While normally I use this space to point out other links floating around out there, I'm going to change that up a bit and point to articles from this blog that I personally liked or that generated some buzz. While obviously incredibly navel gazing, it's been a busy year and next year promises to be even more so. I'd just like to take a minute to stop, breathe and look around at what's happened.

Loband

This is actually a series that I write on from time to time and it is admittedly quite geeky, but if you're the least bit inclined to developing sites that people can actually use, take a look at it and feel free to point out other things that I might have missed.

Not-Mladić

Amusing to me that an ITCY fugitive was thought to be hiding out in Kenya because naturally, a Serb war criminal would just blend right in there.

Google AdSense Payment Scam

This sucks and we have yet to really see any movement by Google in the direction of making payments to Africans who run Google AdSense on their sites.

Forsyth is on the move

Why are there so many Guineas in the world and why has Frederick Forsyth been part of coups in them?

txteagle

Yeah, what happened with that?

Kenya's most relevant search?

Black hat SEO for Kenya.

The Dynamic Blogging Kit

What is the bestest, cheapest setup for a blogger on the go?

Mapping Africa's data centers

Unfortunately sobering.

English: The open source language

You know it's true. That's why we love to hate it so much.

The inland DR Congo cable

Terrestrial broadband is slowly snaking its way in to one of the largest and most unwired countries on the continent.

Maker Faire Africa

I blogged like a maniac on this. You can also view coverage of other peoples' posts on the focus page for Maker Faire Africa.

Blogging in Ghana

More observations and a lot of really great things that I learned.

Nigerians as the new Russians

Not terribly cool, but a definite trend.

The confusing science of caring

Asking why social media campaigns seem to ignore Africa.

The sun is shining in Africa

Probably the article that got the most mileage of the year and one that I'm really quite pleased with as the questions about The Cloud and the rest of the world (not just Africa) need to be thought about.

Why Francophone Africa is less dynamic than Anglophone

An article that a Francophone blogger asked and one that I hope people will pick up and think about more as cross-lingual issues are worked upon in 2010.

Internet Explorer 6. You are dead to me.

Perhaps not the most poignant article in the world, but I just wanted to put it in the list as I am truly, truly done with IE6. At least I can take that away from 2009 if nothing else.

While my family and friends in Europe are probably already enjoying a fancy New Year's Eve dinner with cava, I'm still in my pajamas sipping on my morning tea and reviewing my blog posts in 2009 (I hate this timezone).

So here are 10 of my favorite posts in 2009, so you can have something to read tomorrow while you recover from the partying. In no particular order:

K'naan in San Francisco

I loved seeing K'naan play live for a small audience in my neighborhood, and to hear him talk about his beloved Somalia. It was spring in San Francisco, but it was greay and cold, was feeling a bit down and uninspired, but he really made my day. Here are some photos too.

How to make Darfur more grateful

I just love it when The Onion covers Africa. Always brilliant.

Rebranding Africa

This post started out on Twitter and it ended up being a collection of initiatives trying to show the positive sides of Africa, which there's no shortage of. It was a very rewarding post to write.

Life in a flash

I don't usually write very personal posts on this blog, so I loved talking about my friend Tim and remember the good old times in Kinshasa with him. This post made me really nostalgic.

March reviews

For some reason March was a very prolific month for me. The post about Tim's photography was written on that month, as well as a review of a photo exhibit, an African Diaspora event a movie about Liberia, a book presentation and a Congolese music band.

World Aids Day in Abengourou

It was my first big event in Abengourou, and I enjoyed sharing my impressions and photos about it as there isn't much content about Abengourou online.

Soul Power Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary movie made up of archive material of a concert that took place in Kinshasa during the famous Rumble in the jungle boxing fight of 1974. Once again, I loved being transported back to Kinshasa's golden years.

Old images of Francophone Africa

I loved sharing these old black & white photos of Francophone West Africa, from the French National Archives.

Ujima Project: Show me the money!

I was so impressed to learn about this online project while attending a conference in South Africa, that of course I had to write about it. It blew my mind.

Pretending it didn't happen, pretending to forgive

Thanks to my visit to South Africa to attend the Highway Africa conference, I finally got to learn a bit about this country and to educate myself further. I also realized things are still very complex down there, which is what this post was about.

If you were expecting Windows 7 to be significantly faster than Vista, you’re going to be disappointed.

