Cameroonian Footballer Dies in Indonesia

A Cameroonian footballer has died in Indonesia partly due to unpaid salaries. See more of the story here.

Bengondo's brother holding a picture of him playing

Happy New Year to Readers of FlourishingAfrica

The record shows that readers of FlourishingAfrica come from all over the world including the United States, China, Germany, Malaysia, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and many other countries. I would like to thank all of you for making my labor here worthwhile and for continuously expressing interest in the goings on in Africa. May this New Year, 2014, bring you peace and joy and may your vision for your life continue to come true.

Yours Truly,

FlourishingAfrica

The Tragedy of Cameroon's Football

There was a time when Cameroon was known for its superb footballing talents. At that time, most people knew the name of Roger Milla than the name of the country from which he came. Those days are long gone. Today, thanks to Paul's Biya's perfection of corruption and incompetence in the country, talents are hard to find. Now, in order to prepare for the upcoming World Cup for which Cameroon only managed to qualify, Cameroonian officials are now said to be scouring Europe, looking for Cameroonian talents there. It is a shame that Cameroon's talent should be nursed in Europe instead of Cameroon. Those officials who are doing this talent hunt in Europe should ask themselves when Cameroon has ever performed well with mostly European talents. As far as I remember, when Roger Milla mesmerized the footballing world with his skills, he was not playing in Europe. Roger Milla perfected his skills in Cameroon before he went to Europe. When in 1982 Cameroon put up an excellent performance at the World Cup, most of the players in that team were playing in Cameroon; it was only after the 1982 World Cup that Europe came looking for them. When in 1990, Cameroon became the first African country to reach the quarter finals at the World Cup, Cameroon did so with mostly home grown players. Europe came looking for them after the World Cup.

Since then the process seems to have reversed. Instead of relying on talents plying their trade in the country, Cameroonian scouts are now going to Europe to look for old and tired players such as Eto'o and his friends. The country no longer has a national league that can grow good players. The football infrastructure in the country is so dilapidated that football cannot be played at night in the country even at the stadium in the national capital, Yaoundé, because the flood-lights there are bad. It is no wonder that at the last World Cup in South Africa Cameroon was the first country to fail to qualify for the second round. I wonder why we should expect anything different in Brazil in 2014. Cameroon's football, just like the country itself, has fallen into disrepair. We need a new vision.

Stanford Anthropologist says African Pentecostal Belief is "Terrifying"

Another story about African Pentecostalism and witchcraft has been published by an American newspaper. This time the story is from Ghana and it is written by an American anthropologist who teaches at Stanford University. Her conclusion is that African Pentecostal belief in demons and witches is just as "terrifying" as believing that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ - a thought I think many Africans would reject. Whatever happened to the now famous view that anthropologists are not to insult other cultures?

Photograph from The New York Times.

 

The Complex Nature of Gospel Music in Cameroon

Most Cameroonian secular musicians sing songs that carry both explicit and implicit gospel messages, like this one. Thus, it is sometimes not quite clear if what they are doing is parody or serious. Given that Cameroonian secular musicians sing songs that carry gospel messages it leads one to wonder whether or not what they do could be considered as gospel music. This raises the question of what gospel music is. This is a subject that needs to be seriously investigated in the Cameroonian context. The song below is both in Douala (a popular language in Cameroon) and French. The setting seems to mimic a Roman Catholic context; the musician is Cameroonian Jean Pierre Essome. He says something about Christ which I do not understand but towards the end he asks God to give him strength to live the rest of his days. The video ends with the cross of Christ and the expression "Glory to Jesus" in French. Is this gospel music? This cries for further investigation.
 

Pentecostalism and Witchcraft in Malawi

Read the story from Foreign Policy news.

On Christian South Sudan

Not long ago, the current country of South Sudan used to be part of the country of Sudan. The constant tension between what is now South Sudan and what is now Sudan was cast as a conflict between the Muslim North and the Christian South. American Evangelical Christians raised alarm that their Christian brethren were being murdered by a Muslim regime in Sudan. And when things are cast as a fight between Christians and Muslims, all kinds of alarm bells begin ringing. America and other parties were quick to act and a truce was made that finally led to the independence of the country of South Sudan just over two years ago. The independence that came with much fanfare saw the death of talk about a Christian South Sudan and constant musings about ethnic tensions. Thus it is that a conflict that was initially cast as one between Christians and Muslims quietly morphed into an ethnic conflict. Now, no one is talking about a Christian South Sudan. We are now beginning to hear of ethnic cleansing as Christian voices are muted. One is left to wonder: is South Sudan still the part of the former Sudan that was said to be Christian? If so, where are the Christians now? Are these the same Christians who are now killing each other or was the whole conflict between the north and the south in the former Sudan not a Christian-Muslim thing, as we were made to understand, but a conflict about oil?

