How a Dutch Company Became African

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Trauma and Music in Africa

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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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