Contemporary African Music as Griotism

In some African societies, griots are keepers of the story/history of the people. They memorize and recite royal lineages and tell the important stories of their people. They are also praise singers who weave tunes in praise of the famous and powerful. The griot, in Cameroon English, has come to be synonymous with the sycophant, one who uncritically buys into the agenda of those in power in order to reap some benefits.

The strong and powerful have often been subjects of songs in many traditional African societies - and so have the disgraceful. In fact, song is often used to praise or blame. However, much of contemporary African pop music seems to fall in the camp of the sycophantic as many songs today seem to recite the names of benefactors or some of the rich and powerful, in hopes that they may become future benefactor. In some cases, calling out one's name in a song indicates that one has socially arrived, that one is now part of the ranks of the rich and powerful. Thus, the names of music producers, musicians themselves, Generals in the army, footballers such as Didier Drogba or Samuel Eto'o, etc., are now the subjects of many songs. One wonders whether contemporary African music is becoming increasingly a place to celebrate the rich and famous. Or is it just a way to sing about African greats? Below is a sample of the kind of song discussed here. It is from arguably the king of this genre in African popular music, Kofi Olomide. Listen for the names.

 

Young Muslims Protect Christmas Celebrants

In Kaduna, Nigeria, some Muslim young people protected Christian worshippers on Christmas day. In a place that is known for the Islamic extremist terrorism of Boko Haram, this is a welcome gesture that flies in the face of the ideology of this terrorist group.
 
Christians worshipping on Christmas Day

Free Mohamed Mkhaitir and Biram Dah Abeid

Mohamed Mkaitir has been sentenced to death in Mauritania for apparently insulting the Prophet Mohammad in an anti-slavery piece he wrote. His compatriot, the anti-slavery campaigner, Biram Dah Abeid, is also being held by the government of  Mauritania, which continues to deny the festering issue of slavery and racial segregation in that country. The government of Mauritania is attempting to shift the discourse away from the repugnant treatment of human beings in that country in the name of religious piety. It is a barbaric and repugnant practice to kill someone for being critical of a religious figure or even God. It is also irresponsible to detain people for fighting for human dignity in a country that turns a blind eye to such abuses. Free Mohamed Mkhaitir and Biram Dah Abeid.


Mohamed Khaitir

                  Biram Dah Abeid

Demanding a Presidents's Birth Certificate or Is Gabon's Present Actually a Nigerian?

People are contesting the authenticity of the birth certificate of a sitting president; this time, however, it is not in the United States but in the small, oil-rich African country of Gabon. In fact, the nationality of the president, Ali Bongo, was questioned by a recent book by the controversial French journalist, Pierre Pean, that claimed that the president is actually a Nigerian who was adopted by the former president of Gabon, Omar Bongo. The book claimed the president presented a false birth certificate in order to qualify for the presidential elections and that some of the president's diplomas are also fake. This has infuriated many Gabonese who now believe that they are being ruled by a foreigner. It should be noted that the politics of nationality is not new in Africa. It is a common theme in contemporary African politics.

However, instead of providing the offending documents to address the situation, as President Barack Obama did in the United States even though it did not satisfy his critics, President Ali Bongo has assaulted protesters, leading to one death. Now protesters are saying they want him out. Given that he is heir to his father, Omar Bongo, some protesters have conflated his rule with that of his father, charging that they have been in power for about half a century and that should be enough. They want him out. This is a situation to watch carefully. We might be dealing with another Burkina Faso here, where the president was driven from power just this year.

How the Internet and Sony Brought Dictatorship to America

Dictatorship has come to America through the Internet and Sony. Sony made a film about the assassination of the head of state of North Korea, a country that has been led by a series of dictators who claim supernatural sanction to their dictatorship. Now, making a film about the assassination of a living head of state should strike nerves under any circumstances, even if that head of state is a dictator. Anyone who dares makes a film about the assassination of an American head of state, for example, would be visited by the CIA, America's belief in freedom of speech notwithstanding. Thus, it is no surprise that North Korea did not take the matter lying down, especially given the fact that the film stripped its dictator of his supernatural aura.

However, given that America's belief in freedom of speech allows that a film about the assassination of a foreign head of state be made here, the film had to be shown in theaters in this country. But that does not appear to be the case. Using one of the classic tools of dictators everywhere - fear - Sony was bullied into rescinding showing the film in theaters in the United States. The story (as revised by Sony) goes that after Sony computers were hacked, movie theaters reneged on their promise to screen the film because they were afraid that something similar might happen to them. Because no  movie theater was willing to screen the film, Sony had to pull it off the market. Fear, plus the threat of bankrupting a company, can actually make a people cower in the face of dictatorship.

If it is true that North Korea is behind the hacking of Sony's computers, as the FBI claims, then we can say that North Korea's dictatorship has come to America. The fear that characterizes life in a dictatorship, the paralyzing fear that stifles creativity, has come to America. Over the years, many have run away from such paralyzing fear from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, to seek in America a place where they could think freely. Judging from the Sony case and the purported reactions of movie theater owners, and perhaps movie goers, America is now living under a dictator far removed from America's shores.

Even though American governments have supported dictatorships in other places around the world, Americans themselves have often claimed to be freedom loving people. The fear that an anonymous threat, purportedly from a regime that is known for its stupendous hyperbole, has brought to America in a short period of time, seems to belie the claim that Americans love freedom. We now seem to be living under a dictatorship, albeit one that is far removed from our shores. The fear that emanates from anonymous sources, especially anonymous sources that are far away, is a classic tool that dictators have used to hold people in thrall. I hope that fear is not hear to stay.

1100 Days of Protesting Paul Biya's 31-Year Dictatorship in Cameroon

1100 days ago, flourishingAfrica began protesting the dictatorship of Paul Biya in Cameroon. As one of the longest serving dictators in Africa, Paul Biya has imposed himself on Cameroonians through military rule and sham elections. A man who is over 80 years old now, he has clung to power for almost as long as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Biya's tenure has been marked by the stifling of the economic potential of the country and the orchestration of widespread corruption. He has become the law of the land as he changes the constitution at will to perpetrate his years of misrule. He has demoralized Cameroonians so much that many are now resigned to their fate. However, we must not stop protesting this misrule. Cameroon deserves better.

Should African Nations Cup Be Cancelled Over Ebola?

The African Nations Cup, the biggest football event on the continent of Africa, is scheduled to take place beginning January 17, 2015. This has often been a pleasant event for many African countries, especially those directly participating in the tournament. This time around, however, the tournament seems to be clouded by fear of Ebola - and the fear is real. Nations Cup tournaments bring together people from all over the continent and these people often congregate in stadiums across the host country, in this case the host country is the tiny African country called Equatorial Guinea. Its estimated population is just over 700,000 people as of 2014. The event was supposed to take place in Morocco but the North African country declined to host the event due to Ebola fears. Other countries such as Ghana and Angola also declined to host the event.

