle or die.

Even as the country  is currently fighting Boko Haram in the north of the country, with many Cameroonian soldiers losing their lives there, Paul Biya has hardly been engaged in the issue. The country apparently does not even have money to engage in the fight as citizens are being asked to donate money towards the fight. All the while, the dictator spends more time out of the country, minding his own business in Europe. There is no good reason why he should continue to remain the head of state in Cameroon, given that he is hardly present there.

Issa Hayatou, FIFA President: The Man To Rescue World Football From Coruption

A while back we here at flourishingafrica argued that Issa Hayatou should be elected FIFA president. This was at a time when eyes were strained toward Michel Platini of France. With Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini under suspension, the world has now turned to Issa Hayatou to rescue world football. Welcome to the new job, President Hayatou. See a statement from Hayatou here.

Photo of Issa Hayatou from FIFA.com

African Argument's Course on Race and African Political Thought

Follow African Argument's course on Race and African Political Thought here.

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah Starts Tonight!

How To Know a President Has Done a Really Bad Job

A simple way to know whether or not a President has done a really bad job while in office is to observe what happens to their country after they leave office. Where there is succession crisis or social and economic breakdown after they leave office, you can tell the President did a really bad job while in office. The succession crisis indicates that they did nothing to prepare their people for a time after their rule and the social and economic breakdown speak of the lack of societal well-being and cohesiveness that existed during their time in office. President Barack Obama made the first point on his recent visit to Africa when he noted that Presidents who remain in power long after their due dates are those who have not prepared their people for a time after them well. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation Prize for outstanding African President also takes into consideration what happens after a President leaves office. Perhaps nothing speaks to the success of a President more than the issue of what happens after they leave office. It is after them that the superficiality of their schemes is revealed.

Some may think that judging a President by what happens after they leave office is unfair because the country might have been screwed by their successor. Well, in some cases, like we have in Burkina Faso right now, the question of succession is the crisis itself. Where there is no crisis of succession, we can make the claim that if good institutions are build during one's time in office, those institutions would endure long after one leaves office. Presidents therefore need to be thinking of what happens after them rather than only what is going on during their time in office. However, politicians hardly look far ahead.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Western Refugee Crisis

In his memorable "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" the legendary civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. intoned that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." At the time he was talking about the interconnection between Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, or, more broadly, the racial situation in America. However, we can see how that applies to the refugee crisis plaguing Europe and America today.

The wars that are the root causes of the refugee crisis in the West today are either direct or proxy wars fought on behalf of the West. These wars have been fought on the Machiavellian notion, articulated by Condoleezza Rice, that it is necessary to fight a war in another's country so that another's country could be plundered rather than one's own. Machiavelli apparently did not see the fact that plundering someone else's country in a war may occasion the refugee crisis we see today. Machiavelli's idea is based on the assumption that it is better to commit injustice in someone else's country than in one's own. However, with the refugee crisis today, we are seeing that Martin Luther King, Jr. was right. Because Iraq and Syria have been plundered, Iraqis and Syrians are flooding into Europe, throwing the place into confusion.

Kentucky Gay Problem and the Evolution of Christian Resistance

There is a woman in Kentucky who works for the government in an office that is supposed to be issuing marriage licenses to couples but she has refused to issue such licenses to gay people because she holds that it is against her Christian faith to do so. She has been thrown in jail. She sees what she is doing as her way of resisting a government which many good Christian people see as becoming increasingly godless. This post intends to show this this is a different form of Christian resistance than has hitherto been the case. It is a form of Christian resistance that is wedded to power. However, original versions of Christian resistance have been anchored in powerlessness.

The first Christians lived in a context which they saw as positively godless and working against their very existence in the world. One only need to read the Book of Revelation to see what those first Christians thought of this world. In a world which was seen as positively godless, the way of resistance these Christians chose was that of separation. Thus, many early Christians would not participate in occupations which they saw as compromising their moral integrity. They would not be teachers if that meant teaching books that promoted Greco-Roman polytheism; they would not become actors because they saw that as promoting a false notion of life, and they would not join the military because it involved killing - Christians were not to kill. However, when after about three hundred years Christians began to get comfortable with the power that be, they began rationalizing why and how Christians may participate in these activities. By the time Christianity came to America from Europe, many Christians had come to believe that Christian distinctiveness meant that everyone living in a city had to be a Christian. This means that the way that had to prevail in a city had to be the Christian way. This could be so because Christians were the ones now running the government.

It is in the context where Christians run the government that the gay marriage debacle in Kentucky may be understood. Because Christians run the government, they have power to say what was to be the nature of society. However, increasingly, Christians are not only divided about what should be the nature of society; the nature of society is also being questioned by people of other religions and people of no religion. Christians who used to run society are therefore feeling power evaporating from them. That is why many Christians, especially the professional politicians (politics being about who has the power), are portraying Christians as a persecuted people in America.

However, there are some scholars who are making peace with the fact that America and the West in general has entered a post-Christian era, that is, an era in which Christians may not have all the power. It is like being again in the era of the early church. What needs to happen at this time is that Christians who want to resist need to behave like their early Christian forebears. This means that Christians do not have to join the army if they believe that killing is wrong. Christians do not have to join the civil service if they believe that they may be called upon to perform services that contradict their faith. Thus, the best thing for the woman in Kentucky to do at this point is to resign her post and look for a new line of work that honors her conviction. However, because many Christians still associate being Christian with power, they want to be Christian only if all other people will succumb to their vision. It is the opposite of resistance in early Christianity.

Donald Trump, Nietzsche's Ubermensch

When the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche lamented over the degeneration of Western values that was undermining the power of the West, he was speaking against the deleterious effect of Christian values on the West. Nietzsche saw Christian values such as humility and forgiveness as the values of weak and vindictive people who were trying to overthrow the power of their master through a sleight of hand. To overcome the destruction of Western values which was being orchestrated by Christianity, he urged for a return to ancient Greek heroic values that glory in achievement and boast in power rather than weakness. "Brought up as we are in a moral tradition which invites us to see virtue in poverty, modesty, and simplicity of soul, it is easy to see ancients Greeks as loud and boastful when they tell us about the nobility of their birth, the wealth, and the extent of their achievements in the service of their country," writes the British political theorist J. S. McClelland. It is this tendency to see virtue in poverty and modesty that Nietzsche was decrying, calling instead for boastfulness and the flaunting of the accoutrement of power.

