Just Africa

The 'Dark Continent' Debunked

The news from Africa just this morning mentions witch lynchings, the stoning of a rapist and murderer, militant attacks on oil reserves, an ex-president on trial for corruption, elections following the assassination of a president, amputations, genocide, the rising number of people facing food insecurity…the gloom and doom is incessant and pervasive.

In the face of such a mountain of violence, injustice, corruption, death and poverty, it is no wonder that Western countries feel aid exhaustion, indifference coming on the heels of countless failed attempts to solve the myriad problems by throwing money at them and expecting immediate success. There just seems to be no way to crawl up the slippery slope of poverty and political and economic marginalization in the face of seemingly innumerable obstacles…That is, if Western countries insist on going it alone.

It just stands to reason that Africans know best about what they need and want. Lawmakers in the US are and will always be too distant from the realities of Africa, its challenges, and most especially, its charms. While life for many Africans is not ideal, and countries with influence and money have a responsibility to engage with Africans to help improve their situations, ‘African life’ is not always the tragic and shocking saga that the media portrays. Without taking away from the severity of those hot spots of violence and the numbing poverty in so many families, an important antidote to accumulated indifference is the exposure to what is potentially good and admirable in Africa; where there is already light, there can never be complete darkness.

Africans know of the intimate intricacies of what is both good and bad in their world; Americans make the Hollywood mistake of painting the picture with broad strokes of blood and poverty. There are two sides to the continent, and focusing only on the tragic can serve to dehumanize and generalize African people. The tricky balance of weighing what must be fixed with what is already working can temper the headlong advancement of the West into exhaustion while maintaining what is truly African about the continent.  

Binta and the Great Idea is a Spanish-Senegalese short film nominated for an Oscar in 2007. It is the cinematic manifestation of what is good in the African reality, the antidote to the Blood Diamonds and Hotel Rwandas of this world. There is a time and a place for the darker side of reality, as there is for the lighter side of African life. It challenges the Western viewer to reevaluate not only how Africa is perceived off the continent, but how Africans perceive themselves. Momentarily shelving the humanitarian, it is a brilliant glimpse into the human.

Binta and the Great Idea | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Getting ‘Reel’ About Africa’s Debt

“Imagine your creditors tripled the interest they demanded on your loans without warning and then all of a sudden, all at once, called the loans in.” ~ 'Vulture Funds Policy Alert, TransAfrica Forum'

Yes, the topic of Africa’s debt is thankfully back in the news in a big way, with the reintroduction of the “Stop VULTURE Funds” Act (H.R. 2932) last Thursday, June 18, by Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA). Building on the aims of a similar bill introduced in August 2008, the act now before Congress seeks to outlaw the profiteering by private equity or hedge funds in the U.S. at the expense of some of the world’s poorest nations. [ Africa Action Press Release]

Activists and campaigners celebrated this important step in opposition to particular subset of funds that target distressed sovereign debt - buying up the debt of poor countries from either a government or commercial creditor. Vulture Funds' apparently clawing (no pun intended) desire to make a profit – profits reaching into the tens of millions of dollars – siphon much-needed funding away from initiatives like health care, education, combating HIV/AIDS, clean water access etc. in impoverished countries.

Unfamiliar with Vulture Funds and the controversy surrounding them? Here are some quick facts from Jubilee USA’s Vulture Fund Backgrounder:

“A ‘vulture fund’ is a company that buys up the debt of poor countries at a big discount from the original owner with the purpose of suing the indebted country in court once it has some money (often after debt cancellation)”

“…Donegal International, got hold of $15 million from Zambia, money that was freed up by debt relief and should have been used for the fight against HIV/AIDS and poverty. Zambia was not alone: A 2007 report on vulture funds by IMF staff showed that 11 out of 24 poor countries approached said they were involved in litigation worth a total of $1.8 billion with 46 creditors.”

From JUBILEE Debt Campaign UK:

“These companies tend to be quite secretive, and very many of them are based in tax havens. Some are owned by large (often US-based) financial institutions such as hedge funds. In other cases, there is no information on who owns them. Often companies are set up simply to pursue one debt, then shut down again.”

Jubilee USA’s Briefing Note also points out that in Niger, “lawsuit costs were 52.2 percent of health and education expenditure,” and 98.3 percent of Cameroon’s budget revenue ($51.7 million).

The Congressional Representatives supporting the bill have drawn a line in the sand, standing on the side of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), and they are certainly not the only ones lending a voice to the cries of discontent over Africa’s debt situation. These issues have also been explored in more popular realms as well, where the message may not be in technical terms or political jargon, but attempt to start dialogue over Africa’s urgent debt issues.

Enter Bamako: Abderrahmane Sissako’s 2006 film, whose foundation is the exploration of the crippling debt, poverty, and social injustice facing many African countries.

 

With a plot both original in its premise and powerful in the questions that it raises, Bamako immediately came to my mind because, in many ways, it calls for the changes in Africa’s debt situation that activists have been working on and which has culminated in the Vulture Funds bill.