Now, however, a prominent football player in Equatorial Guinea, the former African female footballer of the year Genoveva Anonma, has raised her voice against the tournament. Under normal circumstances, few Africans would decry this jamboree. With Ebola still flaring just west of Equatorial Guinea, serious consideration needs to be given about canceling the event. This event may create the opportunity for Ebola to spread. It may be better not to provide this opportunity. Fighting Ebola may entail canceling the event.

Jon Stewart Hires a South African Daily Show Correspondent

John Stewart hires a South African Daily Show Correspondent and gives a hilarious introductory lesson in African Studies.

Remembering Mandela, One Year Later

In many African cultures, the dead are often remembered one year after in order to close the period of mourning. It is during this memorial ceremony, sometimes anomalously called "death celebration", that the honorable dead are made ancestors. This appears to be part of what is happening to Madiba today as his family gathers in his home village of Qunu, South Africa.

 

Apartheid in Ferguson, Missouri

According to the 2010 census information on the web site of the city of Ferguson, Missouri, the overwhelming majority of the city is African American. However, as has been pointed out in the past, the overwhelming majority of its police force is white and its mayor is also white. This is very similar to what obtained in apartheid South Africa where the overwhelming majority of its population is black but the government was a white minority government. Even though apartheid means "separate development," as its initiators euphemistically called the racist system, the very idea has, over time, come to be associated with white minority rule. And white minority rule is what is going on in Ferguson. The Michael Brown murder should be understood within this context because it is this context that led to his death in the first place. People should be outraged by the murder and the apartheid regime that characterizes the city. The long term vision should be to change this system because it is a system that is inherently unjust. This apartheid flies in the face of democracy and human dignity, both important ideas to the social construct called America.

On Love and Religion

Can religion prohibit love? Should religion prohibit love? Falling with love with someone outside one's social stratrum has often been contentious matters that are the stuff of Cinderella stories. However, in many communities around the world, not only social strata but also religious cultures stand in the way of love. One would think that love should be something that should be encouraged but this is clearly not the case. Love, like a pond, is often circumscribed.

I was recently taken aback when, reading the prohibitions against marrying foreign women in Ezra and Nehemiah (Hebrew Bible), many of my students agreed that people should marry only within their religions. Many of my students thought that it would be unwise for a Christian to marry a Muslim or for a Buddhist to marry a Jew. They said that such marriages would confuse the children because children would be confronted with different moral traditions in their homes.

I recently read that it is anathema for a Muslim to be married to a Copt in Egypt. In fact, it is thought in Egypt that intermarriage is a means of poaching members of the other religion. The Copts fear that if a Copt marries a Muslim this would lead to loss of Copts while Muslims fear that if Muslims marry Copts, it would also lead to loss of Muslims. Thus it is that people's religious affiliations actively militate against love. In this scheme of things, love is controlled, it is made to stay within bounds, like a pond.

It is often assumed that religions teach that people should love each other. However, it is often the case that those who marry outside their religions (or ethnic groups) are often seen as rebels. Does religion teach love, then?

The Curious Case of a White President in Black Zambia

Can a White Zambian become President of the country? Perhaps former Zambian President, Michael Sata, thought the day would never come when he appointed White Zambian, Cambridge trained economist, Guy Scott, as the Vice President of Zambia. Well, the day came when President Sata recently died in office and the Constitution of the country states that the Vice President should become President upon the demise of the incumbent. That a White person has become President of this Black majority country, has however not gone well with some. Some see in it the return of colonialism. Now there are machinations to oust Acting President Scott. President Scott has therefore been fired from the position of President of his party, a rare case in Africa.

In Uganda, A Minister for Ethics and Integrity

When I learned that Uganda has a minister in charge of ethics and integrity, I wondered what the portfolio of such a ministry would be. The person currently filling the post is an excommunicated Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Simon Lokodo. So far he seems to be more interested in questions of homosexuality and pornography, perhaps seen as the most heinous crimes in Uganda. It is an amazing sleight of hand for someone like Yoweri Museveni who has been in power for decades to turn around and set up a ministry for ethics and integrity that does not seem interested in the machinations of his government but on sexual mores of the people. It reminds me of Paul Biya in Cameroon, himself a former seminary student, who proclaimed that his reign would be marked by rigor and moralization, whatever that means. He seems to have since abandoned the idea. It is a strange thing that dictators often worry about questions of ethics. Do they ever worry about whether dictatorship is itself ethical? Perhaps the whole focus on ethics can often be diversionary. I wonder what Fr. Lokodo thinks about all this.

Ebola Aid as Diversion

When the Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo argued that aid has not done much good to Africa, some accused her of being antagonistic to aid, noting that the problem does not so much appear to be  with aid as it is with how aid has been used. This forced Moyo to argue for the usefulness of aid in emergency situations such disasters. The current Ebola crisis in some African countries has once again brought the question of aid to the fore as the governments of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia have been begging for aid from the international community. America and Britain have sent soldiers and money to Africa to help build infrastructures to tackle the epidemic at its source. These infrastructures are however only temporary fixes suited for what it seen as the African situation.

In spite of all this move, providing aid to a country, under any circumstances, is still a bad idea and should be stopped. While I may allow that aid given to individuals may sometimes be a good idea, aid given to a country under any circumstance is quite a bad idea. I define aid as resources (monetary, infrastructural, or otherwise) that is given to a country at any time without any explicit commitment of said country to reciprocate in anyway. Aid may therefore be seen as resources freely given by one country or international organization to, and intended to benefit, the people of another country through their government or other bodies in said country. If aid as here defined does exist, it should be stopped.

Such aid should stop because it often happens as emergency measures and so help to mask the existence of structural injustices which we do not want to do the hard work to address. We therefore prefer giving aid rather than doing the hard work that is needed to overcome a global system that keeps some poor an others rich. It masks the fact that the poverty which many countries, especially in Africa, suffer is not an accident but is rather orchestrated by iniquitous national and international structures.

Take the case of the current Ebola crisis. NGOs are begging for money to set up temporary structures in the affected regions and some Western countries have sent their military there to help fight the outbreak of the deadly disease. Now, saying that aid should not be provided in the context of the Ebola crisis and other such emergency situations may sound heartless but that is actually not the case. In fact, calling for the abolishing of aid especially in such conditions is a way of demonstrating the structural injustices that characterize the world we live in. It is to force us to ask the question of why it is that aid always seem to be going to certain places in the world when there is a disaster but not to others when similar disasters occur. Rather than thinking about aid as a permanent regime in our world, emphasis should be directed towards abolishing it altogether. Abolishing aid altogether would be based on working on the structural weaknesses that exist in places like Liberia and Sierra Leone so that these countries may be able to address crisis that develop in them without the need to cry for international aid. Aid workers should therefore be seen as people who contribute to the present unjust social structures rather than those who are trying to help, as they tend to commonly see themselves. My goal here is not to disparage those involved in the aid industry but simply to suggest that the venture is not as benign as it might seem. Those playing leadership roles in any country have the responsibility of ensuring that their countries develop structures that may take care of their people. Those interested in aid work should shift their focus towards holding these leaders accountable rather than constantly putting band aid on the sufferings of people. Aid workers who do not focus on building permanent structures of justice only temporarily sooth the persistent pain of a nation like Sierra Leone or Liberia. After the current Ebola crisis is addressed, without such permanent structures, we will only be waiting for the next emergency.