This brings to mind the current crisis in the Central African Republic which is now being cast as a Christian-Muslim conflict. When the dust settles, we will see that it was about something else. We need to do a better job calibrating the conflicts that happen in Africa. Facile calibrations give us the impression that we know what is going on when we are in fact ignorant of the facts on the ground.

Denis Ekpo and Post-Africanism

One of the most important and exciting but hidden voices in African literary studies is that of Prof. Denis Epko, a Nigerian scholar who proposed the idea of post-Africanism in 1995, refining it ever since. In a 2010 piece entitled "From Negritude to Post-Africanism," he gives a comprehensive description of post-Africanism, including the following:

"Post-Africanism moves away from a culture of anxiety about what the West thinks of us to a pragmatic confidence that negative images of Africa will be removed not by ideological blackmail or mimicries of the latest Western fad but by the demonstration of our competence in making modernity work for us here. No a priori racial dignity or African pride can do better than successfully manipulate modernity’s tools to transform Africa into a liveable, workable human space."

Stating why post-Africanism is needed in our time, he shows how nativistic ideologies of the past have not worked. He writes:

"The neurosis of Afrocentricity became pervasive in the formulation and execution of political systems, economic policies and technological development plans, all culminating in the 1980 document The African Path to Development, dubbed the Lagos plan. The ethos of Africanity, having given rise to a meta-politics of cultural specificity, placed Africa on an unworkable path but, to be sure an African path, gave it an unworkable democracy but an African democracy, an unworkable socialism but an African socialism, etc. Thus, under the cover of a compulsory Africanity, some cultural nationalists went straight back to the archaic tribal past and misused it to furnish non-Eurocentric formulae for Africanising modernity. Africanised modernity in the hands of psychotics like Mobutu Séssé Seko, Idi Amin, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Gmassingbé Eyadéma to mention but the most colourful, became the abattoir for disposing of the last remnants of the heritage of modernity in Africa, including the state, the economy, reason and humanity. Many of the states formerly ruled by African cultural nationalists have never recovered from the consequences of these dangerous myths."

Prof. Epko's voice needs to be heeded in contemporary Africa. It is a surprise that so little is known of his proposal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who is an African?: On the African Union Branding Campaign

At the middle, left hand side of the African Union Web site, there is a rectangular box that is supposed to be an attempt for the African Union to brand itself. When one clicks on the rectangular box, it enlarges and displays slides of the faces of those who are supposed to be African with the following caption for each: "I am African: I am the African Union". Below is the rectangular box:

The faces missing in this attempt to brand Africa tells you what the leaders of the African Union thinks about that body in the dawn of the 21st century. Is Africa not more diverse than the faces represented in that box?
 

Images of Africa: Is this Racist or Just Stupid?

Perhaps she just said what some only think about. We have a really long way to go.

Twitter: Screen grab Justine Sacco was fired as IAC's corporate
communications director after posing a message joking about AIDS in Africa.             

The Media and the Wrong Narrative of Religious Violence in CAR

The Central African Republic (CAR) is currently described by the media as being on the verge of genocide and comparisons are being made between the current situation and what happened in Rwanda. An equally loud statement that is being made is that the impending genocide may be due to the conflict between Muslims and Christians in the CAR. This narrative, which is widespread in the media is far from the truth. Inasmuch as the current conflict could be assigned a cause, the cause lies in politics rather than in religion. The cause lies in the historical despotism of the state, a despotism that has historically marginalized different groups of people in the country. The horror that is going on in the Central African Republic should be traced to the historical role France has played in the country as it has contributed in sustaining despots who have marginalized segments of their societies. The violence in the CAR is not due to the fact that people are defending their faith or belief or orchestrated strictly through what may be described as religious in its narrow sense. Religious violence is often bred through intolerance of the religious beliefs and practices of the other; however, this is not the case in the CAR where Christians and Muslims have apparently lived together side by side until this year. The politicians have discovered, as politicians often do, that they may make hay by whipping up the sentiments of religious people and make their struggle for power seem like a struggle about protecting religions - nothing could be farther from the truth. Proof of the fact that this is not a religious crisis is that this crisis will not be addressed by talking to religious leaders. This is because the commanders leading this fight are not religious leaders; they are politicians seeking power because they perceive, as is often the case in many African countries, that politics is a zero sum game. The narrative ascribing the current crisis in the country to religion needs to stop; blame should be placed where blame is due and in this case the blame should be placed on the politics of the CAR rather than on religion. This is not a religious horror. Inasmuch as we can separate these things, we need to say that this is a political horror.

