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.