Giving directly to individuals under distress is in a different category and will be addressed in a separate post.

The New African Spring?: From The North to the South

The outcry of people in Burkina Faso against a dictator who wished to extend his reign infinitely has been quite a phenomenon. Not since the Arab Spring has such massive crowds converged to demand the ouster of a dictator who has overstayed his welcome. It is quite a sight to behold! The New York Times takes the story from here. What began in North Africa has reached sub-Saharan Africa. The fact that a general has assumed power is however a cause for concern. It is interesting that Blaise Compaore was unable to do in Burkina Faso what Paul Biya easily did in Cameroon - change the constitution and extend his dictatorship.

 

Image of Burkinabe Protesters from The New York Times 

The American Red Cross Debacle is What Africans Already Knew

Recent reports that the American Red Cross has been spending more resources on public relations than on actually helping victims of disasters is what many Africans have known for a long time. That is, Africans have known for a long time that aid organizations are often interested in appealing to their donors than to actually helping those who suffer disaster. As Marianne Gullestad has shown in Picturing Pity, an important part of aid organizations' public relations is the showing of pictures that appeal to their donors rather than to those who are the supposed beneficiaries of the aid. Which is why those who rely on aid agencies in order to get a better understanding of what is going on in disaster zones around the world often do not get a good picture.  The case of the American Red Cross is therefore not new.

 

Ebola, Fear, and Republican Politics in America

So far, only one person has died in America since the Ebola outbreak - and the person who died was not an American. Since all Americans who have contracted the virus have survived, one may wonder whether any American would die from the virus. The countries that have borne the brunt of the virus are Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia - these countries have lost over 5,000 people in all.

However, if one hears the way the Republicans are playing the story in America, one may be forgiven for thinking that many Americans have already lost their lives in this Ebola epidemic. That no American life has been lost in the process and that one sees much fear around speaks to the kind of politics that the Republicans thrive on in America. Republican politics thrive on fear. Since many Americans have been taught to live in fear, this politics of fear has become very potent in recent American history. Never mind that many of these republicans are supposed to be Christians who are taught not to live in fear! Since fear pays in politics, it is wise to help people live in fear. It is interesting that it is President Barack Obama, whom some Republicans believe is not a Christian, who is calling on Americans not to live in fear. (Obama is of course a Christian).

A recent manifestation of this politics of fear was the war in Iraq. It came to pass that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction - the main reason that was given for the war. Yet we lost thousands of lives there and billions of dollars. George W. Bush won the 2004 elections because of this politics of fear. All over, the specter of a terrorist attacks on America was raised during the 2004 election, never mind that 9/11 happened under the watch of George W. Bush. The fear led Americans to mute the voices of those who held that there was no good reason to go to war in Iraq.

Now, Republicans are saying that the most viable way to fight the Ebola virus is to ban people from the Ebola affected parts of West Africa from coming to the United States. Never mind that good science suggests that it is better to fight the disease at its source rather than trying to shut down borders. No; republicans who talked about mushroom clouds before the war in Iraq, suggesting that it would be better for the war to be fought in Iraq than for it to be brought here, have suddenly forgotten their own advise. This is quite convenient given that when one thrives on fear, science becomes an inconvenience.

In all this, those who are actually doing the dying in Africa, are left out of the discussion. If you shut the borders and ban flights, you would not have to worry about deaths that happen far away. America had tried before to shut itself off from the rest of the world. It did not go well.

Mayhem in Burkina Faso

The French killed Thomas Sankara and forced Blaise Compaore on the people. Like most of his counterparts in Francophone Africa, he has lorded it over the people for 27 years. Now the people want him out. I suppose there is frantic effort in Paris to make sure this does not happen. It is happening in Burkina Faso but it is teleguided from France. Perhaps there are already French soldiers standing by to intervene. Follow the mayhem on BBC and AllAfrica News.

Announcing the Death of Prof. Ali Mazrui

Renown Kenyan scholar and one of the foremost scholars of African history, Prof. Ali Mazrui, passed away Monday, October 13, 2014, in the United States at the age of 81. Even though the question of African identity defined much of this historical reflections, his contribution to African thought in general has been quite immense. He is one of those African scholars whose thought was also an advocacy for Africa.  He has now joined the great ancestors of Africa and his light will always shine for others to emulate.

Prof. Ali Mazrui

In Texas Ebola Death, Standard Protocol Was Followed

The general narrative that has accompanied the ill-treatment of Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan who recently died of Ebola in Texas has been that the mistreatment he received went against standard protocol for such a patient. This narrative, which most in the media are perpetrating, is actually a false narrative. Claiming that the handling of Mr. Duncan's case went against standard protocol gives the impression that when one goes to the emergency room without insurance, they should expect to get good care. However, that is not he case. Anyone who has been to the emergency room here in the United States knows that one of the first things that is demanded is the kind of insurance one has. The care one receives in the emergency room is based on the kind of insurance one has. The standard practice (and this is what actually happens in the emergency room rather what may be written in a manual somewhere) is that people who go to emergency room without medical insurance should not expect to get good care. It is this standard practice that was followed in the case of Mr. Duncan. He did not have medical insurance and so he did not get the kind of care he would have had if he had one. Thus, to claim that the handling of the Ebola case of Mr. Duncan was botched is disingenuous at best. In fact, such a claim seems to suggest that what happened to Mr. Duncan is a mistake when that is in fact how the system works. Thus, with respect to Mr. Duncan, the system worked the way it was supposed to work. There was no miscommunication anywhere in the process, as is now claimed by many. The fact that he was a black person from Africa only compounded the situation - his life was already dispensable long before he set foot into that hospital. When it became clear that he was suffering from Ebola, his goose was already cooked - he was only good for the crematorium. The end.

Ebola and the Howling for Aid in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea

With each passing day, the cry for aid to tackle the Ebola epidemic from the three West African countries named above grow louder and louder. Presidents of these countries demand aid as if they have a right to expect such from the international community. Even as they cry for aid, complaints of mismanagement of aid is reported in Sierra Leone and many Liberians think that the government is using this crisis as an opportunity to make filthy lucre for itself, as very little is being seen to be done for the people. Never mind the now accepted argument from economists that such aid never brought economic development to a country. With this howling for aid, the narrative of Africans as people who cannot take care of themselves continue. Tons of foreign aid from Europe and America needs to be sent over, before urgent crisis can be averted. And so the irresponsibility of the postcolony continues.