Qunu and the Proverb about Good Palm Wine

An African proverb says that a path would be beaten to the home of the one who taps good palm wine. A path will be beaten to Qunu this Sunday because of its son, Nelson Mandela. Elsewhere, cities are often the famous places - so we hear of Lagos, Nairobi, New York, London, Sydney, etc. To these famous names we now add Qunu, a village with good palm wine.

 

The Booing of Jacob Zuma

The booing of current South African President, Jacob Zuma, is a well deserved boo heard around the world. It is a signal that Africans are fed up with corrupt politicians who are only interested in lining their pockets with money looted from their people. The Mandela mystique is outing these leaders.

 

What the Tributes to Mandela Say

People who divide time in order to master it tell us that we live in a time that is known as post-modern or late modern, a time characterized mostly by the bad things that modernity (or the time of lost innocence) has brought us. This time is characterized as a time of playfulness, a time of uncertainty, a time when heroism has left us because people are no longer sure of what is right or wrong. The relativism that paralyzes action, we are told, has led to widespread moral decadence. In short, it seems that now we are living in a time when people no longer know what to do or how to do it. Observing the machinations of politicians and other leading figures around the world may seem to confirm this impression.

However, the tributes that have been pouring in since the passing of Madiba seems to suggest that people still recognize that which is beautiful, that which is good, and that which is true. The tributes seem to suggest that people admire those who are selfless in spite of the fact that capitalistic greed and selfishness seem to be running rampant. The tributes to Mandela seem to suggest that we know the things that make for the beautiful life, we know the things that make for the attractive life. If we are not doing these things, it is not because they are not clear to us. The tributes to Mandela, unless they be only a hypocritical show, seem to suggest that moral relativism is not what is keeping us from being what we need to be. We seem to recognize a great soul when we see one. Our moral compass is not as corrupt as some would have us think. What we need to worry about is the question of how it is that we recognize greatness, acknowledge goodness, and acclaim magnanimity but find it difficult to practice these ourselves. Perhaps Mandela's greatest challenge to our time, however this time is named, is to inspire us to practice that which we know make for flourishing human life.

We Have Seen Mandela

While he was still in prison, pictures of him were banned. For a long time, he lived largely in the imagination of the people as the people took up the cause he gave his life for. In the 1980s, Johnny Clegg and Savuka composed a touching tribute to Mandela that captured this sentiment. Asimbonanga Mandela (we have not seen Mandela) was the theme of the song. Since then we have had ample occasions to see the man but his mystique is still captured by the song. Below is the song, a fitting tribute as we continue to celebrate Mandela.

 

Sports World Remembers Nelson Mandela

See more here.

At African Union's Web Site, Still No Mention of Death of Nelson Mandela

Reading the African Union Web site, one would have no idea that one of the leading figures of Africa and the rest of the world, Madiba, has just passed away. The African Union Web site is supposed to be the source of news for that huge organization that is supposed to represent all of Africa. On the Web site of the United Nations, is a tribute to Nelson Mandela by UN chief Ban Ki-Moon. However, there is no mention of this important death on the Web site of the African Union. The passing of Africa's most famous son is apparently being mourn more by people from outside the continent. This is just one of the ways African leaders are keeping their distance from Mandela because he calls attention to their rapacity.

Desmond Tutu's Tribute to Nelson Mandela

From AllAfrica.com

 

Cape Town — Nelson Mandela is mourned by South Africans, Africans and the international community today as the leader of our generation who stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries — a colossus of unimpeachable moral character and integrity, the world's most admired and revered public figure.
Not since Kenyatta, Nkrumah, Nyerere and Senghor has Africa seen his like. Looking for comparisons beyond Africa, he will go down in history as South Africa's George Washington, a person who within a single five-year presidency became the principal icon of both liberation and reconciliation, loved by those of all political persuasions as the founder of modern, democratic South Africa.
He was of course not always regarded as such. When he was born in 1918 in the rural village of Mvezo, he was named Rolihlahla, or "troublemaker." (Nelson was the name given to him by a teacher when he started school.) After running away to Johannesburg to escape an arranged marriage, he lived up to his name. Introduced to politics by his mentor, Walter Sisulu, he joined a group of young militants who challenged the cautious elders of the African National Congress, founded by black leaders in 1912 to oppose the racist policies of the newly-formed union of white-ruled British colonies and Afrikaner republics. Read more here.

How Do We Say Goodbye to Tata (Father) Mandela?

From Mail & Guardian in South Africa.

                    

African Leaders Shun Nelson Mandela

Even though Nelson Mandela has become an inspiration to many, including the current president of the United States, Barack Obama, African leaders shun him like a plague. Of all the videos and picture taken of Mandela post-imprisonment, there is hardly any image of him with other African presidents. The reason for this may not be hard to decipher. While Nelson Mandela fought for human dignity, most African presidents despise their own people and are only concerned with filling their own bank accounts with the booty looted from their own people. Thus, rather than being an inspiration to African leaders, Mandela has become a terror to them. Let's see whether such African dictators such as Dos Santos of Angola, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Yahyah Jammeh of The Gambia, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, among others, will attend his funeral.