It is in fact the case that the West has learned from Nietzsche and has duly embraced his call for his flaunting of power in international politics. However, there is great hypocrisy in how this is done: The face of humility is still being put forward so that this embrace of raw power is cloaked in the guise of the greater good. However, Donald Trump has no such guile. He thus has no qualms about taking the oil field of another country by force. This is why he seems so different. While some think that The Donald is unmasking the views of the Republican party, nothing could be far from the truth. Trump is in fact unmasking the whole Western political tradition as veiled in Nietzschean modus operandi. Trump is the kind of person Nietzsche had in mind when he wrote of the Ubermensch - he embraces the ancient Greek values of boastfulness and pride without guile. Given that politics is often done under the veil (not in Duboisian understanding), The Donald seems to be a shock to the enterprise.

President Obama Hopes African Leaders Are People of Conscience

In his speech at the AU in his just ended visit to East Africa, President Obama seems to be appealing to the consciences of African leaders, hoping that African leaders could be people of conscience and dignity. That is still to be seen. See the speech below:

 

Is Gay Rights a "Non-Issue" In Kenya?

In a press conference with President Barack Obama today, the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was pressed about gay rights in his country. His response to the question could be broken down into two interrelated parts: 1. that Kenyan culture looks at gay rights differently from American culture and 2. that gay rights is not a pressing issue in Kenya. Both of these responses could however be seen as a single response as it was a roundabout way to reject the notion of gay rights in Kenya. Many African politicians are talking about gay rights these days as if it were an American thing when being gay is not foreign to African cultures. Thus, linking being gay to American cultures as if being gay is foreign to African cultures is to misrepresent African cultures. If Africans want to oppose gay rights they may do so on other grounds rather than appealing to culture.

The second point President Kenyatta made has to do with the claim that gay rights is a non-issue in Kenya. If one thinks of a non-issue as an issue that does not exist, one cannot honestly say that gay rights is a non-issue in Kenya. Gay rights can only be a non-issue in Kenya if it is taken to mean that most people do not lose sleep over whether or not gay people are treated fairly in the country. As a matter of fact, most people are perhaps more concerned about bread and butter issues, as President Kenyatta rightly said. However, this does not mean that gay rights is or should be a non-issue. Once we are talking about questions of human rights, it can never be a non-issue because it relates to the question of human flourishing. If President Kenyatta is interested in working for the flourishing of all Kenyans, gay rights cannot be a non-issue because there are many people in Kenya who suffer because they have no breathing space in a homophobic Kenya. As long as they are gay people in Kenya who seek equal treatment from the state, gay rights can never become a non-issue.

Two Myths from Politico

The American conservative news site, Politico, has published two stories about President Obama's visit to Africa that are based more on assumptions than reality.

1. Kenya is more dangerous for Obama than Afghanistan. Really? To buttress its narrative, Politico cites the activities of Al Shabaab in Kenya, claiming that Obama has more protection in Afghanistan than in Kenya. Forget that Obama will be driving through the streets of Kenya, something he has never and will never do in Afghanistan. Even though Obama will drive through blocked streets in Nairobi, that is something he will never do in Afghanistan. In fact, Obama goes to Afghanistan only under cover of darkness and is confined only to military camps. The same will not be the case in Kenya where there is ample protection for him to drive through the Nairobi. How does this make Kenya more dangerous than Afghanistan?

2. President George Bush did more for Africa than President Barack Obama. This is a claim that is often heard in the United States. The evidence often cited is the aid money George Bush spent on fighting HIV and AIDS in Africa. While this is important work, it is difficult to say how this is more important than the entrepreneurship President Obama is cultivating among some Africans. Politico only states, without giving any evidence, that Bush's work saved many lives. How many lives it saved is hardly stated. Politico's claim that Obama is doing less for Africa than Bush is based on the American assumption that provision of aid is better than doing business in Africa. Obama however sees things differently and his view is one that is currently being argued for by many economists.
 

Donald Trump As the Public Face of Empire

Empire is arrogant. Empire is hubristic. Empire is superior. Empire always teaches its people that they are the best and all other peoples of the world are inferior. The world often turns around empire because empire is the center. Empire gives meaning to all things and all things derive their meanings because they are connected to empire. Without empire there would be nothing, literally, because everything that has existed before, and that will come after, have been inferior. That is why it is often assumed that there can only be chaos after empire.  Thus, empire has a responsibility, nay, the duty, to stave chaos from the universe. All the children of empire are taught, from kindergarten to college, to see themselves as the very center of the universe. They should be bold, aggressive, and never admit of not knowing because it is always in the nature of empire to know even when it does not know. In fact, the very fact of claiming knowledge when one does not know is the mark of knowledge. Feigning knowledge is how knowledge is achieved. Empire never backs down, whether it is right or wrong! In fact, empire can never be wrong. It can only think differently of the same thing, but always from the superior position because authentic human being is superior, as Nietzsche rightly saw. The superiority of empire is often simply stated rather than argued and it is often hyperbolized and based on caricatures of the other. In fact, empire hardly knows the other because anthropological studies are often based on the assumption of empire's superiority. From the perspective of empire, the other is often to be pitied because they are often pale imitations of authentic humanity. Empire does not study the other to know the other but only to know how they are superior to the other.

All this has been the spectacle that is Donald Trump. He is the public face of empire, manifesting all what empire has to teach its people. What The Donald is doing is that he is revealing the assumptions on which empire is built to be arrogant and inhumane. As the public face of the education that empire provides its people, he is not doing anything extra-ordinary.