Ebola Murder in Dallas?

Some Liberians in America are crying foul over the death of Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian and first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in America, who died today. They are saying that he was not given the best care that could have saved his life. While some think that he was not given the best care he deserved because he was black and poor, others are saying that he was not given the best care because the Americans wanted to discourage other Liberians from coming to the United States when they get infected with Ebola. By refusing to give Mr. Duncan the best care he deserved, others were being alerted that no better care awaits them in the United States if they dared go there.

These are only conspiracy theories but who can blame them for weaving such theories, especially given the fact that two white Americans have been carted off from West Africa and treated for Ebola in the United States? Even more, the treatment that was given Mr. Duncan when he complained of his illness left much to be desired. It is incumbent on the American authorities to prove that these conspiracy theories have no legs. If not, some Liberians would continue to believe that Mr. Duncan was murdered.

Ebola and the Evolving Presence of Africa

That Africa has been present in the Western imagination mainly in negative terms can hardly be disputed. That is a function of how Africa came into the modern world - slavery, colonialism, neo-colonial, the much touted globalization. Africa came into the modern world through various shades of imperialism. This Africa is that mysterious land far away where "natives" roam in the wild. It is that fanciful land far away which has many valuable natural resources that are only meant to be carted off to enrich "civilizations" far away. This Africa, is a land which helps the West counts its blessings because things could be worse. It is the place where hungry children needs to be fed, the IMF and the World Bank need to make interminable, exploitative loans for infrastructural development, and Medecins Sans Frontieres and other medical charities go to give free medical care. In short, this Africa is far away; its troubles are those of a people far away. It does not concern us here in the West. It is this perception of Africa as a far away land whose well-being does not matter to those outside the continent that has funded the various forms of exploitation visited on the continent from the West and Asia (read: China).

With the advent of Ebola, however, the logic of this far away Africa which is only to be exploited is being put to the test. This is especially so because the ease of moving from place to place, which has been accelerated especially by modern transportation systems, makes it possible for Ebola to spread to many places in a very short time. The only virus in recent memory that was as potentially as devastating as Ebola was the HIV virus. However, HIV could be said to be less virulent than Ebola because it took longer to kill its victims and it could be contained in Africa. In fact, a law was passed that no one with HIV could migrate to the United States. However, Ebola is a stealth virus that is often discovered when it is almost too late. Thus, someone may be looking strong today but tomorrow they may be down. It is a virus that can only be curtailed with carefully structured medical care. Hence the various medical groups that are rushing to the affected African countries to provide some structure to minimal medical infrastructures.

With Ebola, the presence of Africa is however becoming more immediate and intimate. Africa is right here because a deadly virus that begins there may not end there. It may not take long before the virus reaches the neighborhoods of Dallas or a city in Spain. The point of this is not that Africa's presence now is in the form of a virus - reading this post in that way would be to perpetuate an ignorant image of Africa. What is means, however, is that the Africa that is far away and which can only be exploited is no longer tenable. What Martin Luther King, Jr., said about injustice may be applicable here. He said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Translated to our purposes here, we can say that an Africa without sufficient means to care for its own is a threat to people everywhere. The exploitation of Africa by its elites and their international collaborators has led to a situation where many countries in the continent are unable to take care of themselves. Thus, when a situation like Ebola erupts, the danger to the rest of the world is palpable. However, if Liberia had good medical infrastructure to take care of its own, one of its own would not be fleeing to the United States. The presence of the Ebola virus in Dallas can be read as a function of the massive exploitation of Liberia, an exploitation partly funded by the fact that Africa is seen as a far away land whose residents are inconsequential to the life of the rest of the world - they are good only to be exploited.

However, the world is now flat, as Tom Friedman announced a while back. In this flat world, Africa's presence is getting closer and closer and until the well-being of the people of that continent becomes important to African elites and their international collaborators who conspire to emaciate its peoples, the world can be sure that any dangerous virus that begins there will not stay there. Africa is no longer far away. In fact, she has never been far away in the modern world even though she has been spoken of mostly in her absence. The sooner her presence is taken seriously the better for everyone.

Ebola and the Nigerian Difference

In a news conference today a representative of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States suggested that Nigeria appears to have beaten back the Ebola outbreak that came onto its shores from Liberia. The case of Nigeria appears to demonstrate that there should be nothing fatalistic or apocalyptic about this Ebola outbreak - in can in fact be beaten back. The problem in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, as the CDC representative suggested, is not so much that Ebola is dangerous as it is that the means of curbing the spread of the virus is woefully lacking. The dread of the virus increases where the means to arrest its spread are lacking. Thus, the havoc this virus is causing in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, should not be attributed to the viciousness of the virus itself but rather to the lack of infrastructures to deal with it. The many deaths resulting from the spread of the virus are therefore preventable. The problem is not with Ebola itself because the virus can be contained, as Nigeria has demonstrated, but with the poor infrastructure available to contain the spread of the virus. There will always be deadly viruses; we just need to be prepared to deal with them when they break out. That is the difference Nigeria has made in this case.

African Tatoos As Marks Of Difference

African tattoos do not only serve aesthetic purposes; they are also marks of identity and difference. See more here.

Hassan Hajjaj est magnifique!

Hassan Hajjaj in praise of hybridity.

1000 Days of Protesting Paul Biya's Thirty-One-Year Dictatorship in Cameroon

Today marks 1000 days since flourishingafrica started protesting the eternal presence of Paul Biya's dictatorship in Cameroon. This protest is going to continue until Paul Biya is no longer there. We see no scenario where it is necessary for one person to be the president of a country for over three decades, even as they destroy the economy and the vision of the country.

Ebola May Be Halting Boko Haram

Since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria and Cameroon seem to have declined. Perhaps it could just be the case that the Ebola outbreak has pushed Boko Haram off the news cycle. However, some Nigerians I have spoken with have expressed the view that what the Nigerian government has been unable to do thus far - halting Boko Haram - is being done by Ebola. It is suspected that members of Boko Haram may be limiting their activities because they may be afraid of contracting the deadly virus. If this is the case, this would only be an unfortunate and very short-lived way for the activities of this barbaric group to be checked. The fact of the matter is that the spread of the Ebola virus will be checked and when that is achieved Boko Haram will once again resume its reign of terror. We need African leaders to take more proactive moves toward eliminating the anti-life forces, such as the Ebola virus, that have been threatening the lives and livelihood of Africans. The African Union should be at the forefront of fighting Ebola rather than only complaining about what others are doing. It would be foolish, dangerously misleading and even criminal to see the Ebola virus as a providential way of dealing with Boko Haram. Both are enemies of the African people and they need to be stopped.