Roben Island - the Place that Will Live in Infamy

Nelson Mandela Obituary - BBC

Follow Nelson Mandela's Crossing Over on BBC

The BBC is following the passing of Nelson Mandela live, and you may follow it here.

The Baobab Has Fallen

The Baobab Tree, the biggest tree in the forest, has fallen. That Baobab is Nelson Mandela, Madiba, the compassionate son of Africa, the fighter, the man who, in another time and another place, would be a god. Madiba, Africa and the world remember you with deep satisfaction and joy. The living and the dead ululate you. This day should be the Nelson Mandela day!

 

Jacob Zuma Announcing the Death of Nelson Mandela, Madiba

Agriculture as Nigeria's "New Oil"?

Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture is said to have "revolutionized" the country's agriculture, making it to be perceived as just as profitable as the oil sector and attracting many to it. See more about the story here.

Nigeria's Agriculture Minister, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

Corruption Still Endemic in Many African Countries

See more about the story here.

Ghana's New Middle Class

Believing the Python in Cameroon

Recently, a story which has been circulating in Cameroon for over twenty years broke out anew in the town of Buea, in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. That old story is the story of pythons that swallow young ladies, especially young ladies in university towns. This story first became popular when I was still a student at the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, in the early 1990s. At the time, it was announced over the radio in Yaoundé that a young lady who was a student at the University of Yaoundé, had been swallowed by a python in a hotel. The story went abroad that a wealthy, older man who wanted to have an affair with the young lady had promised to give her much money upon the consummation of the affair. Enticed by the money, the young lady followed the man into a hotel room and while there the man transformed into a python and swallowed the girl. No girl was ever reported missing but many people believed the story.

Recently, however, the same story broke out in the university town of Buea. The story went that a senior police or military officer or a business person (these things are hardly clear) went into a hotel with a girl who lived in Buea. The man proceeded to transform into a python and swallowed the girl. When this story was reported a couple of weeks ago, over ten thousand people poured into the streets in Buea and marched to the said hotel to rescue the girl from the python. No girl was reported missing, something that would need to be the case if a girl had been swallowed by a python. In spite of the fact that no girl was reported missing, people still insisted that a girl had be devoured by a python in a hotel room.

One enterprising young man who heard the story went on the internet and printed out an unrelated picture of a python swallowing a girl and started selling the pictures in the streets, as if they were pictures of the actual even. (Superstition has now gone hi-tech!)The police intervened and stopped the sale of the pictures. In all this, however, it was only the owner of the hotel who clearly denied that he knew of no incident dealing with a python swallowing a girl in his hotel. Public officials only used teargas and gunshots to disperse the gathered crowd. They did not confirm or deny the claims of the story. And so to this day, there are many in Buea and Cameroon as a whole who believe that a python swallowed a young lady at a hotel in Buea. Before that, it was in Yaoundé.

The fact that no public official either denied or confirmed this story leads me to believe that our ruling elites have a vested interest in keeping people in the dark. Disabusing the people from believing such incredulous stories would make them begin to wonder about other untruthful stories they may be tenaciously holding. Where public officials benefit from telling lies, they would hardly want to run the risk of clarifying untruthful stories.

All this brings me to what is my personal interest in this story. The imagination that grants credibility to human beings turning into pythons and swallowing other human beings is a religious imagination. Those who have vested interests in presenting Africans as deeply religious people will not want to disabuse the populace of this ruinous imagination. As a scholar of religion this concerns me because in attempt to encourage the religious imagination in Africa, free reign is given to incredulous beliefs that sometimes lead to unsound outcomes. The hotel in this story was partly destroyed by the gathered crowd.

Two groups, however, have vested interests in keeping the people in the dark about these kinds of stories and both of these groups belong to the elite of the Cameroonian society - the ruling elites and the preachers and scholars of African religion. In this matter, the interests of corrupt ruling elites and those of the religious leaders in society coincide. For both of these groups, the calculation is that the people better remain in ignorance than lose their ignorance and start asking uncomfortable questions. Better the people remain ignorant and religious than knowledgeable, argumentative, and irreligious. That is not the African way. Those things are for corrupt, Westerners; not for good African people. Africans need to be different, you know. Africans need to be different. They are better people. Anthropologists and scholars of religion will have a field day with this. I wait to read about it in scholarly journals about how religion is waxing strong in Africa.

