Nigeria

In many ways, this has been Nigeria's week. Mostly as a result of the news that Goodluck Jonathan disolved the cabinet on Wednesday. I blogged about it then (read it here), and since there have been more signs that it may be positive news - for example the response from the markets. The news have generated plent of comments, for today's editorial on The Guardian to the unavoidable and unnecessary advice given by Col. Muammar al Gaddafi: "split Nigeria in two" (so much for his vision of a United States of Africa!) - which has been responded by Nigeria recalling its ambassador to Libya.

For some background information of Nigeria's current predicament you can read this Global Voices' article on the Enough is Enough movement - and their protest on Tuesday; and this Sahel Blog entry on a conference on Nigeria and Islamic Extremism.

Zimbabwe

Zuma's been to Zimbebwe this week, where he's engaged in talkes with both ZANU-PF and MDC officials and tried to resolve the stalemate paralysing the country's government. Although Zuma called for a free and fair election, he knows this is not likely to happen- and that any alection may lead to further violence if ZANU's grip on security forces continues. The most positive outcome of the talks than is that Zuma has met not only top-officials, but he's made his round of conversations wider - including even Roy Bennet, the MD member standing trial accused of "terrorism". Furthermore, all parties in government agreed to solve outstanding issues and reprting back to Zuma before the end of the month.

Various

- The Pan African Media Conference has taken place in Nairobi yesterday and today. There has been a brilliant coverage by Tweeps. If you want to have a look ot what's been said follow the #AfMediaConf topic.

- World Bank sees Africa economies rebounding in 2010 (via Loomnie)

- Does the ongoing debate about American military support for Somalia’s government signal a small but significant step toward non-interventionism among US elites? asks Sahel Blog

- Congo Siasa reminds us that "these are important days in the future of the Congo.Two important decisions are being taken by the international community: debt relief and the future of the peacekeeping mission."

- Fela! comes closer - I can only share NaijaBlog's enthusiasm.

- Spanish blog "Héroes de Ébano" shares this classic and touching video:

As noted last week, Zuma's visit to the UK gave plenty of things for the media to talk about: from his sex habits, marriage arrangements and the British's empire mentality. But there was much more. Zuma used his visit to ask Gordon Brown to support the lifting of Zimbabwe sanctions; this is, the "travel bans and asset freezes imposed by the EU and the US on Robert Mugabe and his allies" and still in place, and which serve, he argued, "only to divide the already fragile power-sharing government in Zimbabwe". This generated an interesting debate on The Guardian, regarding the usefulness of sanctions in the Zimbabwean case. Thus, last Wednesday Blessing Miles-Tendi wrote an article titled "Zuma's right on Zimbabwe", in which he supported the lifting of sanctions and argued that these "are not only internally divisive but iniquitous and obstructive to democracy". You can read the full article here.

South African president Jacob Zuma. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP (via The Guardian)

This article prompted Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch, to response, witing a letter in which he argued: “Blessing-Miles Tendi blames the EU targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his cronies for the failure of last year's power-sharing deal to bring about the hoped-for political transformation in Zimbabwe. That is absurd. The evidence that Zanu-PF continues to violate the agreement is overwhelming. In the past year MDC activists have been killed and abducted. Legislators and journalists have been arrested on spurious charges. Repressive media laws remain in place. Illegal invasions of commercial farms continue. Zanu-PF continues to use its control of the army, police and security sector to persecute its opponents. Just this week journalist Andrison Shadreck Manyere was arrested for filming political detainees outside a courthouse and union leader Gertrude Hambira fled the country fearing for her life after her offices were ransacked by police. Easing EU sanctions now will simply reinforce the repression in Zimbabwe.”

Continuing the debate, yesterday Miles-Tandi responded, with what I consider to be and extremely insightful criticism of the limitations of how human rights discourse is applied in political crisis, and especially, regarding Zimbabwe. Here are some excerpts:“Porteous either failed to comprehend my article or he is in the habit of making kneejerk responses, because nowhere do I make the assertion that sanctions are the sole reason for the failure of the "power-sharing deal to bring about the hoped-for political transformation"… My argument is that sanctions must be lifted in order to rob Zanu PF of a key propaganda and negotiating plank, which it has used to weaken internal opposition and as a pretext for the non-implementation of democratic reforms… However, the most disconcerting aspect of Porteous's response is not its misrepresentation of my views but that it shows how, for four reasons, the human rights movement remains intellectually ill-equipped to deal with Zanu PF…