The United States Flees; China Steps in to Help: A Developing Ebola Narrative

A narrative that is developing in Liberia about international responses to the Ebola outbreak is that while the United States is evacuating its citizens from the country, China is stepping in to help. This narrative is captured by the image below from the BBC:

Michael Brown and the Postmodern Condition

The Postmodern Condition is an influential text that announced what has come to be known as postmodernism/postmodernity. While description of what this condition entails is quite complex, one of its generally acknowledged manifestations is its challenge to metanarratives, that is, it challenge to big stories that purport to explain what is true, beautiful, and good. The beginnings of postmodernism, just like the beginnings of the modern period, is difficult to date. However, scholars seem agreed on the fact that the modern condition is a condition in which single narratives that purport to tell the truth about the world thrived. Under the postmodern condition, however, these single narratives are being challenged by other narratives so that knowledge of the world is not seen to be accessed only through a single way of knowing. In the postmodern context, therefore, truth is multiple rather than single. In the postmodern context, voices that had historically been silenced by the dominance of single narratives that purport to hold privileged access to the truth are now being raised.

That other voices should be heard in the marketplace of ideas has opened spaces for the marginalized but it has also led to a situation where knowing what the truth is has become quite elusive. The postmodern condition has therefore become a double-edged sword for the marginalized because it has opened spaces for marginalized voices to be heard but it has also made it possible for marginalized voices to be silenced through obfuscations and subterfuges. Which is where the Michael Brown case comes in.

Michael Brown is the young African American who was recently shot and killed by a policeman in Ferguson. So many narratives have been woven around what led to his death that the only fact that seems to stand now is that the boy is dead. The power that still determines what is truth even in the postmodern condition has gone to work weaving narratives that contest each other with the goal of insinuating that we cannot really know how the boy died. Classic postmodern imagination - the art of obfuscation. That is how power does its work now - it tells us that historically truth may not be known unless known on the terms of the powerful. Which is why what is going on in Ferguson is not only a struggle for justice but also a struggle to see if it is possible to know what it true, what is beautiful, and what is good. Ferguson is about negotiating the postmodern condition. Is there a truth here or are there only truths and unknowns. Who is going to determine what we know and how we know it?

More Survive Ebola

More people in Liberia continue to survive the deadly Ebola epidemic. Some pose for the press below.
 

United States Firm Hired to Cleanse Museveni's Image

Whenever African leaders have felt that their international image needs some cleansing from a barrage of criticism arising from their internal and external policies, they always go to firms in the United States. The latest African president to do that is Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, who recently hired the American firm Mercury Public Affairs, LLC, to cleanse his autocratic image. These things are supposed to be secrets, and they are always secrets in the dictator's home country. However, we often know about them through the American press. It is interesting how someone like Museveni would rail against the West and talk about African values in public while running to American firms for help to cleanse his sour public image. I wonder whether Barack Obama could hire a firm in Uganda to cleanse his international image.

"The Fear of Ebola is the Beginning of Wisdom"

"The fear of Ebola is the beginning of wisdom." This statement has recently gotten currency in West Africa as a means of drawing significant attention to the fear and devastation that the virus has generated in some West African countries. The statement is a paraphrase of Proverbs 9:10 and Psalm 111:10 that enjoins the fear for the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. However, it appears quite apposite in the case of the Ebola virus because fear of the virus leads to creative means to combat it - such as the greeting below. Where people used to shake hands, they now do other things.

Heroes of the Fight Against Ebola: Nurses and Doctors

The following statement captures the point:

"The emergency response must focus on four key areas.

First, we must support health workers who are the front line in fighting this epidemic. They have paid too great a price thus far with close to 100 workers having lost their lives attending to the sick. We need to deliver proper protective equipment, give them access to the necessary supplies, provide pay commensurate with their heroic work, and make available immediate high quality care should they fall ill. The World Bank Group last week announced $200 million to help contain the spread of Ebola, and some of this funding will be aimed at providing immediate support for the health workers."

If only politicians were at the frontlines of the fight against this virus as our nurses and doctors. Politicians often pontificate far from the scene of suffering.

Liberia Survived Wars; May Go Down to Ebola

See popular perception of government response to the ravages of the virus below.

Urbanization in Africa

See more from AllAfrica web site.

Limbe, Cameroon. Photo showing part of city and Atlantic Ocean. Photo by FlourishingAfrica.

 

Working the Dutch Fabric in Africa

Ebola Outbreak and the Price of Bad Health Care Systems in Africa

The current Ebola outbreak taking place in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria have been compounded by the bad health care systems available in these countries. The deaths that have been recorded so far have happened not just because the disease is deadly but rather because of insufficient means to help with its containment. Hospitals that were supposed to be places where such diseases are arrested instead became deathtraps for many and now some of these hospitals have been closed while Ebola patients are turned away from others to die of the disease in their villages. The spread of the disease has been enhanced by deadly rumors rather than facts because the health care system does not have an authoritative voice among the people. Even preachers like the popular Nigerian, T.  B. Joshua, who is noted for his healing ministry, has warned those infected with Ebola to stay away from his church. Thus, the health care system and even the spirituality on which many Africans have relied is now failing them. No wonder there is so much fear about the spread of the disease.

Ebola and the Myth of Africans Not Trusting Doctors

A narrative being promoted by Western media about the current Ebola outbreak in Africa is that part of the reason the virus is spreading is that Africans do not trust doctors. The reasons why those affected by this virus do not trust doctors are often not stated. However, the immediate reason why those affected by this virus do not trust doctors is that most of those who go for treatment at the medical centers now set up in various places in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea do not come out alive. Any rational person would regard with distrust any place were sick people go for healing but do not come out alive. A broader context to place this distrust of Western doctors, however, is the exploitative relation that often exists when the West comes into contact with Africa. This exploitative relation has often bred distrust even when people from Europe and America think that they have come to Africa to do good. Having lived in the West for a long time, I am myself not often quite trusted when I go back to Cameroon. This is especially the case when I take pictures of people and things. People often wonder about the kind of narrative I would weave with those pictures when I return to America. This historical distrust between Africa and the West has led to situations where medicine that might be helpful is sometimes rejected. In Nigerian, for example, polio vaccine was rejected by some because they believed that it was a Western ploy to sterilize Nigerians. This distrust is however not unfounded. It is only recently that President Barack Obama announced that the United States' CIA would no long use medical missions to spy on other countries. Whether this would be the case or not is not known. This distrust of the West has led communities suffering from Ebola to see Western medicine as somehow carrier of the virus. This distrust is therefore not irrational as some media reports in the United States seem to want to make it.

Simply saying that people who are affected by Ebola distrust doctors does not quite state the truth of the matter. If these people distrusted doctors, they would not be going to traditional healers in the community to seek help when they fall ill. They trust doctors but the ones who have currently set up medical posts in these localities still have to do more to merit the trust of the people.