Meet Dr. Dambisa Moyo

Having talked about Prof. Ayittey yesterday, I thought of bringing you another warrior for a flourishing Africa today. She is Dr. Dambisa Moyo, the economist from Zambia and author of the popular work, Dead Aid. Even though both Moyo and Ayittey are warriors for a flourishing Africa and are both economists, they approach the matter a little differently. Ayittey focuses on moralizing about African economic and political leadership while Moyo stays with the economic facts, seeing economics as somehow separate from politics. For her, if you put your economic ducks in order, the politics will follow. Also, while Ayittey tends to be very suspicious of the role of China in Africa, Moyo tends to see China as a kind of savior who treats Africa as equal partners in the struggle for economic development. Further, Moyo places Africa within global dynamics while Ayittey discusses African issues mainly with reference to what is going on in Africa. Meet Dr. Moyo.

 

Prof. George Ayittey on Contemporary African Economies

Prof. George Ayittey, renown economist from Ghana, has made it his life's work to see a flourishing Africa. He was recently on the BBC to talk about how African economies should be engineered. You need to listen to him here.

Out of media player. Press

African Teams and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil

The following African nations have qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil:
1. Algeria
2. Cameroon
3. Nigeria
4. Ghana
5. Ivory Coast
Africa has five slots to fill at the competition and those are the countries that have filled the slots.

However, this post is not about African teams that have qualified for the World Cup. Rather, it intends to ask a troubling question about African football. At the World Cup level, the best an African country has performed is to reach the quarterfinals and this was first done by Cameroon in the heydays of the football magician, Roger Milla, the best African footballer who ever lived. Now, some are wondering whether any of the current slate of teams would even make it to the quarterfinals. If this is done, it seems, it would be counted as a good achievement for African football. With African football, it seems that few ever nurse the hope of actually winning the World Cup. This is a strange place to be for two significant reasons. First, African countries have defeated countries that have eventually won the World Cup. Second, at the junior levels of the World Cup, African countries have won the trophy several times.

This brings me to the troubling question that led to this post: how is it that African countries can win the World Cup at the junior levels but fail to do so even once at the senior level? At what point do things go wrong for African teams as they move from the junior to the senior levels of the competition? If African countries have won the junior levels World Cup, one would imagine that it is possible for them to win the trophy at the senior level. Why is it that this has not happened and no one seems to be thinking that this should happen soon?
 

The Happiest and Saddest Countries in the World

"Happiness is subjective, not objective, and what defines it can be debated ad infinitum. Does prosperity equal happiness? Not always, but it sure helps." See where African countries fall in the list of 142 countries.

Nigeria are World Under 17 Football Champions!

See video highlights here.

Mr. Dos Santos of Angola Should Be Ashamed of Himself

Angola's dictator, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled the country since 1975, should be ashamed of himself for jailing a teenager. A teenager prints a T-Shirt protesting the dictatorship in Angola and is thrown in jail? What respectable person would jail a teenager for expressing political views?Need we an further demonstration that Angola is a dictatorship? Mr. dos Santos should be ashamed of himself.

Mr. Dos Santos should be ashamed of himself

Cardinal Christian Tumi, Paul Biya, and the Popes

Cameroon is a country beloved by the popes. Since John Paul II, whenever Roman Catholic Popes visit Africa, their first stop is in Cameroon. Pope Francis has not visited Africa yet and so we wait to see whether he would maintain this tradition or not. Why do the Popes do this? The reason is not clear to me. However, I continue to be surprised by the prominence of Cameroon on the map of the Roman Catholic hierarchy given that the country does not appear to have the most Catholics in Africa. Perhaps Cameroon has this prominence because the dictator of the country is a Roman Catholic! Thus the relations between the Popes and the Cameroonian hierarchy has served to bless Paul Biya's dictatorship as each Pope who visits the country shakes his hand and gives him communion. To most Cameroonians and even the international community, this alignment of the Popes with the dictatorship of Paul Biya gives his unholy regime the cover of legitimacy. Even Pope Francis who is noted for his comments about providing for the least of these has also blessed Biya's dictatorship even if he is yet to go to Cameroon.

However, one of the leading critics of this monstrous regime is also a Roman Catholic - Cardinal Christian Tumi. He has seized every opportunity to condemn the machinations of this monstrosity but one wonders if his voice is making any difference given that the hierarchy in the Vatican is in cahoots with the junta.

700 Days of Protesting Paul Biya's Thirty-year Dictatorship in Cameroon

On November 6, 2013, Paul Biya, Cameroon's dictator, will be thirty-one years since France placed him at the helm of power in Cameroon. He came to power when Cameroon had a one-party system, resisted the idea of multi-party democracy until he could do so no more. Then he set up a sham multi-party system in which he has been rigging one election after the other since 1992. His latest exploits were the brazen rigging of the senatorial and municipal elections in Cameroon. Paul Biya has taught Cameroonians massive corruption, jailed his opponents on trumped up charges, ruined the economy of the country, and contributed to the early death of many young people of the country. Young people are fleeing the country in droves because Paul Biya has demonstrated that he cannot create a better future for the people of Cameroon. We here at FlourshingAfrica will continue to highlight Paul Biya's unholy grip on power in Cameroon until that monstrous regime is no more. We need people with fresh ideas to chart a better future for the people. Cameroon deserves much better.