First, Porteous… does not stop to ask whether targeted sanctions have had any effect in deterring Zanu PF's human rights violations. Sanctions have been in place since 2002, but Robert Mugabe still stole the 2002 and 2008 presidential elections. Sanctions did not dissuade the Zanu PF government from violently seizing white-owned commercial farms... carrying out Operation Murambatsvina…Journalists, the opposition and civil society have faced untold repression under the EU sanctions' watch…

Second, Porteous' insistence on the maintenance of sanctions that clearly do not have the desired effect reflects how the human rights movement lacks ingenuity in confronting Zanu PF's human rights violations...For a decade, we have isolated the Zanu PF government, attacked its excesses and applied targeted sanctions. Zanu PF has only become more belligerent and its human rights abuses have worsened…

Third, the human rights movement has struggled to deal with the problem that the very same actors, such as the EU, that it has urged to maintain sanctions on Zimbabwe do not apply the same human rights standards everywhere and are themselves gross human rights violators. This is a very important shortcoming because external attempts at protecting the human rights of a given populace are undermined if they are accompanied by selectivity and hypocrisy. ...

Fourth, the human rights movement has not fully appreciated the sophisticated nature of Mugabe and Zanu PF. Zanu PF has invested sustained intellectual labour in attacking the idea of human rights…The human rights movement in Zimbabwe and internationally has failed to articulate a compelling defence of the validity of human rights in the country. As a result, intellectual space has been ceded to Zanu PF's public intellectuals.

In my opinion this constitues an excellent summary of the shorcomings of the current approach to the Zimbabwean crisis - shortcoming that only reinforce Mugabe's position. This situation in Zimbabwe continued to be tense, with a fragile national unity government, harrasment of activists and politicians, and continued power-abuses from ZANU-PF. But sanctions, in place since 2002 do not appear to have made the situation better, rather the opposite, as Miles-Tandi argues, giving ideological ammunition to Mugabe's camp. What Human Rights activist sometimes forget - something that directly results from the very nature of the Human Rights discourse - is that politics is often a messy affais, that calls for compromises, and that in order to exert any change you need to have leverage of some sort. Undoubtedly, complying with the international Human Rights framework gives you a certain degree of leverage, and wins you international support from Western powers. But in many cases - such as Zimbabwe - this is not enough because on the national sphere this discourse is confronted and over-powered by Mugabe's interested use of anti-imperialist rhetoric.

A more fruitful approach then will be, as Miles-Tandi suggests and I agree, to adopt a more flexible political position - instead of a manichean "you-either-fully-comply-with-human-rights-requirements-or you-will-be-considered-a-pariah" approach, which highlights the double standards existing in the international sphere (see Afghanistan). Following this, the international community's best chance may be to rely on Zuma to act as intermediate in making ZANU-PF comply with the powersharing agreement. Understandably, there is a reticiency to do this, given the failure of Mbeki's "constructive engagement" policy. Nevertheless, there appears to be a certain, albeit slight, change in South Africa's foreign policy towards Zimbabwe as this SAIIA article notes:"Zimbabwe remains South Africa’s most immediate foreign policy challenge. Zuma’s more cordial relations with Morgan Tsvangirai, his tougher stance at the November 2009 Maputo SADC Summit and his replacement of Mbeki as mediator by Charles Nqakula, Mac Maharaj and Lindiwe Zulu later that month heralds, for some, a definite break with the past, although it is early days."

Photograph: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty Images (via The Guardian)

Furthermore, as the "Blue Lines" section signals in the latest Africa-Confidential (here, no suscription required), Zuma's team "has made some headway in negotiations on political and security issues" and "is searching for leverage with Mugabe, suggesting that sanctions could be quickly reimposed if pledges are not kept" (a much more interesting dynamic than keeping the sanctions). Sanctions on Zimbabwe, this article continues, are in fact "under review: its voting rights at the IMF have been restored. The IMF and the World Bank are working on a plan to tackle its arrears and speed up disbursement for the short term recovery programme – despite the United States’ and Britain’s veto on loans. That too may change after some diplomatic clodhopping. Last year, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that it was up to the MDC to decide when sanctions were lifted. Since then, Premier Morgan Tsvangirai has written to EU leaders calling for a general review of sanctions and Finance Minister Tendai Biti has asked the EU to lift sanctions on eight specific companies; it quickly complied. However, the last set of sanctions – the targeting of ZANU-PF officials and their business friends – is likely to stand for many months yet."

It is therefore clear that the stand-off in Zimbabwe has been paralysing for the country's situation, and that a new something needs to be done. And that the sanctions, in place since 2002 have not worked. It does not therefore seem such a crazy idea then, to give it a go at trying new ideas, like lifting the sanctions...