American News Media and Hyperbole

The current Ebola crisis in parts of West Africa should be quite concerning to all but the level at which the American media blows the situation out of proportion seems to give the impression that the disease is ravaging everyone in West Africa. This tendency to hyperbolize events, to massage it for public consumption, as it is sometimes euphemistically put, sometimes leads America to take actions that it would have been better off not taking. The war in Iraq is a case in point. That is why Barack Obama reminded Americans in his news conference yesterday that people should not think that the conflicts going on in the world today are disproportionate to what has happened in the past. While these conflicts should be concerning, he indicated, Americans should not lose sense of proportion. The news media has been very influential in blowing things out of proportion by often presenting situations only from a single point of view - the point of view of disaster. This leads many Americans to be very uneducated about what is going on in other parts of the world. By talking about the Ebola virus as if it has ravaged all of West Africa, people have the impression that the situation is actually worse than it is. Now, this is not to say that the situation is not bad enough. However, it should be given its proper proportion. Perhaps it is in the nature of the news business to always want to blow things out of proportion in order to draw viewership. However, doing this carries the prize of giving people a false picture of the world. A good example of this happened today when the American doctor infected with the Ebola virus was brought to Emory hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. The way the media had been talking about his situation gave the impression that he was on his deathbed. However, when he arrived in Atlanta, he jumped out of the ambulance - to the surprise of everyone! Perhaps Americans should not get their information about other places around the world from the news media. Talking to people in regional hotspots may be more informational. Some forms of social media may serve this purpose better than journalists.

First Lady Michelle Obama Calls for Equality for African Women

The Politics of Boko Haram in Cameroon and Nigeria

While in much of Western media Boko Haram seems to be spoken of simply as a terrorist Islamic group, the perception of the group in Cameroon and Nigeria is quite complicated. This explains why Western responses to the group seems to be different from what governments in Cameroon and Nigeria do. In Cameroon and Nigeria, Boko Haram is spoken of in terms of groups that are dissatisfied with the politics of the countries rather than as terrorist groups. Thus, in Cameroon and Nigeria, Boko Haram is seen more as an opposition movement than a terrorist group. That explains why the first response of the government of Nigeria to the worldwide news of the abducted girls was located within the politics of the opposition in the country. The First Lady of Nigeria's initial claim that the abduction was a ploy of the opposition to smear her husband was an honest statement of this position.

The same could be said of the perception of Boko Haram in Cameroon. While the government of the country seems to be fortifying porous northern borders to stave the incursion of Boko Haram, potential opposition figures in the Far North of the country are seen as supporters of Boko Haram. Recently, a newspaper in Cameroon came up with a list of persons, mostly people in the Far North of the country who are seen as opposition figures, described as backers of Boko Haram. Incidentally, the name of the vice prime minister of Cameroon, Amadou Ali, was on the list. Now that Amadou Ali's wife has been abducted by Boko Haram, many in the country would see not the action of a sinister terrorist group but the machination of a shrewd politician who wanted to raise the profile of Boko Haram in Cameroon. The abduction of his wife would therefore be read as a hoax. This makes the problem of Boko Haram in Cameroon and Nigeria quite complex.

La Nouvelle, a Cameroon newspaper, claims to have a list of mostly northern Cameroonians who are seen as supporters of Boko Haram. Amadou Ali's name appeared in the list.

The Boko Haram Girls: A Twitter Campaign that Went Burst

So much is often made of the power of social media to galvanize people for a cause - and this has sometimes been the case. However, in the case of the Nigerian girls abducted by Boko Haram, the social media campaign to effect their rescue seems to have ended in a stalemate - like the war in Syria. This case demonstrates a significant shortcoming of social media campaigns - it is easy to tweet from afar. To effect change in status quo bodies are often needed. In the case of the Boko Haram girls, bodies have been few in coming and the political has overwhelmed the humanitarian. Thus, over one hundred days after the abduction of these girls, the social media and political campaigns to bring back the girls seem to have gone cold. Where do we go from here?

Tax Scams at Douala International Airport in Cameroon

There are two forms of scams currently going on at the Douala international airport in Cameroon and both of them involves payments, apparently to the government of Cameroon. The first scam is what is called airport stamp fee of 10,000frs CFA by each passenger traveling from that airport. Now, when one buys a plane ticket, it is stated that taxes are included in the payment. However, this is not the case in Cameroon. Even though taxes are included when one buys a ticket to and from Cameroon or vice versa, the government of the country still charges additional tax at the airport. When this money is paid, one's boarding pass is stamped, as in the image below. This tax is not publicized and one only discovers it at the airport. What is the purpose of this tax and why is the tax not included in the air ticket? I have travelled through many airports around the world but it is only in Cameroon that this tax is levied. Why is this so? Is this not a scam?

Airport Stamp Tax at the Douala Airport

The second of these scams is actually the first in the order of traveling from Cameroon at the Douala international airport. Stationed at a point just before one enters the area where luggage is checked in, is a group of people who are said to be from the Ministry of Forestry. Their purpose, apparently, is to check the agricultural products one is taking out of the country. However, they do not actually check anything. They simply ask one to pay money. In my case, they asked me to pay 6,000frs CFA and I was given three sheets of papers, none of which showed how much I had paid. What is the purpose of this group of people and does the government know about the money they collect? Is one supposed to pay fees if they are leaving with an agricultural product, such as plantain or dried fish, from Cameroon? And why do these people not actually check the bags but only ask for money? Why do they not give receipts for the money they charge? This is another scam that happens at the Douala international airport in Cameroon.

Three sheets of papers given to me at the Douala Airport; none is a receipt

 

Wishing "Happy Ramadan" Is Smart Business Practice in Cameroon

In Cameroon wishing "happy Ramadan", as seen in the banner below, is smart and quite uncontroversial business practice. The banner wishing happy Ramadan to all below is an advertisement of the Orange phone company.

The banner wishing happy Ramadan to all is found at a street in Cameroon's capital, Yaoundé. Photo by flourishingafrica

The Sacred Mountain of the Vengo (Babungo) People of Cameroon

The Vengo or Babungo people of North West Cameroon believe that their origin can be located in the mountain pictured below. In the mountain is a waterfall from which the first Vengo people are believed to have sprung. The area is known as Forghai in the Vengo language. In the past the waterfall could be seen from a distance but today it seems to be drying up so that it is difficult to see it from a distance. The picture was taken by yours truly.

Nigerian Committed to Asylum for Being an Atheist

A Nigerian who said he is an atheist was committed to an asylum in northern Nigeria. He was released only because doctors went on strike for an unrelated reason. His relatives put him there because they apparently thought that a person who declares atheism is probably suffering from a mental problem. Tough!

Condoning Genocide in Africa

African leaders have various ways of extricating themselves from any harm they may cause their peoples while in power. Sometimes they concoct constitutions that explicitly says that they would not be held responsible for any action they took while in office, like Paul Biya has done in Cameroon. At other times, they just hang on to power until they die, making the whole question of answering for their actions moot. This time, however, it is the African Union that has taken a sweeping action intended to ensure the irresponsibility of leadership in Africa. The Assembly of the African Union (AU) has decreed that all sitting African leaders have immunity from prosecution against any genocide or war crimes they might commit. A group like the AU assembly that is made up of people of suspect political activities such as Paul Kagame, Omar al-Bashir, Paul Biya, Blaise Compaore, Yahya Jammeh, and Robert Mugabe, among others, can only come up with such convenient extrication for their crimes.