While I was till in grade school in Cameroon, I studied the geography and history of Europe, America, and Asia. I knew about the Communist Revolution in China more than I knew about the liberation struggle in Cameroon. I knew about the weather of the Alps more than I knew about the weather of the village where I lived. All this because we lived on the periphery of various empires. When I came to America, I began to find out that many Americans knew little or nothing about Cameroon. They only know, without a doubt, that they are the greatest nation the world has ever seen. That is the kind of education that has built Donald Trump, the greatest human being the world has ever known. He is an empire made up of just one human being - a kind of hyperbolized empire, if you like. The man has learned his lessons well.

1300 Days of Protesting Paul Biya's 31-Year Dictatorship in Cameroon

FlourishingAfrica has been protesting the misrule of Paul Biya in Cameroon since the machinations of the last election that returned him to power. At the time of writing this post, the dictator has been out of the country for a long time, with rumors rife that he is suffering from prostrate cancer. He has been seeking medical help in Europe where he is listed as being on a private visit. His years at the helm of the state in the country has not brought the medical system to a level he could entrust with his own health, that is why he keeps spending more time in Europe for medical purposes. For most Cameroonians, however, this is not an option. Whenever they suffer from a serious ailment, the option left open for them is to pray for a miracle or die.

Even as the country  is currently fighting Boko Haram in the north of the country, with many Cameroonian soldiers losing their lives there, Paul Biya has hardly been engaged in the issue. The country apparently does not even have money to engage in the fight as citizens are being asked to donate money towards the fight. All the while, the dictator is out of the country, minding his own business in Europe. There is no good reason why he should continue to remain the head of state in Cameroon, given that he is hardly present there.

Ethiopia - World's Best Tourist Destination

Ethiopia has been designated the world's best tourist destination for 2015.

 

Is Economic Theory Racist?

Given that the social sciences as a whole developed in the context of the Enlightenment, which saw only White people as rational and other people around the world, especially Black people as emotional, some will not doubt the racist nature of the sciences of society that developed in this context. Thus it came to be that sociology and history were seen as applicable to the study of Western societies and anthropology was assigned to the "inferior" other. This is how Anthropology came to be the discipline of people who went to live in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia while sociology, political science, history, and economics were used to study Western societies. What this means is that in the social sciences, theories of society applicable to Western societies were not applicable to these "others". This non-applicability to the other is not just in the postmodern sense that knowledge should be contextual, but rather in the sense that "inferior peoples" should not be theorized about in the same way as "superior peoples". Thus, a theory that would be destructive if applied in a Western context was allowed to be applied in the context of the "other".

This is how economic theories that are not often applied in the West came to be seen as applicable in Africa, for example. This is especially so in the theories of economic development, especially manifested in theories about the usefulness of aid and austerity. The question of aid has been well debated but what is left to be said about some theories that support aid is that they are racist because they propose doing for the other what has not and will not be done for the West. They are subterfuges that do not focus on what has worked in the West but rather on what applies to the inferior other. The other can always come to economic development through other routes, routes that are often dead-enders.

A similar story can be told in terms of the call for austerity. What is applicable in the West is especially not applicable in non-Western contexts. When Cameroon began experiencing economic difficulties in the 1980s, the IMF and the World Bank proposed stringent austerity measures. The civil service was reduced, government-owned companies were privatized, banks were closed, and the currency was devalued. All this generated serious unemployment in the country and the country went into a tailspin from which it has not emerged in about thirty years. When a similar situation happened in the United States in 2007, caused by the irresponsible economic and political policies of George W. Bush, the government instead took over private companies and bailed out banks. Conservatives who would otherwise call for austerity if such a thing happened in Africa threw huge sums of money to bail out banks and to take over private businesses so as to stave off disaster.

The economy of Greece is currently in a tailspin brought about by the irresponsibility of successive Greek governments. Austerity measures have been proposed but it has since been strenuously resisted. In the process, many economists have come out of the woodwork to harp against austerity - a thing that was hardly heard when it was forced on many African countries in the 1980s. Where were these economists when austerity was being forced on many African economies?
 

Uhuru Kenyatta, Africa's President of the Year?

Some African students have recently voted Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta as Africa's president of the year "for his ability to build consensus locally and abroad." The report itself does not say what this means and how Kenyatta is the best example of this in Africa. It is, however, important to note that the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, with its very clear and rigorous understanding of leadership in Africa, did not see fit to select Mr. Kenyatta as Africa's leader of the year; it chose the President of Namibia, President Hifikepunye Pohamba.

Facebook To Open Its First Office in Africa

Facebook has announced that it would open its first office in Africa, to be located in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is quite interesting that with millions of Africans on Facebook, the company was yet to open an office in the continent.

Universities Should Be At Forefront of Taking Down Racist Icons

In a previous post, I remarked on the cases in South Africa where some university students were clamoring for the removal of colonial and apartheid symbols off college campuses. This movement has apparently reached the United States, picking up steam especially after the recent slaying of nine black people in Charleston, South Carolina, by a white supremacist. The call for the removal of racist symbols can now be heard from South Carolina to Mississippi and Alabama, the racist heartlands of the United States. In all this, South African students should be seen as pioneers. They started this revolt without shedding a single drop of blood. Blood is being shed on this matter in the United States in part because there has been centuries of training in racism here. It is good that the movement is catching steam on university campuses here in the United States. Where else should such movements begin if not on university campuses? We are still waiting for the voices of students at universities in Mississippi, Alabama, the Carolinas, Georgia, etc. etc.

The Charleston Nine as Christian Martyrs

Those who were murdered at the "Mother Emanuel" AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, are to be called Christian martyrs. With Fox News seeing the persecution of Christians everywhere in America, this claim may easily play into the Fox News narrative of the persecution of Christians in America. However, the claim that those who were murdered in Charleston are Christian martyrs is far from endorsing that narrative because it is based on quite a different premise. First, I do not think that Christians are being persecuted in America. Second, the way the Charleston Nine are to be understood as martyrs goes against the grain of how the Christian faith has historically named its martyrs. Christians martyrs have historically been those who died directly, not tangentially, because of their faith. In other words, Christian martyrs have historically been those who died for no other reason but the fact that they were Christians. It is now widely reported that the Charleston Nine were murdered because they were black rather than because they were Christians. The attempt by Fox News to connect their death to the narrative of Christian persecution in America was rightly repudiated by no other but the African American comedian, Larry Wilmore. Thus, the fact that the Charleston Nine were murdered because they were black rather than Christian can hardly be gainsaid.