Egyptian Military Can't Take a Joke?

The suspension of the Egyptian Satirist Bassem Youssef's show by the Egyptian military seems to show that the military has more to hide than reveal. We at FlourishingAfrica still think they did a good thing by removing Morsi from power but this act makes us to begin to be skeptical about their intentions.

 

How a Dutch Company Became African

See more here.

Trauma and Music in Africa

See more here.

 

Pope Francis and Dictatorship in Africa

Pope Francis has received high marks from around the world for his various statements placing himself on the side of the poor and oppressed in the world. His own comparatively less luxurious life is seen as proof that he eschews excesses. Just last week, he fired a German bishop who is reputed for his excesses.

Below, however, is the picture of the Pope and the wife of Cameroon's dictator, Paul Biya. Successive Popes have authorized Paul Biya's dictatorship in Cameroon by cozying up to him. For over thirty years now, Paul Biya has forced himself on Cameroon's people, rigging one sham election after another and ruining the economy in the process. Under his watch, the country has become increasingly corrupt and more and more young people are fleeing the country. Paul Biya, a Roman Catholic, has received the blessings of every Pope from John Paul II to Pope Benedict to now Pope Francis. The rhetoric of Pope Francis will ring hollow if he continues to cozy up to the dictatorship of this Roman Catholic in Africa. His failure to call out Paul Biya for his dictatorship in Cameroon will only continue to demonstrate the double standards that has marked some of the pronouncements of the church. It would demonstrate that when the Pope talks about overcoming poverty, his thinking is not about the poor of Africa.

 

Mobutu's Palace and Ozymandias

The ruins of Mobutu's palace lying in the forest reminded me of a poem I read in secondary school, Ozymandias. The vanity of it all!

 

The Image of Africa in South Korea

Below is the image of Africa in South Korea, at least according to a cigarette ad aimed at African smokers. 

When the company that did the ad was accused of racism, a representative of the company gave the reasoning behind the ad thus:

"We absolutely had no intention to offend anyone and only chose monkeys because they are delightful animals that remind people of Africa," she said.
"Since this product contains leaves produced by the traditional African style, we only tried to adopt images that symbolise the nature of Africa."
So monkey is the image that reminds people of Africa and symbolizes Africa? The stupidity of this response is amazing. The blatant racism that has been coming out of Asia since Asia recently started doing significant business with Africa is mind-boggling. This makes one wonder what kids learn about Africa in schools in countries like South Korea and China.

African Leaders and the Culture of Impunity

Many African leaders believe that they are above the law. Thus, for many of them, the laws of their countries do not apply to them but only to their subjects. Their role is to make sure that everyone else follows the laws they make but when it comes to them following the laws, they wriggle and writhe around it like snakes. This is clearly seen in many of the constitutional crises and elections rigging which we have on the continent. African leaders just do not think laws should apply to them. How can laws apply to law itself?

The latest ploy of African leaders to place themselves above the law is the recent circus of the African Union where African leaders have requested that sitting heads of state be exempt from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. In other words, no matter the crime with which one is charged, as soon as they become president, they should be immune from prosecution until the end of their tenure. Given that African leaders hardly leave power once they enter it, this may never happen. And so in the end they would have to go free.

The usual excuse which failed African leaders often give when attention is called to their crimes is that they are being unfairly targeted by the West. Even though these leaders often cooperate with the West to fleece their own people, they play the victimization card when it comes to holding them accountable for their crimes. Mr. Kofi Anan and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have rightly called them out for this malicious attempt to evade the law. African leaders may be above the law in their countries but they should not be allowed to be above the law internationally. Their culture of impunity and corruption has to stop.

How Paul Biya Rigs Elections in Cameroon

CameroonPostline.com -- On September 30, 2013, voters at the legislative and municipal elections were struck by a very unfortunate convergence of rigging elements which caused all kinds of horrible devastation to an otherwise splendidly organised polls.

While the opposition parties participating in the twin elections were hoping to be glad when it was all said and done, their “opponents” on the other side seemed unhappy with the ensuing results. But before that, the campaigns had been typified by haggling, mud-throwing, hateful comments and worse still, bloodshed.
Potential voters, especially those from the leading opposition party, the SDF, faced several perplexities, ranging from sweeteners that included cash, salt, toilet tissue, beer, rice and meat, cooking oil, maggi cubes and all the like; on-the-spot disenfranchisement, threats to life from gun-toting fanatics and traditional leaders brandishing bizarre totems.