Who Is Archduke Ferdinand and Why Would the World go to War Over His Death?

It is a fascinating story, the story about the Archduke whose death led the whole world to war, or so we are told. Our parents told us many stories when we were growing up - stories about the exploits of the tortoise and the fox in a world where animals spoke. But they never told us about stories of war, especially a war that involved the whole world. I first heard about the war in school. Perhaps because my parents never went to school, they never had the chance to hear about this war that engulfed the whole world. Is it possible that a war can be called a world war when many people in the world never even heard about it? At school I was taught that the war was fought mostly in Europe and that it began because an important person called an Archduke was killed. How the process moved from the death of this single person to include the death of many others was not clear to me. And why was it important for us, sitting in a village in Cameroon in the 1980s to know about a war that was largely fought in Europe from 1914 to 1918? They said that was part of what we needed to learn if we were to be smarter than our parents. We needed to learn about wars that were fought in Europe by people we did not know. Even now, living in the United States, I hear news reports claiming that the war changed the 20th century. However, in the village where I grew up in Cameroon, that war made no impact. The Archduke whose death led to the death of many others is still unknown there. In the village, people still wonder why the world would go to war because of the death of one person. And why would it be called a world war when the people of my village did not fight in it?

African World Cup Aspirations Marred by Money, Manners and Lack of Skill

Two African countries, Algeria and Nigeria, have progressed to the second round of the ongoing FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil. I thought, however, that at least four African countries would go through - Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast. I knew Cameroon would not go beyond the first round because they have a bad team. However, the trouble for the country began before they even went to Brazil. Quarrels about bonus threw what was supposed to be a team into disarray and the fruits were demonstrated in Brazil through their absent-minded playing style and the shame of fighting among themselves.

I thought Ghana were going to survive their difficult group but this thinking was put to rest by their money troubles that came to light just before they played their last game with Germany. That also erupted in fighting and some players were sent home. For Ivory Coast, their waterloo came in their last game when Greece appeared to be just too fast for them. Apart from Algeria and Ghana, world football seems to be getting faster than most African players at this World Cup seem equipped to play.

Nigeria, now in the second round, are being bedeviled by money problems, as if the country did not plan for the World Cup. Even though two African countries are into the second round of this World Cup, I still find the current tournament to be the most humiliating one African countries have experienced. I say this after 30 years of closely following African football. In many ways, this World Cup is the worst for Africa. Never has there been so much in-fighting and money problems in African World Cup teams!

Cameroon's Former Goalkeeper Inspired Gianluigi Buffon

One of the world's most exciting and talented goalkeepers, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, said that he was inspired to become a goalkeeper by former goalkeeper of the Cameroon national football team, Thomas Nkono. The event that inspired him so much was Cameroon's win against Argentina in the 1990 world cup that was held in Italy. Buffon was so inspired by Nkono that he did not only become a goalkeeper but also named his son after Nkono - Louis Thomas. It is so helpful to know that there was a time when Cameroon football was inspirational. It alerts us to the fact that what passes for Cameroon football today is a joke by comparison.

What Newspapers in Cameroon are Saying About Horrible World Cup Spectacle

Please click here to see what newspapers in Cameroon are saying about the horrible World Cup spectacle national team put on display in Brazil. The paper below simply says: "What a Shame!" Others go on to name those who should be held responsible for the fiasco.

Mexico Should Be Disqualified from World Cup!

If it is true that Mexican fans racially abused Cameroon's players during the ongoing Fifa World Cup competition in Brazil, then the Mexican national team should be disqualified from the competition. Fifa's campaign against racism so far seems to be yielding no fruit because all the ads about stopping racism seem to have only led to increase in racism as black players continue to be abused. Fifa has already become infamous in Brazil and if the organization hopes for people should take it seriously, it should start taking serious actions against teams whose fans are racists. Disqualifying Mexico would be the only serious punishment to the team and its fans and would serve as warning to other racists who use football competitions as venue to display their bigotry.

Paul Biya's Cameroon World Cup Disgrace

Cameroon, which put African football on the map through its performance at successive Fifa World Cup competitions since 1982, has, through egregious manifestations of lack of class in the game between Cameroon and Croatia, managed to earn itself what one commentator described as the worst team in this year's World Cup. The disaster that the Cameroon national football team became at the 2014 Fifa World Cup is a reflection of the disaster that the country itself has become. First, under Paul Biya, the country has become a very disorderly place where courtesy and respect are becoming a thing of the past and order is itself non-existent. This disorder was manifested on the pitch today as Alexander Song did not only intentionally hit a player of the opposite team but Cameroonian players were fighting among themselves. It was a very disgraceful spectacle. In fact, this spectacle began right in Cameroon when the players did not want to board the flight to Brazil because the government owed them money.

Second, under Paul Biya, Cameroon has become a country that does not seek innovation. The same people are being recycled to do the same thing over and over. Paul Biya has been dictator of the country for thirty-one years, during which time the country has seen no significant improvement. Like himself, he keeps recycling tired and uninspiring personnel, especially manifested when Biya begged Samuel Eto'o (another tired player) to play at this year's World Cup.

The disgraceful behavior which Cameroonian players manifested at the ongoing World Cup competition is therefore deeply rooted in the disorderly system which Paul Biya has created back in the country. Biya's incompetence has just been put on public display for the whole world to see and the venue could not be more fitting. This disgrace has been brought on the country by Biya. What the players did in Brazil was just a symptom of a rotten system.

Paul Kagame Needs No Advice on When Not to Kill

Paul Kagame, Rwanda's current president, has said that he needs no advise on when not to kill from people who kill their own convicts and use drones to kill innocent civilians. Kagame even sounded more morally authoritative when he argued that in Rwanda killers who conducted the 1994 genocide were forgiven rather than executed. This jibe is apparently directed at the United States where some have strongly criticized Kagame for killing his opponents. It sounds hypocritical for those who kill to tell other killers not to kill, Kagame seems to be saying. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. On which grounds, then, could the West hold Kagame accountable for killing his opponents?

There Is Pain in This World: Culture of Endurance in Benin

Beninois mark the faces of their offspring not only as signs of identity but also to teach endurance in a tough world. There is pain in this world but the pain will stop. Endure. See more here.

La France: l'Afrique d'Autre Mer

France used to describe its colonies in Africa as France d'autre mer (overseas France). The center used to be in France and from this center France circulated into its colonies. However, for all intent and purposes, the center now is in these former French colonies, which is why France is so tethered to them. France's position in the world is tied to its connection to these former colonies. Anyone who doubts this should just take a look at the French national football team below. Most of those who now play for France are from Africa. Where would France be without Africa?

