High Life in Ghana

P-Square And The Rise Of Nigerian Music Industry

Has Chantal Biya, The Wife Of Paul Biya, Run Away?

Chantal Biya
It is rumored in Cameroon and in Cameroonian communities abroad that Chantal Biya, the wife of Cameroon's dictator, Paul Biya, has run away from her husband under very suspicious circumstances. Since in Cameroon people often get their news through rumors and since, as we say in Cameroon, there is no smoke without fire, we thought it is necessary to put the rumor out there so that Paul Biya may confirm or deny it. We checked her Facebook page and the last time something was written on it was in November 2011.

Sex Strike In Togo Politics

Women in Togo have been called upon to withhold sex from their significant others for one week, beginning today, Monday, August 27, 2012, in order to press for political reform in the country. This tactic was practiced with success in Liberia. More power to the women!

Yahya Jammeh Must Be Crazy!!!

Not since the infamous Idi Amin of Uganda has an African president talked about killing people as if human beings were nothing. Yahya Jammeh, president of the tiny West African country called the Gambia, has waded into such murky waters by promising to kill all people on death row in his country next month. This man is simply insane.

What Killed Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia?

The death of Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has been reported. He was only 57 years old. He is the second African leader to die in two months. Last month it was Ghana's President, John Atta Mills. At this rate African leaders would all be gone in 54 months! Meles Zenawi did not die in his country; he died a European country, Belgium. This says volumes about the state of Ethiopian hospitals and medical system under his watch. As always the cause of death is not known. See this report from Time.

Death Of A Patriarch

The death of the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Chuch, Patriarch Abune Paulos, has been reported.

De Beers Moves From London To Botswana

See this report from BBC and the other clip below:

Funeral Of A Leader - John Atta Mills

The good ones die first; the rogues remain. A terrible providence.

Mitt Romney Would Make A Great President - In An African Country

The American presidential elections has been heating up and various issues have been raised for or against both the Democratic Party candidate, President Barack Obama, and the Republican Party candidate, Mr. Mitt Romney. One of the questions that have seemed very interesting is that of Mr. Romney's finances. People have been asking many questions about his taxes and the bank accounts he had outside America. Mr. Romney, however, has refused to come clean about these questions and has sternly pointed out that Americans are going to see only two years of taxes from him - the one for 2010 and the one for 2011, period. He has not yet shown them the one for 2011.
As I pondered about the question of Mr. Romney's finances, I noticed that the questions about his finances are questions that would not even be raised if he were running for president in most African countries, especially francophone African countries. Since Mr. Romney appears to have so far felt very uncomfortable talking about his finances, it seems that he would be more comfortable as president of an African country. In fact, in some of these countries, any journalist who raises the issue of the finances of a president is simply be placed in jail. Many of the presidents in African countries keep their money in foreign bank accounts because they do not trust their own banking institutions. The nature of the finances of many African presidents is hardly known to their people. It is not even known if some of these presidents pay taxes - how could they, when they own the country? Mr. Romney would therefore be very comfortable as president of, lets say, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, the Gambia. He could even be president of Ethiopia, Chad or Central African Republic. In these countries, no one would ask about his finances, he could put as much money as he likes in foreign bank accounts and even build mansions there and no one would ask him any question.
One additional thing that would work well for Mr. Romney as an African president is that the party he belongs to, the Republican Party, does not seem excited about elections. The party appears not to want people to vote. This is the very sentiment exhibited by the parties of many African presidents. For them, elections are simply cooked to give their candidate 90% of the vote or a less suspicious 60%. Since Mr. Romney has the experience of moving from one place to run for political office in another - like he did when he moved from Utah to Massachusetts - he might think of the possibility of moving to one of the African countries named above and run for president. Running for president in America seems to be demanding too much of him - American journalists would not stop asking questions about his money. If he were in an African country, he might simply throw them in jail and get on with the important matter of winning elections and governing the people like a patron.

Paul Biya Is The Reason Why Cameroonian Olympians Disappear

Cameroon's participation during the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics was full of fanfare. Many admired the robe they wore. However, it soon turned out the the Olympics is not about bright robes; it is in fact a competition. When the thing became a competition, the Cameroonian delegation did not win a single medal. As if that was not disappointing enough, some members of the Cameroonian delegation have gone missing. According to the English people, these Cameroonian Olympians have absconded. In Cameroon, the move is known as "bush falling."
The desire of Cameroonians to run away from their country has astronomically increased since Paul Biya became the dictator of the country. With the increasing hardship that he has brought on the country, many of the young people look elsewhere for better life. Any decent leader would be ashamed when representatives of the country abscond. But Paul Biya, being a dictator, is incapable of shame.

Are African Countries Reverting To Dictatorship?

Consider the observation of US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in Dakar, as described by aljazeera: "Speaking at Dakar's University of Cheikh Anta Diop, she said that coups and power grabs had reduced the count of full electoral democracies on the continent to 19 in 2012 from 24 in 2005." Nineteen (19) democracies in a continent of 54 countries! I would like to have a list of the countries that are currently described as democratic in Africa. Let's see: Nigeria, Liberia, Egypt (?), Tunisia (?), South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania. I count 12. Which are the others. It should be noted that all Francophone African countries are dictatorships. Rwanda is also a dictatorship. For more, see Foreign Policy's "Failed States Index."

Higher Presidential Mortality Rate In Africa Cause For Concern

Since 2008, Africa has lost eight heads of state. There are only 54 states. That's a presidential mortality rate of nearly 15%; slightly higher than the infant mortality rate of Sierra Leone, which is the second highest in the world. In other words, a baby in Sierra Leone has more chance of surviving its first five years than African presidents do of getting through a few terms in office.