That is however not the end of the story because even though they were murdered because they were black, they were murdered in the sanctuary were they were engaged in what should be considered to be their Christian duty. They were at church studying the Bible, as Christians should do. They were not murdered at their homes but at church where they were forming their Christian identity. If they were at their homes, the murderer could hardly have gathered them in one place and murdered them. They were gathered in one place in the name of Christ and for that they were murdered. There is therefore a very good case to be made for the claim that the Charleston Nine are Christian martyrs because they were killed doing what they were supposed to be doing as Christians. Those who did not go to church that fateful night, saved their lives. In the end, the difference between who died and who lived was not race but rather who was present at church. There is a sense in which they were killed because they were Christians.

America's Mourning Shows: Normalizing Gun Massacres in America

It would be a terrible mistake to think that what often happens on America's mass media after a gun massacre is an attempt to ensure that such things never happen again. Of the numerous gun massacres that have happened in the United States only in the last five years or so, one of the things that one often sees is the number of people who come on TV pontificating on the whys and the wherefores of the events. Some speak of the mass shooters as deranged, psychopaths, sociopath, or racists, depending on how the massacre happened. Others blame the gun culture and the NRA (National Rifle Association) for putting profit over people. Others yet talk about legislation to curb gun violence, while others say that pastors and teachers should have guns in their pockets while they are preaching or teaching. One may be tempted to interpret all this as an attempt to understand why these gun massacres happen so as to preempt them in the future. Such interpretation would however be grossly mistaken.

What is actually going on is that all of the anger from the aggrieved, the blame of the NRA, the description of the shooter as mentally ill or a thug or whatever, are what I have here called America's Mourning Shows. Simply put, it is a way for America to mourn its dead, on TV, on radio, the Internet, and the Newspapers, and move on. America has come to see that gun deaths, like death in general, is inevitable, and the best way to approach it is to mourn it. All what goes in the mass media are forms of this mourning, understood as expressing grief for a loss or losses. Just as mourning is a proper way to seek closure in a case of death, so too are all these rants on TV, newspaper, or the internet just a means to find closure - for the moment - until the next gun massacre happens again. Understanding what happens after a mass shooting as mourning is important because it alerts us to the fact that gun massacres in America, just as the facts of death and taxes, have come to be seen as inevitable, as normal. The best that can be done is to mourn the departed, find closure, and move on. This performance is especially choreographed by the mass media, which are now like priests who help America mourn its violent deaths.

I Have A Snow Mountain In Cameroon To Sell to the ICC

The title of this post is my response to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it really believed that the South African government would arrest Sudan's dictator, Omar el Bashir, and hand him over to be prosecuted in the Hague. Given that many African countries, under the banner of the AU, have seen the court as an imperialist project, it would be delusional to think that South Africa, which is struggling to find its African identity, would hand one of Africa's own to this project. To prove that it is really African, the South African government has taken to supporting dictatorships in Africa.

In order to fool the ICC that it would hand over Bashir, the South African government first said that it was sure Omar Bashir would remain in the country to the end of the African Union summit which he was attending (the summit ends today). Then later it said that it cannot be sure that its security officers at the airport would be able to keep Mr. Bashir in the country because its airport security has a history of letting go people who have been ordered not to leave the country. Then today we were told that Mr. Bashir has made a narrow escape. In the end, the blame should be that of the South African airport officials rather than that of the South African government. If the ICC buys this story, I have a snow mountain in Cameroon to sell them. It goes for fifteen dollars! What a deal!

Cameroon's Women Shine at the World Cup

Trounced Ecuador 6-0.

Issa Hayatou For Fifa President!

Issa Hayatou (Photo from Fifa)
Since the announced resignation of current Fifa President, Sepp Blatter, some have suggested that he should be replaced by Michel Platini of France. While Mr. Platini may be a worthy candidate, we here at FlourishingAfrica are throwing our weight behind current CAF President and Fifa Vice President, Issa Hayatou of Cameroon. Our reason for doing so is simple: Issa Hayatou has demonstrated excellent management skills in leading one of the most difficult confederations, the Confederation of African Football (CAF). This was especially demonstrated in his successful handling of the just ended African Nations Cup which held under the shadow of Ebola and calls for boycott. Unlike the World Cup where countries give bribes only to be able to host it, many African countries rejected hosting the just ended African Nations Cup, including Morocco and Ghana. In spite of that, the event went on and produced a worthy Champion, Ivory Coast. Also, even though everyone at Fifa seems to be under suspicion of corruption, Mr. Hayatou still appears untainted by it all. He would therefore make an excellent candidate to clean house at Fifa. Issa Hayatou should be Fifa's next President.

Two Ways of Begging on TV

Way Number 1:

 

Way Number 2

You be the judge.

 

Sepp Blatter Has Got To Go: He, Too, Is Corrupt!

The recent arrest of senior Fifa officials and their indictment in the United States of massive corruption have led many to wonder whether any of this corruption could involve Fifa President, Sepp Blatter. In other words, is Sepp Blatter as corrupt as those other high level Fifa officials who have been arrested? One way to respond to this question would be to say that no charges have been brought against Sepp Blatter and so the corruption does not involve him. This position would of course be correct in a legal sense because charges cannot be brought against him without probable cause. However, this legal sense is not the only way to accuse Mr. Blatter of corruption. Let me explain.