Actually, that’s not quite true — it depends on your system. If you have a reasonably modern PC, ensured Vista was up-to-date, and kept your system clean, the speed improvements in Windows 7 will be negligible. Sorry Microsoft — I may not have benchmark figures to back that up, but Windows 7 certainly doesn’t feel any faster to me.

However, I suspect you’ll notice speed improvements if you’re running Vista on older hardware or have a clogged-up system that would benefit from a clear out.

In my experience, boot times are similar, although only because Vista has improved within the past few months. It takes my laptop around 40-50 seconds to boot followed by another 20-30 seconds to log in. However, Vista was almost unusable for 5 minutes while it pre-cached every application it thought I could feasibly use. Windows 7 is better, although it’s still a little sluggish immediately after a cold boot.

Memory management has improved and disk activity has been greatly reduced. In addition, sleeping, hibernating and resuming are much faster (the menu is also more logical now Microsoft has removed the over 50 stupid options offered by Vista!)

Laptop users should experience longer battery life and your fan noise will be noticeably quieter than before!

I am still using windows 7 for my reviews. The going is much smoother than Vista.However I dont think either of them can offer the simplicity that Windows xp provides. My mother is having a hard time using any other OS.

Since Côte d'Ivoire is the world's largest producer of cocoa beans and I'm a big fan of chocolate, it was inevitable that I would end up checking out a cocoa plantation during my stay here. I had already received multiple invitations from friends and strangers, so one fine dusty Saturday I embarked on a rickety moped to visit one of them in a little village about 10km from Abengourou. Our host was the son of the owner, a jovial fellow named Max who is also a relative of the Indénié King (pictured above).

He took us on a two-hour tour inside the plantation whle we sucked on the sweet sap covering the cocoa beans of a freshly-cut pod. Afterwards we went fishing (without much success), and finished up the day with some fried bananas and a beer. Quite the perfect day.

At one point, while I was taking photos, Max asked me to make sure no children were pictured since there are big fines for plantation owners who employ children. I didn't see any doing any work, just village children playing around but apparently it's a huge problem in the cocoa industry. And not only are child labor practices common, but unfortunately also child trafficking - mostly from neighboring Mali.

Another thing I didn't know was that Côte d'Ivoire only exports its huge cocoa bean production, not processing any of it to make chocolate domestically. I was told that there's only one chocolate company in the country, Chocodi which used to be Swiss until last year when it was bought out by an Ivorian group, that actually makes chocolate locally. But it seems that they make it with cocoa butter processed in Europe that they have to import, even though it's made of Ivorian beans*. Such is the cocoa business.

Also, it turns out that at the beginning of this month cocoa prices reached a peak, the highest in the last 25 years due to disease affecting yields. Although I'm wondering how they calculate the prices since, according to articles like this one on Les Afriques, Côte d'Ivoire doesn't know how many tonnes it exports since the sacks leave the harbors with a "theoretical weight", but are not actually weighed.

* I know this sounds strange, and I haven't researched this myself - that's what a guy working for the International Cocoa Organization in Abengourou told me

Apparently, these are the covers of some French atlases for children:

The left one says:

Europe, the cradle of extraordinary civilizations.

The right one:

Africa, the kingdom of wild animals.

They remind me of a phrase coined by the blog Wronging Rights to describe Africa: Land of rape and lions. Obviously.

[h/t Afrosapiens]

After the season to be merry, dine with the family, open your Christmas gifts, (and having a break from updating the blog) 'tis now the season to make lists and summaries of the best of 2009 and of all relevant things that happened during the year. This is therefore not a very original post, but I thought I'd make my own little contribution to this end of year fashion, by pointing out what I consider to be ten of the most interesting, revealing or exciting news and developments that have taken place in sub-Saharan Africa this year.

I know they are not all there, but I hope all that are there, are worth it. The list is also based on my interests and biased towards politics and specially stuff I have written here before, but still. In any case, if you think I have missed something you think to be crucial, or you thing something I have included does not does not deserve to be there, please comment!!

And a happy 2010 to all of you!!

1. Economic crisis

In Africa, like all other regions of the world, most headlines through the year have been dominated by the global recesion, and the policy responses to it. During 2009 the coverage has shifted from pointing out that as a financial crisis the current predicamend would not affect Africa, no realising that this was a full blown economic crisis which threatened the continent's economic growth. It is now agreed that Africa has been affected in a number of ways: declining commodity prices, lower level of remittances, less tourism, and a reduction in private capital flows... All of which has slowed down economic growth from an average 6.4% to 1% i GDP. In this interview,Shanta Deverajan Chief World Bank economist for Africa, gives his opinion on what the prospects are for the continent. Also interesting is that it appears that oil exporters and middle-income countries will be more severely affected, whilst smaller economies may have a quicker recovery.