This year, the CPDM party took the top spot in tarnishing Cameroon’s eighth election since 1992. And it wasn’t the first time. Roughly speaking, the CPDM, in its attempts to attract votes in its favour, resorted to its gutter techniques to filch opposition votes at the legislative and municipal elections.
Its agents, conveniently infiltrated into the ELECAM camp, tried to hide voters’ lists; others were caught buying opposition ballot papers, if they were not stealing them out-and-out. Some of the CPDM militants even tried to vote twice or use other people’s voters’ cards despite their “unriggable” biometric character. Thus, many voters have let out a monumental cry and vote watchers have been left with little else to believe than that the CPDM was out to obscure the true outcome of the recent twin elections.

Deaths at Sea and the Silence from African Governments

In recent years there have been many tragic deaths of African migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. One of the most high profile persons who had died in this way was a woman from Somalia who had represented her country in an Olympics event. The Roman Catholic Pope, Francis, recently drew attention to this tragedy when he made a pilgrimage to the site where these deaths often occur. Whenever each of these tragic incidents occur, we often hear much talk about what needs to be done to curb them. A very interesting thing about the talk about how to curb these deaths is that it often comes from European leaders and the talk often centers on what is to be done with the migrants as they attempt to cross the sea - should boats be sent to intercept them and send them back before they meet their tragic end? Generally, there is often a deafening silence on the issue of addressing the root causes of why these people left their countries in the first place to risk their lives crossing into Europe. This silence is often most deafening from the African side where one hardly hears anything from African leaders. Are African leaders that callous? Why are they not concerned that many of their people are risking their lives to reach Europe? When are these leaders going to take the lives of their people seriously enough to want to do everything to ensure that their people do not risk their lives fleeing from their own countries?

 

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Taking Da Vinci to the Oppressed

Mandela inspired art.

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Terrorists Killed Poet Kofi Awoonor

Kofi Awoonor, one of Africa's leading poets, was among the dead in the Kenyan Mall terrorist attack. The mournful dirge of Awoonor's "Song of Sorrow," which I read in high school in Cameroon, is now to be song for him. Let us praise him for singing the sorrows of many and helping us sing his own.

Kenyan President Speaks on Mall Attack

The New York Times, Mass Shootings, and Dead Bodies

The New York Times has reported many mass shootings in the United States but hardly have there been pictures of dead bodies on the front page of The New York Times. However, when it comes to mass shooting in an African country, the New York Times flashes pictures of dead bodies on its front page. Does good taste escape the editors of The New York Times when it comes to African bodies?

Nigerian Wins Miss Muslim World

Sister Angelique - A Nun Fit for the Nobel

Watch the inspirational story of the work of Sister Angelique Namaika here. Read more about her from the BBC here.

 

A Perspective on Mental Health in Chad

A psychiatrist diagnoses the mental health of Chad.

Are Africans Happy?

Not much. That would be the response of a recent report by the United Nations. African countries are mostly found at the bottom of the list.

Internet Pioneer in Africa Inducted into Internet Hall of Fame

Watch his acceptance speech above and see more about him from CNN here.

State of Agriculture in Africa II

From The Economist blog, Baobab. Also see a piece from Radio Netherlands here.

Did Pat Robertson Profit from War in Rwanda and the Congo?

A recent documentary on his engagement in Rwanda and the Congo appears to give an affirmative response to this question.

A Report on the State of Africa's Agriculture

"The world faces a major agricultural challenge. We must, over the next few decades, find ways to deliver nutritious, safe, and affordable food to a growing global population that is projected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. Stress on our land and water, increase in soil degradation, salinization of irrigated areas, migration of youth to urban areas, climate changes, are among the many risks that are negatively affecting the agricultural production potential in many countries around the world. The need for a comprehensive solution to global food and nutritional security is urgent."

Read more from the report on the state of Africa's agriculture here.

A Portrait of Rwanda's Paul Kagame: Autocrat or Savior?

 

See the evenhanded story from The New York Times.

The True Size of Africa

An interesting read from The Economist. Also see the comments at the end of the piece. "Africa is much bigger than it looks on most maps."

Stephen Keshi is Way Out of Line!

Stephen Keshi has so far been a fine coach for the Nigerian national football team and he has a legacy to protect. In the past he has called for African countries to employ African coaches rather than relying on foreign coaches. This is a sentiment that can be maintained without being racist. By adding racism to his nativist perspective he seems to be demonstrating the reverse side of all nativism - that they may be motivated by hatred for the other rather than a desire for internal excellence. FlourishingAfrica has in the past denounced racism against Africans around the world. Racism from Africans is also not to be tolerated. Stephen Keshi should be teaching kids how to play football rather than how to be racists.