The leader of a corrupt organization could be accused of corruption by the very fact that the person leads a corrupt organization. And Fifa, as everyone knows, is a mafia and is run in that way. Like a mafia, Fifa is accountable to no one. When Fifa is accused of a crime, it does its own investigation and then hides the findings. Fifa is a scam. Its scam is especially displayed in how it cajoles countries to bid to host soccer events, gives the countries very little money towards the events, and then make huge profits out of such events. This is how a classic scam works: the scammer comes with promises of making you better off but leaves you worse off - like Fifa has done to all those countries that have been hosting the world cup. Its latest victim is Brazil. Fifa, supports slave labor. This is especially seen in what is now going on in Asia where those working to build the 2022 venues of the soccer world cup are currently being enslaved. Repeated complains about the treatment of these workers have drawn little response from Fifa. The corruption of someone who runs a mafia and scam like Fifa should hardly be in doubt. Doubting the corruption of Sepp Blatter is like thinking that the owner of a pornographic company is a paragon of virtue. That Fifa is allowed to continue doing business the way it is now doing, with Mr. Blatter at the helm, is the real scandal rocking world football right now. The man has got to go and the organization needs massive overhaul.
 

Funding Murder in Bujumbura

It is conventional for African dictators to be paid through international aid. That is what has been happening with Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi until recently when a lump sum European Union check of 2 million dollars failed to show up. This has forced the man to go to the people of Burundi, asking them to help fund their own oppression. In a shameless communique found on the Facebook page of the Presidency of Burundi, the man makes it clear that he is coming to the people to ask for money only as an after thought. He says he has received support from the "partners" (partenaires) of Burundi but now he wants the people of Burundi to chip in to support what he calls "grassroots democratic" ("démocratique basée" - in French) culture. So the questions that one may now ask are "who are these partners of Burundi who had earlier given money towards this "noble" project? Why did the presidency first rely on these friends rather than the people of Burundi?

Fortunately, Burundians have been smart enough to see through this ruse, and judging by the comments of Facebook, it is being rejected outright. They are refusing to fund their own murder. Let the international partners to murder continue to do so.

When the Born Again Christian President of Burundi Murders

Pierre Kurunziza is the current President of Burundi who is murdering people, just as Machiavelli taught, in order to keep his job. They say he is a born again Christian who travels with his personal gospel choir to prove his born again credentials. His wife is also reported to be pastor. Asked why he wanted to continue to be president of Burundi when he could not produce any substantial achievement in his nine years in power, he faulted the journalist interviewing him for focusing on the negative. So working to improve the lives of the people of Burundi is a negative in his sight and yet he is president. One of his friends is reported to have said that the man beliefs God wants him to remain president of Burundi. Perhaps it is customary for God to ask people to murder others to remain in power! This follower of Jesus would make born again Christians everywhere proud. But Machiavelli would be prouder!

Yahya Jammeh Between Humans and Allah

A recent ridiculous plan for West African leaders to pledge that they would run for only two terms as president encountered a snag when the presidents of Togo and the Gambia used that famous African trope of difference - each country is different and there should not be one rule for all. (Just as an aside, such an issue should not be based on pledge because it does not depend on the goodwill of leaders. It should be inscribed in the Constitution of each country and then followed). Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia's dictator who is now exhausting his fourth term in office, suggested that leaders should not be judged by term limits but rather by what they do for their country. He went on to state that he would remain president for as long as possible "if Allah says so". It is this claim about the willingness of Allah to allow Mr. Jammeh to be the eternal president of The Gambia that I want to briefly reflect on here.

Mr. Jammeh's reliance on Allah as sole determiner of his dictatorial plans raises the intriguing question of the source of political authority in The Gambia. In contemporary politics, most political leaders would like to claim that their mandate comes from the people rather than from God. However, Mr. Jammeh does not appear to think so, unless if we take his reference to Allah here to mean that he is equating Allah with the people of The Gambia (something he world reject). While it is a good idea for politicians to be accountable to Allah, if they so choose, my own preference would be that politicians should be accountable to the people they govern. The proper statement for Mr. Jammeh to have made should therefore have been that he would govern for as long as the people allow him. He should not bring in piety to undermine the role of his people in determining whether he remains president or not. If he wants to be a preacher, he should be leading a mosque rather than a country. Gambians need leaders who are accountable to them rather than to their own egos sitting in for God.

Burundi's Almost Overthrown President Playing Football

There is a report on BBC, complete with photographs showing the almost overthrown president of Burundi playing football even as his country goes up in flames. I am just not quite sure what to make of it. Perhaps for the president, nothing is as important as his physical health, not even the health of his country. He will therefore not sacrifice his physical health to look after the health of the country. After all, of what good is a sick president to a country?

What we see here is a microcosm of the larger issue of this man's focus on himself, the narcissism that is now throwing his country in turmoil. The image of the president, or more importantly, the body of the president, is more important than the body of the state. Or perhaps the body of the president is the body of the state so that when the body of the president can play football, it means that the body of the state is at peace. Following this reading of what is going on, the president does not see any difference between himself and the state, which explains why he thinks that he should remain president even though people are rejecting his bid. His equation of himself with the state makes it difficult for him to understand why people are protesting against his rapacity. It is a strange site to behold, a president playing while his country is in turmoil. It says a lot about why he should not be president even if he were to be legitimately elected.

Ecce Homo! (Photo from BBC Web page)

Hip-hop Goes Chichewa . . .

Or is it Chichewa that has gone hip-hop? Here is Fredokiss from Malawi rapping in Chichewa, a Malawian language.

 

What Is Racism?

The current spate of the murder of black men in America by white police officers, discussions with family and friends, and perusing of other sources have led me to think that the word "racism" is often used without a clearer understanding of what it is. So I looked at some ordinary definitions of racism and what I found was hardly satisfactory. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, for example, is virtually useless in this matter. This is one of its definitions: "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." And this is another: "racial prejudice or discrimination." Apart from the fact that this definition assumes the existence of "race", it does not tell us what racism is. The Anti-Defamation League, which specializes in dealing with issues arising from racism, also assumes race but also connects racism to hatred of the other. It says that racism "may be defined as the hatred of one person by another -- or the belief that another person is less than human -- because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes." I called these ordinary sources because they do not demonstrate the kind of rigorous thinking about racism that one would expect from scholars and most people tend to get their information from them because they are easily available on the Internet.