The fact that you are alive is proof that you are becoming something.

What you have become today is a product of the choices, decisions, indecisions, actions and inactions of yesterday.

What you will become tomorrow is a function of today’s choices, decisions, indecisions, actions and inactions.

The truth stands that you are becoming something.

The question then is what are you becoming?

In a world where too many people are on autopilot: doing the same thing every day, without thinking, and expecting that out-of-the-blues breakthrough, we must stop and think.

If I continue living, acting and reacting as I currently do, what will I become in ten (10) years?

The answer to that question is the key to a meaningful existence

There are three great painters of old;

Leonardo da Vinci who painted Mona Lisa, Michaelangelo who painted the Sistine Chapel and Pablo Picasso who invented the art form known as Cubism

Picasso had this to say about his life:

My mum said to me

If you become a monk, you will end up the pope

If you join the army, you end up a general

So I became a painter and wound up as Pablo Picasso

What are you becoming and how well are you becoming what you are becoming?

Welcome to Become Excellence where we are committed to equipping you to Become EXCELLENCE.

You can be the best, don’t settle for anything else.

- BarCamp Abidjan has just begun!! And it will be on, until Sunday. You can follow live updates on Twitter from @africamps, or through the tag #bcbabi. Looking forward to all the sessions and talks!!

- Regarding African politics this week, well, no one can doubt the man's entertainment value. This week Zuma visited the UK, where he accused the British media of seeing Africans as "barbaric". Not only Zuma's personal life, but also his attitude, declarations, and the state of South African politics led to plenty of comments on the media - from the ridiculous (the Daily Mail column that rightly ofended Zuma), to this article by Mark Gevisser and even today's editorial on The Guardian (partly siding with Zuma in criticising the media's "undertone of imperial snobbishness" and a "British national weakness for thinking of foreign leaders in the most simplistic, comic-book terms".

- Togolese elections yesterday, apperaed to have gone smoothly. For all the information tune to the African Elections Togo site - here

- After China and India, attention now turns to new "emergent" powers in Africa - Iran (and Israel). See this article on the Economist and this one by the Deutsche-Welle.

- This week's issue of Pambazuka News carries plenty of interesting articles, on various topics such as Zimbabwe's unity government's staggering from pillar to post, (incidentally, we have also recently learnt that external support for the regime is in decline, after China affirmed it does not consider Zimbabwe a "friend"); US interference in Nigeria's constitutional crisis; how Abahlali baseMjondolo is gathering strengthafter the Kennedy Road evictions and a Campaign for democracy in Swaziland.

- Global Voices carries this week two interesting articles on the topic - first is a mention to this very interesting article on Afromusing from early February (which I read at the time but forgot to share), and also this piece by Rebekah Heacock on whether "Is ICT all it's cracked up to be?". She discusses how, in Sudan for example, some ICT4D (ICT for development) initiatives that are all the hype at the moment, have failed to produce results. A test to see how far citizen involvement on politics can go, she argues, will be the forthcoming Sudanese elections. And just to prove the point of ICT4D being fashionable, the World bank has launched "a new online game, Evoke, to channel gamer obsession and time (3 billion hours per week) into solving Africa's problems" (via Bombastic Element)

- Away from politics, A Bombastic Element has an entry on the latest news and initiatives around Bushpunk (definition here), and on the recently concluded Design Indaba.

- And Africa Is A Country shares his enthusiasm for the forthcoming Pop Africana Magazine.

Click on the picture to see the magazine's site

It’s been a week since last Thursday that residents living in Accra-West saw the last drops of water flow through their taps. People have had to travel long distances looking for portable water. Wielding water containers of all sorts from yellow jerry cans to washing basins and buckets women and children are seen in long queues at fortunate neighborhood spots with running water or wells.

The management for water distribution in Ghana, Aqua Vittens Rand, a merger of two companies of the Netherlands and South African origin, cannot assure residents of the affected areas when the situation will be finally resolved. Stanley Martey, PRO for the company says "there is an on going repairs work at the Accra-West sub station where the control panel and some equipments have broken down,unfortunately we cannot say when the works will be over".

Mr. Martey told Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Joy fm’s Super morning show host, that the company has organized a number of water tankers tasked to distribute water to the affected areas. But many have sent in complains that they are yet to be reached. The situation has forced some households to purchase bags of water sachet to bath and cook. Sometime later in the weeks ahead, the price of a sachet of water, famously called “pure water”, is expected to increased from 5pesewa to 10pesewas.

Tap owners have taken the opportunity to cash in on the crisis before it is solved. They charge 5pesewas for a bucket of water and 10pesewas for big basins.