  

Ivory Coast Did Us Proud

We here at Flourishingafrica are proud of the exploits of Ivory Coast against Japan.

 



Why Mario Balotelli Said "No" to Ghana

The popular American sports network, ESPN, is currently running a short documentary on the Italian football phenom, Mario Balotelli. Acccording to the documentary, Mario was born of Ghanaian immigrant parents who gave him up for adoption when he was two years old. When he grew into a football phenom Ghana asked him to play for Ghana because they thought he was Ghanaian but he said "no". His reason for saying "no" is that having grown up in Italy, he did not know Ghana or Africa and so it did not make sense for him to play for Ghana. Thus, he decided to play for Italy when Italy came calling.

However, even though I am not a psychologist, I would like to venture one psychological reason for why Mario said "no" to Ghana: he felt that Ghana had rejected him in the first place. His parents who gave him up for adoption represent Ghana and in fact Africa.  Many Africans who are born abroad or whose parents took them abroad but who still maintain good relationship with their parents often play for their parents' home countries when they are asked to do so. However, those who are not in good terms with their parents often do not do so - they often experience a sense of betrayal and so reject their parents and their parents' home countries. Such is the case with Mario.

Mario's case is a case of literal adoption but it could also be read to stand for a broader phenomenon - Africa's giving up of many of its children to be raised by the West. These people cannot have a heart for Africa if they feel Africa does not care about them.

How Cameroon Went Down to Mexico

There was a time when Cameroon football had a certain mystique, when Cameroon was talked about with respect in the world of football. As you can see from the clip below, that time is long gone. A country that is not organized cannot produce organized football. The problem runs deep.

 

World Cup Tournament Schedule

Here is the schedule of the World Cup tournament currently taking place in Brazil. Check your local listings for precise time.

Are There Criteria to Evaluate Success of Politicians?

Professions often have criteria by which the success of its practitioners may be evaluated. Doctors are often evaluated by the efficiency with which they heal people. Teachers are often evaluated by their influence on students and their contribution to their fields of study. Architects are evaluated by the quality of the designs they make, mechanics by how well they fix cars, and so on and so forth. There are of course many other ways by which practitioners of these and other professions may be evaluated. However, as I think about the matter, I wonder if there are any criteria by which politicians may be evaluated. It seems to me that evaluating politicians all over the world is just as dicey as the practice of the profession itself. What are the criteria that are used in evaluating politicians? Is it longevity in office? This seems to be the most important criteria around the world, especially in Africa. Politicians often stay in office for years on end without anything to show for it. In America and Europe, the evaluation of politicians has been left to talking heads whose very desire is to obfuscate why people should be engaged in politics. Books on politics seem to give the impression that politics is a very high calling but they are not often clear about the issue of criteria.  One book argues that despots have no place in politics but despots thrive all the time in politics and no one seems to be complaining about them.

Or is asking for criteria to determine success in politics the wrong question to ask? Is politics the one profession where criteria seem to make no sense?

The Beautiful Game FIFA Spoilt

Football is known as the beautiful game and its profile often dramatically rises during the World Cup tournament. However, the shine of the beautiful game seems to be fading as those who loved it most are getting increasingly disappointed with the massive corruption and oppression that the game is fostering around the world. Instead of addressing the virtual slavery that the game is promoting in Qatar Fifa President instead charged that the accusations that the 2022 game was given to Qatar through corrupt means are motivated by racism. If he thinks that this sleight of hand is going to discourage people from making this accusation, then he is sorely mistaken. In Brazil, where people seem to love soccer more than anything else in the world, the game is beginning to lose its luster. Perhaps a new organization or even a competing organization to help stop the slide of this sport into ignominy needs to be created.

FIFA As Religion: John Oliver Takes It On

John Oliver is making a point which some scholars of religion have made for a while now, namely that Fifa or better yet, soccer or sports in general, is a religion. Perhaps, Fifa may better be described as a Mafia. Sooner or later many people would lose interest in soccer, like it happens to religions that overreach.

 

Nelson Mandela in the Deep South

The above Nelson Mandela sign (the first one is a close-up of the second) was taken by yours truly. The sign is to be found in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, McFarland Boulevard. We need his spirit here, especially as churches in Alabama are reading Hitler in addition to the Bible.
 

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

Today marks 900 days since flourishingafrica started protesting the eternal presence of Paul Biya's dictatorship in Cameroon. This protest is going to continue until Paul Biya is no longer there. We see no scenario where it is necessary for one person to be the president of a country for over three decades, even as they destroy the economy and the vision of the country.

Announcing the Death of Dr. Maya Angelou

The death has been reported of one of those rare human beings who made the world far better than it was when they arrived in it - Dr. Maya Angelou. Memory of her will glow.

 

Gun Violence, Taboo, and Purification

The recent senseless killing of college students in California has once again set the American media abuzz about mental illness and gun violence, with an added twist - America's treatment of women (given that many of the students killed are girls). However, the focus of this post is the question of conceptualizing gun violence as resulting from mental illness. The NRA seems to have trumpeted this dogma so much that when something like this happens there is hardly any other way of thinking about it. When the focus is placed on mental illness, the issue then becomes an individual problem so that the solution seems to lie with building more mental health hospitals. Now, while building mental health hospitals is helpful in these matters, what I am aiming at here is a perception of gun violence that is not as individualistic as a focus on mental illness. After all, it does not appear to me that Americans are the most mentally ill people in the world so that mental illness does not justify the frequency of gun violence in this country. The perspective I want to present here is the perception of gun violence as taboo that pollutes the land.

Among the Vengo people of Cameroon, as among many African peoples, it is taboo for one person to kill another, especially in circumstances where the victim is innocent. Because killing an innocent person pollutes the land, the solution is not only looked for in the mental capacity of the killer. Even if the person who commits the murder is seen as mentally ill, the blame is not placed only on the mental illness. The issue is seen as a societal issue not only because the murder affects the whole community but also because the murderer is a product of the community. Thus, in order to address the issue, both the community and the individual are cleansed from this pollution. Failure to do this will guarantee the occurrence of similar events in the future. The purpose of cleansing the community is for the community to recover its lost spirit of harmony that has been destroyed by breaking a taboo.

Many in America reject the idea of community because they have been trained to think only in individualistic terms. However, when it comes to gun violence, thinking in individualistic terms will not do. After all, when looked at closely, mental illness is not just an individual thing. As Michel Foucault has shown, the definition of mental health is a function of the mental health of a society. Thus, focusing on individual mental health to the neglect of the mental health of the whole society will be to miss the point. Perhaps understanding gun violence as societal taboo that requires purification will alert us to the gravity of the situation. Perhaps this land to be purified. It is unnatural for parents to be burying their children, especially when the cause of death is gun violence. What do we need to do in order to purify this land?