Jacob Zuma

So who is afraid of Jacob Zuma, the recently elected President of the African National Congress? Something does not smell right. If the Government of South Africa has a corruption case against Jacob Zuma, the proper way to handle the case, considering his political stature, is to dot the Is and cross the Ts in an efficient manner and then go to court instead trying to destroy him before trial. When Bishop Tutu came out against the candidacy of Jacob Zuma, saying he would be ashamed to have him as the ANC president, one could smell the conspiracy of the elite. When Zuma was in Robbens Island, Bishop Tutu was living comfortably outside and moving around freely in the world. Prove your case or leave the man alone! Since majority rule arrived in South Africa, can anyone honestly state that the majority is enjoying the economic benefits of the country? Is it because now there is some one in leadership, who identifies with the common people that we are afraid of shadows? Do not spit in the soup.

A New Scramble Is On

Recently, politicians from fifty three African and twenty seven European countries gathered in Lisbon Portugal, to bury the old colonial relationships in favour of a modern and equal one. This get together came about because the Europeans were worried that they are losing both clout and trade to the Chinese. Europe has watched with shock and awe as resource hungry China is sweeping the African continent for oil and other minerals. On the other hand, the United States of America, with the establishment of the African Command, is dominating the security business on the continent. Lest we forget, the Indians and the Koreans are also on the move. One cannot forget what was said in June 1994 by the influential U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Lee Hamilton. He explained why Africa was of renewed interest to the United States of America: quote "Africa has the most economic potential of any region in the world. It has powerful rivers; it is rich in mineral resources; it has the most arable land for farming in the world". And therein lies the potential for scramble by others but also a golden opportunity for Africa to pick her friends who would do right by the people of the continent. We cannot allow ourselves to be exploited for nothing again!

Who Is An African?

This question needs to be asked. The ancient land that the Hebrews called CUSH and the Greeks later called Ethiopia/Egypt, was renamed Africa by the Romans. According to the Greek historian, Herodotus, fifth century B.C., Egyptians were black skinned with woolly hair. The term Egypt was once used to mean all of Africa, which was called the Land of Ham. But before Adam and Eve did the continent have a name? All the Pyramids on the African continent, not only those in present day Egypt, but those in the Sudan and the two in Northern Ethiopia, were built thousands of years before there was an Adam and Eve mentioned anywhere on the planet. When we get to the birth of Abraham, the Africans along the Nile were already in their thirteenth dynastic period. So who were these people and what did they call themselves? To be defined by others, named by others and spoken for by others is really dehumanizing. From Mother Africa to the Carribean, Brazil, the United States of America, the Australian Outback and all places where black skinned and woolly haired persons exist, WAKE UP!

Ending Famine in Malawi

In the New York Times of Sunday, December 02, 2007, it was reported that the East African nation of Malawi, after years of perennially extending the begging bowl to the world to feed her people, is now instead feeding its hungry neighbors, selling more corn to the World Food Program of the United Nations than any other country in Southern Africa. In the 1980s and again in the 1990s, the World Bank pushed Malawi to eliminate fertilizer subsidies entirely. The Bank's theories both times was that Malawi's farmers should shift to growing cash crops for export and use the foreign exchange earnings to import food. In other words, the people of Malawi were to grow flowers for decorating middle class family homes in the developed world whilst the people died of starvation. The time has long passed when people in government on the African continent start thinking of what is good for the citizens instead of listening to technical experts who have no clues as to what pertains in local communities. I am also reminded that if South Korea had not gone against the advice of the World Bank in the 1950s, that country would not have become the industrial giant it is today.

African Soldiers for Peace Keeping

It is about time that the African Union, the successor to the Organisation of African Unity, get serious about maintaining law and order on the continent. In almost all African countries, one sees lots of educated young men (some with college degrees) loitering around with nothing to do. Why can the African Union not recruit and train these young people for peace keeping missions? I would go so far to suggest the establishment of a 120,000 man army for West Africa and a 120,000 man army for East Africa. Recruits should be selected from all over the continent; educational qualification should be at least the minimum of secondary or high school completion. Oaths to be taken to protect mother Africa and no allegiance to individual countries. With the support of the United Nations, such a professional army could have solved the problems of Somalia and Darfur.

We Have Failed

I have been telling myself something for a very long time that has to be brought into the open. THOSE AFRICANS WHO CAME OF AGE IN THE NINETEEN SIXTIES, AT THE DAWN OF POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE, HAVE FAILED THE AFRICAN CONTINENT. There is no reason why the richest continent in the world is teeming with the poorest people on earth. Our economical, political and developmental policies have failed the people who mattered most. And the answer can be traced to eurocentric styled education. In the immortal words of Dr Carter Goodwin Woodson, "When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary".
In a nutshell, Africans in the position of political leadership on the continent have not learned to do right for the themselves and their peoples but rather depend on the so called developmental experts from former colonial countries. What do we expect?

Barry Lamar Bonds

This has been a very bad week: Barry Bonds is finally indicted. The question is why? I am stunned!

Beef Against President Carter

In 1945, at the formation of the United Nations, there were only two countries, south of the Sahara, representing the African Continent: Liberia and Ethiopia. The rest of Africa was under colonial domination. But then the winds of change arrived in the 1960s and the peoples of the continent were full of hope. Unfortunately President Jimmy Carter became President of the United States of America in 1976 at the height of the cold war. It has been rumoured for years on the African continent that President Jimmy Carter's administration destabilized the Governments of Liberia, Ethiopia and Somalia to protect the interests of the United States of Ameria. The peoples of those named countries, and the rest of the continent from the ripple effects, are still suffering from his actions.
If you have anything to contribute to the above sentiments, pass it on. Keep the Faith!

Political Action of Charity?

For over four decades after the attainment of political independence from the colonial powers of Europe, it seems to me that, despite the news of economic development trend moving in the positive direction, the African Continent is still suffering from subtle forms of domination by political, economic, social, military or technical means. The United Nations and its agencies - the World Bank and International Monetary Fund -have provided lots of developmental money and development experts over the years to the continent with not much to show for the expense and efforts. Most Africans still do not have safe drinking water, schools to attend, hospitals to go to when they fall sick and no gainful employment for the educated class.
I am inviting all Africans on the continent and in the diaspora, genuine friends of Africa, to suggest how we can correct the situation by first identifying the causes and proposing new ways of tackling the underdevelopment problems we face. The Struggle Continues.