2. Obama- effect?

Headlines during the first part of the year were also dominated by Barack Obama's election - and how it was celebrated accross the continent. Soon analysis centred on how the new president would change US policy towards Africa, which by the way, was the continent where G.W. Bush's reputation was held on highest esteem. Thus Obama's speech in Ghana on June 11th - and the US presidency choice of this country over Nigeria - seemed to give the impression that the US's committment to "lifting up successful models" of democracy and engouraging good governance would result in a new democratic wave. Reality could not have been more different, with coups and instability plaguing Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry, and undemocratic election securing the continuity of Teodoro Obiang and Bongo's son in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon among others. Also, the presence of new external actors (i.e. China) accross the continent constitutes a powerful reality check regarding where external interests in the continent really lay - as did the Secretary of State's seven nation tour in August. Furthermore, even if the US did have a strong commitment to democracy and good governance, it is not certain that it may have the power to do so. Alex de Waal writes here of the four reasons why the US is losing influence in Sudan, some of which are applicable to other parts of Africa.

3. National (Dis)Unity Governments

As blogged before, here, the appearance of National Unity Governments - and their promotion from the international community in diverse countries accross the continent: Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Madagascar... constitutes in my opinion, an interesting process. This solutions appears to as a suitable solution for political crises on the continent, but it is however full of risks. Often the dominant party or leader seeks to marginalise the ex-oposition, now part of the government, and these arrangements can become simple cover-ups for continued undemocratic rule (this is why the oposition in Guinea has vehemently rejected this option). Nevertheless their increasing "popularity", may signal that multi-party fundamentalists are tempering their positions as they encounter a much less welcoming enviroment in the continent.

4. Energy resources

Oil continues to be by far the most important piece on the quest for energy sources, and oil exporting countries like Angola, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea are able to sustain their questionable regimes thank to the income generated by it. But, and as blogged also before, renewable energies - especially solar-powered in the Sahel region and Western Africa, with the support of Senegal, is also gaining strength despite the failure of the talks in Copenhagen.

5. Transport infrastructures boost

Communication and transpor is key for economic development, not only to guarantee import and export to outside continent but also for internal African trade (with stands at unsustainably low levels - around 3%), as this recent post points out. This, together with China's increasing involvement on the continent, has prompted an increased interest on the construction and refurbishment of African trasport infrastructes. Also briefly blogged here before.

6. International aid re-thought

A number of different factors: from the economic crisis, to the appearance of China as a serious investment and trade partner, to the contributions by African scholars and economists like Dambisa Moyo (whose book Dead Aid has been one of the biggest talking points this year), have contributed to making the international community re-think, or at least consider under a different light, some of the pitfalls, contradictions and problems of the international aid system which has been in place over the past four decades without visible benefits.

7. Regional integration

The prescription from international bodies like the World Bank, IMF or the African Union, for more eficient economic and political development passes through the encouragement of increased regional integration. These processes have received a boost in the Eastern part of the continent with the signing of the East African Community (EAC) Common Market Protocol last November. Also, In West Africa, regional body ECOWAS stepped up its commitment to democracy by refusing to recognise Niger president Mamadou Tandja following the end of his term on December 22. Niger had already been suspended from membership after Tandja had dissolved Parliament and the Constitutional court and called for a referendum when his third term was refused. Nevertheless Regional integration still faces numerous problems, from gaining leverage vs. international actors, to make a significant impact on the lives of their citizens.

8. Diverging paths for Nigeria and South Africa

While many academics maintain that regional integration needs a regional hegemon, other see a risk in excessive dependency. In any case it is certain that the state of giants like Nigeria in West Africa and South Africa in Southern Africa, has a crucial impact on their neighbours wellbeing. And these two countries have followed divergin courses. While South Africa is still plagued by serious problems: crime, social inequality, 2009 has proved to be a momentous year, with the election of Jacob Zuma showing that democracy in the country has matured through the rejection of Mbeki and the appearance of a new party, the Congress of the People (CoPe). Also the preparations for 2010 are progressing at a good speed, and all points out the World Cup will be a success. For its part Nigeria is still embattled with numerous corruption scandals, the Niger Delat conflict is still raging, a damning Amnesty International report has exposed the "shocking levels of unlawful killings" by the police, etc. And most recently, and perhaps most worring, President Yar'dua's absence from the country (he's receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia) is encouraging internal fighting and rumours of plotting against his authority.