Whatever the definitions from these ordinary sources may say, they do not speak to the critical issue about racism as it has been experienced under the modern condition. First, it should be stressed that modern racism is based on skin color or pigmentation. Racism is the ranking of human beings in society according to their skin colors and the setting up of social infrastructures to support that ranking. It is the belief that skin color determines degrees of humanity, such as saying that African Americans are three-fifths human because they are black. Second, this belief is hardly based on hatred. Hatred may be part of the history of the effects of racism but it is not racism. White people hate White people, Asians hate Asians, Blacks hate Blacks. This is hardly racism because it is hardly based on skin color. It may be related to ethnic hatred rather than to racism. When Immanuel Kant, David Hume, and Hegel pointed out that Black people were inconsequential in history, they had hardly met any black person and so theirs views could not be construed to be based in hatred. One may be justified that their views were based in ignorance rather than in hatred. It is very important, therefore, that racism should not be confused with hatred. Hatred is just an effect of racism rather than a cause. Third, racism should be differentiated from tribalism or ethnicity. In many African countries, people often discriminate against each other based on perceived regions of origin. However, this discrimination is not based on the ranking of human beings based on the color of their skin. I am not aware of African societies that built societal infrastructures to support such belief, either. Third, racism is not based on language, place of birth or local customs. To discriminate against someone because they speak a different language should not be considered racism. Fourth, racism did not lead to slavery. It would be a big misunderstanding to think that racism led to slavery. Slavery has always been about economics. This is why it was practiced in Africa and many other places around the world. It is only when the color of skin is associated with slavery that slavery may have anything to do with racism. In modern times, racism has been located around the color "black" and those who have promoted racism have been associated with the color "white".

The people against whom modern racism has been applied have been "black" people. "White" people have said that "black" people are lower in the human hierarchy because of their skin color and corresponding social structures have been erected to defend this claim. The case has not been reversed. In other words, "black" people have not posited that "white" people are lower on the scale of human hierarchy and have not built any infrastructure to support this claim. The point of this is simple: saying that black people are racist is not correct, as Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly saw. I say this because I have heard some people say that some black people are racist. I have heard Africans compare tribalism or ethnic conflicts to racism. Black people may hate White people but that is not racism. It may be hatred born of racism but it is not racism. Let us not confuse the facts.

The Messiah Complex in African Politics

The messiah complex in politics is the feeling or conviction which, even though delusional, often leads politicians to think that they are the One and the only One through whom a country may receive salvation. Because a politician sees himself or herself as the only One through whom a country may receive salvation, they do all in their power to remain in power because, as matters stand, there is no one who can replace them. Anyone who replaces them will of course take the country down the wrong track and descend into hell! Nobody wants that! This messiah complex is by no means limited to African politicians as it is found all over the world, especially in the lives of dictators. The thing with dictatorship is that the dictator sees no viable future after him/her. Having been sent as the One to redeem his/her people, the dictator of course knows that no one else may receive a similar commission because there is only one Sender and the worldview under which they work is not heterogeneous. Some countries have attempt to address the messiah complex by instituting term limits for political offices. However, in some African countries like Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroon, those term limits are not worth the papers on which they are written.

The problem with the messiah complex is that ordinary people often do not recognize the messiah. They often see him or her as an ordinary person, prone to corruption like everyone else. They do not see the messiah, as the messiah sees himself or herself, as someone who has no sin. So ordinary people often have the effrontery to challenge the messiah's homogeneity. This is what is currently happening in Rwanda and Burundi - ordinary people, oblivious of the messiah in their midst, dare to think that he is an ordinary person, they dare harbor the wish to replace him. Since our hope for our politicians is not that they should enable us to go to heaven when we die, we need just ordinary, fallible people, to provide us bread and butter here on earth. We do not need messiahs. Is that too much to ask?

Why Some African Americans and other Diaspora Africans are Returning to Africa

That some African Americans are returning to Africa is not new but interesting in the 21st century. It demonstrates the disputed nature of African American presence in the United States.

Below is an excerpt from Africa Renewal Online:

A feeling of belonging

Mr. Thompson is one of the 20 or so African-Americans and other people from the diaspora of African descent who have found a home in this fishing community, attracted by the beaches and the peace and tranquility the town offers away from the hustle and bustle of Accra.

According to 2014 estimates, more than 3,000 African-Americans and people of Caribbean descent live in Ghana, a country of about 26 million people.

Whatever their motives, Ghana, the first sub-Saharan Africa country to shake off colonial rule 58 years ago, has become the destination of choice for diasporans looking for a spiritual home and an ancestral connection in Africa.

Read more.
 

Israel As Racist Society

When the retired Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, described Israel as an apartheid society, it was in reference to Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Such accusations have been brushed off on grounds of Israel's security. If Israel is mistreating Palestinians in order to  ensure its own security, on which grounds is Israel mistreating Ethiopian (Black) Jews? Many Ethiopian Jews and their supporters in Israeli society thronged onto the streets of Tel Aviv last weekend to protest the treatment of Ethiopian Jews as second class citizens in the land of their ancestors. This show of force was brought about by the ignominious assault of an Ethiopian Jewish soldier by a White policeman. One would think that the police and the military would be on the same side in a particular society because their goal is to protect the citizens of their society. That is not the case, however, when the behemoth of racism is the dominant modus vivendi of a people.

That Israel has become a racist society is one of the profound travesties of modern societies given that Israel has never been a racial idea. Israel's history is one of mixture of peoples from Mesopotamia to Africa. That it has become a racist society today is not only confounding but also shameful. Jews everywhere ought to protest this travesty.