America's Aid to Egypt is actually America's Aid to America



CBS News has today given further analysis of how the "aid" to Egypt is actually meant for America rather than for Egypt. It seems that cutting the aid would hurt America more than it would hurt Egypt. Such is the politics of aid.

Cocoa, Oil, and Development in Equatorial Guinea and Ghana

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Fake Rhetoric of Democracy

The unspeakable loss of lives in Egypt is deeply troubling. My sympathy and condolences go to those who have suffered this loss. However, I do not sympathize with the Muslim brotherhood who are now struggling to cast the current conflict as a conflict between military dictatorship and democracy. This crisis, if anything, was orchestrated by the dictatorship of the Muslim Brotherhood. After winning power in Egypt, they went to work clearing the ground for Sharia rule rather than working with all the stakeholders of the country to create a democratic future. The mantle of democracy which the Muslim Brotherhood is now claiming is a sham. The very essence of Muslim Brotherhood makes it anti-democratic - it claims Islam as the only legitimate rule. This is abominable!

The issue now seems to be a choice between two anti-democratic movements - the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. In this I will throw my lot with the military. The military is dictatorial and they kill their enemies, as we have just seen in Egypt and in many countries around the world. However, a profound difference between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood is that the Muslim Brotherhood rules in the name of God. The dictatorship of the military does not claim divine sanction and recent dictators generally do not claim to be ruling in the name of God. However, by ruling in the name of God, the Muslim Brotherhood does not only claim the body but it also claims the soul so that those who do not agree with them are also seen not to be in agreement with God. Thus, while the military only claims possession of the human body, the Muslim Brotherhood claims both the body and soul. While the dictatorship of the military is rooted in realpolitik, the dictatorship of the Muslim Brotherhood has metaphysical backing. That is what makes it very sinister. People who cannot live with others unless others become like them cannot claim the mantle of democracy. The Muslim Brotherhood has always been fighting and dying for something else and that thing is not democracy, rather, it is Islamic rule.

Strange Tales from the Arabian Nights

I am not quite sure where I heard this story but it seems to be from my primary school days in Cameroon. We were told that the story is one of the Tales from the Arabian Nights but I have not verified this information. This is how the story goes: A man had a camel and they were traveling in a very cold clime. When it was time to sleep, the man built a tent and slept in it and the camel stayed outside. The camel however began to complain of the cold outside. In order to relieve the effects of the cold, the camel begged to put just one of its feet in the tent so that the warmth generated in the tent may pass through its feet and warm its cold body outside. After initial hesitation, the man allowed the camel to put one of its feet in the tent. Then the camel said that its body will warm better if both of its feet were in the tent. Again, after some hesitation, the man allowed the camel to put both of its feet in the tent. You may see where this story is going. The camel asked for its head to be placed in the tent, and so on and so forth. In the end, the camel was in the tent and the man was outside.

This is not a perfect analogy but I think it could be used for the situation in Egypt. When the revolution started, the Muslim Brotherhood said it wanted democracy like everyone else. It did not want to lord it over all Egyptians, as Hosni Mubarak did, but rather to be part of a participatory democracy. It even said it would not field a candidate for the presidential elections. However, when the time for the elections came, it said it would field a candidate. It said it was looking for a participatory constitution but when the time came to draft a constitution, it pushed everyone out and pushed its agenda in. Initially, they seem to behave as if they did not want power. Now, they are dying in the streets to keep the power they had grabbed. Perhaps we should have known all along that a people who claim that "Islam is the answer" cannot share power with anybody. Strange tales are still being told by Arabian Nights.

How Electoral Malpractices in the United States Embolden Dictators Around the World

It seems to have been assumed that democratic elections could be carried out with as much transparency as possible. That was before 2000 when the United States appeared unsure about who had won the presidential elections that pitted George Bush against Al Gore. The winner, as we know, was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. Even during the 2000 presidential elections, there were long lines of people waiting to vote. It was said that some of them went back home without having the opportunity to vote. A similar thing happened in the last elections that pitted Barack Obama against Mitt Romney. Long lines of people were seen standing at polling stations and machinations were reported to have been afoot to prevent them from voting. The world was watching all this. If the United States, which prides itself as a paragon of democracy cannot conduct a good, transparent election, how is it possible for countries like Zimbabwe to conduct one?

And that question is the crux of the matter with respect to the just ended presidential elections in Zimbabwe. The opposition is crying foul, the ruling party is saying that everything went well. African observers are saying that no election is ever perfect. Britain and the United States are saying there were electoral irregularities. South Africa is congratulating Mr. Mugabe as winner. Now we seem to be working with degrees of electoral imperfections. Who is to say what a good election looks like when the United States is unable to conduct one? Any election is just as good as the other given that there is no perfect election. Is this politics or postmodernism coming to its own?

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.