9. Internet and the ICTs

One of the most interesting developments on the continent through 2009 has been the growth and spread of new technologies and tools, which have placed African countries among the leading ones in the use of these tools, for example in mobile phone journalism. Platforms and tools developed by Africans and with Africa in mind, like Maneno, and initiatives like BarCamp Africa will no doubt play a leading role in 2010 and the following years in continuing this spread of ICTs to new segments of the population.

10. African civil society

No doubt as a result of the processes pointed out above, and especially the spread of the internet and of new technologies, African activists and civil society have enjoyed a much greater impact and visibility on the international arena. Thus, it seems civil society actions designed for Africa, but planned mainly outside the continent (like the much criticised Save Darfur Campaign) have given way to actions whichhave their origins in different African countries. Thus the protests against Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill, the solidarity with Abahali baseMjondolo, the prize given to René Ngongo or the campaign of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance before COP-15, have all received deserved international attention but originate in groups based on the ground.

Probably, it was the worst disaster in the History of recent African migration to Europe, but it went completely unnoticed for Spanish Mass Media. Maybe it wasn’t a good day. Maybe there was football on TV, or Belen Esteban (Spanish ‘celebrity’ in gossip media) had decided to have plastic surgery. Because those are really important things.

José Naranjo, a journalist was in that time working in a regional newspaper, , Las Provincias in Canary Islands. And he was one of the few people who paid attention to this situation. He heard about the disaster in the on line edition of a senegalese newspaper. The news just said that in Kolda , a south-region in Senegal, a lot of burials of young men were taking place without corpse. The original source was a local radio from Kolda that used to broadcast death notices as a public service. In a few days, this radio had received notice of dozens of young deaths, all coming from the same area. It wasn’t a normal issue.

But it was October 2007 and in those days, the real News was immigrants arriving to Canary Island. Everywhere you could find shocking photos of cayucos (primitive boats) full of young black guys dehydrated, being helped by the Spanish Red Cross. That was the news. Guys dying while trying to reach our coast weren’t, of course, any news. Besides, there were no stunning photos of them.

But José Naranjo decided their story was important. He decided that we can’t just ignore all the people that was dying in their way here.

So he decided to go himself to Kolda and find out what had happened. With the company of the photographer Magec Mostesdeoca, they visited the journalists that had first talked about this story; then they met the family an the friends of the guys that started the journey to Europe for never coming back. And there they realised that the story was much more than big, much more than a simple article in the newspaper. So, that investigation turned out in this book: Los invisibles de Kolda, porque lo que encontró daba para mucho más que para un reportaje

['Los invisibles de Kolda' in Casa África]

A book that I’d like to recommend to everyone interested in immigration. A book based on a true story that helps to understand why this guys decided –against all chances of success– to undertake this Big Adventure to Europe and what their loss meant to their families.

Although I'm sure they abound in many other countries, it seems to me that in Côte d'Ivoire traditional healers are etiher extremely popular or very good at promoting themselves. Not only they advertise their services in the towns, but also on the side of the roads indicating their presence in the adjacent villages. Maybe it's just that Ivorians are better-versed at marketing, but I had never seen so many signs of traditional healers than here and so informative.

For example, take this one below seen in Abengourou. It says that the healer in question (guérisseur in French) is a Master in spiritual and natural sciences (although it doesn't say who gave him that title), and that he's a specialist in "mystical and spiritual ailments". He also fights against witchcraft, spells and curses. Even the price is listed on the sign: only 225 FCFA per consultation, which is just half a US dollar.

Since I haven't visited any of these healers I can't speak for their effectiveness, but I'm convinced that they serve a purpose for certain problems. Almost certainly I wouldn't trust them for things like malaria, HIV/Aids or other sexually transmitted diseases, it seems they have a placebo effect on mental health issues:

Usually we think of traditional healing as easy to “respectfully dismiss,” as clearly it’s not evidence based… right? Well, actually, there is some evidence supporting traditional healing. Joop de Jong, one of the founders of the global Transcultural Psychiatry Organization, presented some evidence just over a year ago that in a randomized clinical trial of counseling versus traditional healing in Burundi, the traditional healers had a much greater healing effect.

Next time I feel some mystical pains or somebody casts a spell on me, I'll have to visit my local healer to test his powers. I wonder if they have a cure for jetlag, though...