Over the weekend, some workers have also had to visit their family relations with large storage plastic tanks in to do their laundry. Seth Quartey is an audit trainee with a Chartered Accountancy firm and lives at Anyaa –one of the areas hit by the crisis, he says, “...the situation is unbearable and I plead that work been done on the equipments must be done quick time because I don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t get water in my house by tomorrow morning”.

Last Tuesday it was the 20th anniversary of the announcement of Mandela's release from Robben Island. And what was practically the whole of South Africa talking about...? President Zuma's sex life!! As you probably know by now, a newspaper las Sunday published the exclusive that Zuma had fathered his 20th child. The baby born last October however, was the result of an extra-marital affair with Sonono Khoza (39), the daughter of football magnate and member of the World Cup organising committee Irvin Khoza. Ever since the story broke, all of the South African media, the blogosphere, the twittersphere has been of fire, discussing the matter. As an example, Thought Leader, the opinion portal of the newspapater Mail and Guardian, and the top ranked blog in Africa, according to Afrigator, has published numerous posts on the matter, by different columnists. Just listing some of their titles gives an idea of what are the most important problemas and aspects which derive from the whole story: for example, Michael Trapido - Is Zuma's sex drive out of control?; Marius Redelinghuys - Umshini wethu weSex; Janice Winter - Father of the nation? In that case, the personal is public, Dad ; Khaya Dlanga - The president is public property; Alex Matthews - Why Zuma's sex life in endangering millions; Christi van der Westhuizen - The ‘bonus’ of polygamy, but only if you’re ‘indigenous’ (Part 1), etc

South African President Jacob Zuma with his fifth wife Thobeka Mabhija, whom he married in January (Jerome Delay, Reuters)

I once read something along the lines that (can't remember or find the exact quote): "political scandals in Italy are about always money, and in England about sex", pointing out that each country has a distinctive character that dictates what constistutes a scandal and what is an acceptable, or unproblematic behaviour. In this case South African society and the country's recent history dictate a series of fault-lines which usually dictate how politics is conducted and how public opinion tends to get divided. Most of these fault-lines, which include: the racial legacy of apartheid, how to deal with cultural diversity in the "rainbow nation", the HIV-AIDS epidemy, Zuma's character and his contrast to both Mandela and Mbeki... have been touched in this saga, along with more universal concerns such as: the responsibility of politicians, and the public/private division. Thus, as the story broke the ANC refused to comment alleging that the party had "always made a distinction between people’s personal affairs and their public responsibilities. Insofar as we are concerned, the alleged relationship of the president and anyone should be treated as such”. On a similar note, Julius Malema, president of the ANC Youth League, argued that: “We are Africans and sitting here all of us [sic], Zuma is our father so we are not qualified to talk about that”; an explanation even more questionable as it sought to bring a cultural argument to defend Zuma's actions (in this case the respect for elders).

But the indefensible character of the extra-marital affair, together with Zuma's baggage, and the HIV-AIDS epidemy in South Africa, soon began to weight on the judgements passed on the President - who on Wednesday was forced to admith the paternity of the child (and announced that he would take two days off, because he was exhausted). Let us remember that Zuma was accused (and later acquitted) of raping a young HIV-positive woman in 2006, and that during the trial he admitted having (unprotected) sex with her and infamously declared to have had a shower to prevent being infected by HIV/AIDS (something which earned him a shower-head, courtesy of cartoonist Zapiro, only recently removed - more on this story here). This was an unacceptable behaviour from a South African public figure (and even more so from a future president), but Zuma appeared to have mended his way in last year's AIDS Day speech, widely praised by NGOs and pressure groups, and in which he announced that Anti-Retro Virals would be made available to all HIV positive babies, and that, although mistakes had been made, the government would now lead the HIV-AIDS fight in South Africa, and that himself was preparing to take an HIV test.

A Zapiro cartoon showing Zuma and his shower.

Now, the announcement of this extra-marital paternity threatens to un-do all his work on this deparment, and appears to be affecting his support among the public, and perhaps more crucially among members of the Alliance. Thus, the M&G reports today that leaders of the ANC Youth League, COSATU, and the SACP, although not making openly hostile comments, "are known to have opined privately that his behaviour was simply indefensible". I have written more extensively here, about Zuma's need for delicately balancing the forces within and outside his government if he wants to successfully lead the South African government. It also seems clear now, that the popular support that he enjoyed when he was invested in April last year is quickly diminishing on the face of contiuned economic hardship, and that the political support that he needs, is only being harmed by his "bedroom antics".