Decolonization as Emancipation Proclamation Not Civil Rights Struggle

During the Civil Rights struggle in the United States, a leader such as Martin Luther King, Jr., saw the decolonization struggles around the world, and especially in Africa, as akin to the Civil Rights struggle in the United States. This interpretation of the connection between the two seems to have been accepted as legitimate. However, reading W. E. B. Dubois's The Souls of Black Folks that details the lives of African Americans just after the Emancipation Proclamation, one would see that decolonization in Africa has much in common with what happened to African Americans just after their emancipation than during the Civil Rights Movement. After the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans were struggling to find their feet in the context in which they had been thrust without prior preparation and Congress put many road blocks on their way to self-realization. Some of these road block torpedoed advances which African Americans could have made, thus contributing to some of the dysfunctions which we find today in America. In his essay, "On the Dawn of Freedom," Dubois narrates how political expediency on the part of Congress stifled policies that would have been far beneficial in providing African Americans with firmer footing in their move towards full citizenship in America. These policies, such as the creation of a national school system for the freed slaves, "a carefully supervised employment and labor office; a system of impartial protection before the regular courts; and such institutions for social betterment such as saving banks, land and building association, and social settlements. All this vast expenditure of money and brain," Dubois avers, "might have formed a great school of prospective citizenship, and solved in a way we have not yet solved the most perplexing and persistent of the Negro problems." But this was the road not taken and the effect of this road not taken can still be seen today.

A similar story can be told of most African post-colonial states. Post-colonial states were and are for the most part post-colonial only in name. In fact, they are the plantations of Machiavellian African elites and their foreign enablers who seek to put roadblocks on the peoples' path to well-being. The story of blacks in America after the Emancipation proclamation is very similar to the story of Africans in the post-colony. Perhaps more attention needs to be placed on this fact.

Black Mambazo and Salif Keita Against Xenophobia

 

Bringing Down the House Apartheid (Racism) Built

Since the fall of apartheid in South Africa in the 1990s, the question in many South African Universities has been one of how to transform the educational system that apartheid built. One significant way of doing this has been around the personnel of each university. However, the clamor for change has not been limited to personnel. Monuments that bear apartheid insignia are now being brought down. Recently the case of Rhodes at the University of Cape Town drew public attention. Now a plaque honoring former South African President, H. F. Verwoerd, is going down at the University of Stellenbosch. The point here seems to be that monuments that epitomize racism should not stand. However, considering that South Africa as it is today was built on the back of racism, the trick may be determining what needs to stand and what needs to go.

One of my students once informed me that the building in which I taught African studies at the University of Alabama bears the name of a slave owner and that the man perhaps gave a lot of money for the building to be built. I responded, rather sheepishly, I think, that if we focused on the history of our places of luxury today, we may be filled with revulsion. Think of how the wealth that build St. Peter's Square in the Vatican came about? Perhaps what catches our attention now is the most egregious displays of exploitation. The egregious exploitation seems to be still fresh in the new South Africa. That is why those monuments are coming down. In America, we have learned to make our peace with such monuments, especially here in the South.

Adam Sandler Seems Bent on Caricaturing Africans and Native Americans

Adam Sandler seems intent on caricaturing Africans and Native Americans using all the stereotypes in the book. His recent film, "Blended", seems to use all the stereotypes imaginable against Africa. Now, he has turned his attention to Native Americans. However, some Native American actors are refusing to help him caricature their tradition - they have quite participating in the production of "The Ridiculous Six". The trailer for "Blended" below is a textbook example of how not to think about Africa.

 

In Memory of Disposable Bodies

Interfaith memorial service held for migrants dead at sea.

Ethiopians Rally Against Murderous ISIL

After the killing of Ethiopian Christians, Ethiopians are demonstrating against the murderous group.

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On Myth, History and Xenophobia (In South Africa)

The recent xenophobia attacks in South Africa have not only led to soul searching in that country but also to the question of human genesis. This is especially raised by the ad for tasty chicken and chips below:

 

In the ad, after everyone leaves South Africa, the only person left is the Khoisan, believed to be the traditional inhabitant of the area. However, if it is true that human beings began somewhere in East Africa and not in South Africa, and if historians are correct that most people believed to be indigenous to southern Africa today actually came from the area around Cameroon, then not even the Khoisan is indigenous to South Africa. In other words, the Khoisan did not originate there; they migrated to the area.

However, most human societies have myths of origins, myths that claim that God/Spirit/spirits created them at a particular place and gave them particular skills and/or piece of land. Among the Vengo of Cameroon, where yours truly originate, it is believed that God created them right there in Vengoland. God sprang them as full-bodied people from a waterfall that can still be seen in the village. But the history of the Vengo tells a different story. It tells the story of people coming from different surrounding villages and converging in Vengoland. However, the Vengo are sticking to their story, just as Israel is sticking to its story about Palestine. Many South Africans, like most people around the world, do not even know, let alone remember the history of their migration. That is why xenophobia everywhere is in part a product of ignorance. Perhaps the history of migrations ought to be taught at primary schools so that professional historians should not be the only ones familiar with it.

Ebola Causes Teenage Pregnancy

Ebola does not only kill its victims but it also increases teenage pregnancy rate. That is according to a senior official in Sierra Leone, one of the three West African countries that have suffered most from the Ebola outbreak. You may be curious to find out the link between Ebola and teenage pregnancy. Well, this is it: one way Ebola has been tackled in West Africa is to close schools to limit contact and hence the spread of the deadly virus. Now, when schools are closed, teenage girls stay at home. When teenage girls stay at home, not very good things happen. Remember, it is about the girls staying at home not what the men do to them. So you see the connection - Ebola closes school, teenage girls wander at home and pregnancy comes to them like an airborne disease. So the government, full of morally righteous people who steal Ebola aid money, bans the girls from attending school for being bad examples. Classic Sierra Leonean government's way of addressing a crisis! Just like it handles Ebola!

Why Is America Setting Up Centers for Disease Control In Africa?

The short response to the question above is that African governments can't do it on their own. If they could, they would have done so. The report on the matter gives a brief history of how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came about in China and the United States. In the case of China, the US government was not involved in setting it up. In the case of the US, the Chinese government was not involved in setting it up. African governments were not involved in setting up either that of China or the US. Now, in the case of Africa, the American government is involved. The situation is described as a "partnership", the euphemism for neo-colonialism. The irony of this seems to be lost even on Ms. Zuma, the Chair of the African Union and a South African who preaches African independence and agency. It seems that these African leaders simply pick and choose when they want to be independent of the West or China. They mouth sanctimonious statements about African independence and agency while at the same time manifesting considerable dependence in all that they do. It is a shame that it is seen as normal for America to "partner" with the African Union to set up a Centers for Disease Control in Ethiopia. Why does an organization of 54 countries have to rely on one country to set up an agency that serves its own best interest? The continuous failure of the African Union to do little things for the continent makes one wonder whether it should be in existence at all.

Did the Western Media Overlook Africa's Role in Fighting Ebola?

The Director of social affairs at the African Union Commission thinks so. He complains:

“Unfortunately, Africans do not have the international voice of CNN, BBC and France 24, therefore much of our work is overlooked in the western media,” he said. “Most of the assistance provided by the international community is in the areas of finance and infrastructure. In the most critical human resources for health, Africans – including the affected countries – have had to take the lead.”

Kenyan Authorities Responded to Garissa Attack After 11 Hours - Report

A Kenyan newspaper is reporting that the Kenyan authorities responded to the Garissa attack after 11 hours, long after many of the victims had already been slaughtered. Swift action cannot be taken against the perpetrators of this heinous crime, as the President of Kenya is now vowing, if such action could not be taken to save the lives of Kenyans during the mayhem.

Welcome to the Daily Show With Trevor Noah

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1200 Days Of Protesting Paul Biya's 31-Year Dictatorship in Cameroon

FlourishingAfrica has been protesting the misrule of Paul Biya in Cameroon since the machinations of the last election that returned him to power. At the time of writing this post, the dictator has been out of the country for a long time, with rumors rife that he is suffering from prostrate cancer. He has been seeking medical help in Europe where he is listed as being on a private visit. His years at the helm of the state in the country has not brought the medical system to a level he could entrust with his own health, that is why he keeps spending more time in Europe for medical purposes. For most Cameroonians, however, this is not an option. Whenever they suffer from a serious ailment, the option left open for them is to pray for a miracle or die.

Even as the country  is currently fighting Boko Haram in the north of the country, with many Cameroonian soldiers losing their lives there, Paul Biya has hardly been engaged in the issue. The country apparently does not even have money to engage in the fight as citizens are being asked to donate money towards the fight. All the while, the dictator is out of the country, minding his own business in Europe. There is no good reason why he should continue to remain the head of state in Cameroon, given that he is hardly present there.

Why Is the Gay Jesus White?

One would think that with all that we now know about the historical Jesus, he would no longer be represented as a white guy in our time. However, it is quite curios that even a gay representation of Jesus pictures him as white. Instead of calling him the white, gay Jesus, however, he is simply called the gay Jesus. And this gay Jesus is taken to represent all gay people, as if all gay people are white. One would think that a group of people who are particular about discriminatory use of images would be sensitive about the portrayal of Jesus. Aren't there Asian or Black gay people? Why should the gay Jesus be a white guy?

In a related development, the Yoga Jesus is also portrayed as a white guy even though a Yoga Jesus would be a blended idea. And there is a nameless black guy, presumably Simon of Cyrene, helping the yoga Jesus.

The Fall of the Statue of Rhodes

The statue of the patron saint of colonialism in southern Africa, Cecile Rhodes, is currently under attack at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. In fact, in his heyday, Rhodes had the "pan-Africanist" vision of uniting the whole continent from Cape to Cairo, for the purpose of colonial exploitation. Now, however, many young South Africans are saying that he should not be honored with a statue on the campus of the University of Cape Town, as is currently the case. As The Guardian reports, "the removal of the memorial of the British colonizer has been approved." However, The Guardian piece goes on to wonder if the focus should be on the statue rather than on Rhodes' "colonial legacy". One wonders whether the statue itself is not part of the colonial legacy.
Rhodes' Grand vision for colonial Africa

Cameroon's Dictator Ignores Soldiers Who Died Fighting Boko Haram

Paul Biya, Cameroon's dictator for 31 years now, has been conspicuously absent from events honoring fallen soldiers who died fighting against Boko Haram. During one of these events, he was not even in the country. All this is being interpreted as contempt for the soldiers who died defended their country.

Lee Kuan Yew, The Man Who Made Singapore

Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew is not an African, so he may seem to have no place in a blog on African issues. However, what he did in Singapore has often been taken as holding lessons for African leaders. This is because, at independence from Britain in 1965, Singapore was in a similar point, in terms of economic development, like some African countries. However, the leadership of Prime Minister Yew transformed the country to the enviable position it holds in the world today. In fact, Singapore appears to be the favorite medical destination for Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and his family. What Mr. Yew built in Singapore, Mr. Mugabe has not been able to build in Zimbabwe, in spite of his loquacious claims to be fighting colonialism. The recent passing of Mr. Yew should serve as opportunity for African leaders to reflect on the miracle he created for his people.

M.anifest: Rapping the Times in Africa

Bill O'reilly, Power, and Truth

Postmodernism has recently alerted us to the fact that power and truth are close friends, that those who determine what is to be seen as truth are those who have the power. In a broader sense, truth has often been defined by empire, the most powerful political unit of any period. Even though there are often currents that undercut the claim to truth of empire, these currents often speak their own truths in private. From a narrower perspective, it is the powerful in our societies that tell us what is to be believed and what is to be believed is often what does not go against their interest. The marginalized have a way of stating their own truth but such truths are often not regarded as public truth. Public truth is often what those with power say they are.

And this bring us to the spectacle that has been going on around the Fox News showman, Bill O'reilly. Many of the stories that he has reported have been found to be blatant fabrications but given that he is himself a multimillion dollar industry that brings centers of power that include television and the publishing of books, he has simply done what the powerful do - redefine, or rather define, truth. Thus, a war zone is not a place where war is actually fought but any place where there is violent demonstration, like Selma fifty years ago. Also, one can say that they were witnesses of something even if they have only seen pictures of it. Thus, I can say that I was part of the Second World War because I have seen pictures of it or that I saw Pol Pot killing people in Cambodia because I have seen pictures of it. What is going on with the Bill O'reilly situation is a clear demonstration of the postmodern condition - truth and power are good friends. Ordinary, powerless people are taught that truth matters. However, this is not the case when it comes to the powerful - the powerful create their own truth.