The central storyline follows a trial in which the citizens of Mali charge that the policies of the defendants, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), have greatly hurt, rather than improved, the socio-economic and political stability of the country. Using real judges and attorneys (who wrote their own dialogue), as well as regular, Malian citizens as witnesses – invited to improvise their testimonies – the result is a film that is much more than a courtroom drama, played out in the dusty courtyard of a Bamako household. In an interview with Sight & Sound, Sissako pointed out that “Victims in Africa don’t need inventing…Just go out on the street and they’re there.” And, truly, the people and their representatives are frank in relating their grievances surrounding such ills as privatized water, education, medicine, and other social services, ultimately questioning the sincerity of such institutions’ claims to want to improve developing courtiers.

Arguably, the power of the film lies in the line it walks between reality and fiction. The possibility of seeking to hold the actions of The World Bank and IMF accountable to the Africans on the ground, who are the ones who suffer from the exploitation of illegitimate debt and poor social and economic program planning, further highlights the power imbalance at play (since deep down, a part of us knows such a trial could never happen). And, in between debates and testimonies, is the interplay and interjection of everyday life in Mali – the people around the neighborhood who pay avid attention to the trial’s broadcast on the radio, and the others who are distracted, indifferent, getting married, or working all day. The documentary style of filming only increases the feeling that you are watching a case of immediate, real-world concern, yet the undercurrent of Sissako’s film is the near-futility of attacking such a colossus of a predicament.

Unlike other movies where a trial figures prominently in the plot, there is no final verdict handed down in Bamako and the film’s conclusion becomes a sign that it is less about the decision that could come from such a trial (or even whether such institutions should be put on trial), and more about educating those who watch. Is globalization the solution to Africa’s problems? Is foreign aid to the continent actually easing poverty? And, honestly, why would the World Bank, IMF, and even other wealthy nations want to perpetuate the terrible conditions of poverty, hunger, illiteracy that plague many of Africa’s nations? (a question even asked by a lawyer for the World Bank in the film).  Sissako’s work asks us to think carefully about these questions if we haven’t before, and to not only see the disconnect between the aims of these financial institutions and the reality of Malian life, but to try and find some hope in resolving these issues.

With the reintroduction of the “Stop VULTURE Funds” Act, with additional co-sponsors and even more momentum behind it, the aims of advocates and activists have now been placed into the hands of the highest government officials in the country. It couldn’t come at more needed time, with the economic downturn hitting poor countries hard and world hunger recently hitting the 1 billion mark – the vast sums of money Vulture Funds seek is badly needed by citizens of the impoverished nations they target. Could it be that we will see change step off the silver screen and into the real world? Only time will tell.

Check out Bamako – on DVD now, and Africa Action’s resource pages for more information on Africa’s Debt and Vulture Funds.

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South African activist and popular singer, Miriam Makeba has died

Miriam Makeba, aka Mama Africa, a renowned international singer-songwriter and activist who spoke out against Apartheid and lived in exile for almost three decades, died this past Sunday after a performance in Italy. Africa Action's Gerald LeMelle talks about her life and legacy on KPFK's Uprising Radio here. Below is a clip from her address to the UN in 1964.

Zimbabwe's own never ending election

Last week Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister-designate of the Zimbabwean government was not in attendance at talks in Swaziland on the crisis in his country because, according to the New York Times "President Robert Mugabe, refused to give him a passport.”

This comes over a month after SADC sponsored power sharing agreements were finalized and signed, in what most observers, including Africa Action and then President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, deemed a historic moment and precedent in African mediated solutions for African problems.

Since the signing on September 15, this bright vision has dimmed each day, however,  as the two main parties privy to the agreement, Zanu-PF (led by President Mugabe) and the Movement for Democratic Change (Morgan Tsvangirai) have deadlocked over the distribution of four key ministries: defense, foreign affairs, finance, and home affairs. The deal requires consensus over these ministries, yet critics predicted from the get-go that did not seem likely. This “limbo over key ministries” has only emphasized that the power-sharing agreement has really just come down to a power-getting battle.

What are the Real Issues in Somalia?

The recent hijacking of a Ukrainian arms ship off the coast of Somalia has thrust the world's most notorious "failed state" into the spotlight of mainstream Western media. While what appears to be a major weapons shipment to South Sudan is certainly noteworthy, it's unfortunate that it takes such a dramatic, sensational incident to get Somalia in the news. At today's critical political and humanitarian moment, the people of Somalia deserve attention for more than just this "pirate ship."

Here are some other less high profile Somalia stories to take your understanding of Somalia deeper than the pirate drama:

1) October 6: Fifty-two aid agencies working in Somalia released a damning statement urging a stronger international response to the deteriorating humanitarian crisis: "The international community has completely failed Somali civilians. We call on the international community to make the protection of Somali civilians a top priority now." 37,000 people have fled Mogadishu in the past few weeks. 870,000 have been displaced so far in 2008. The city is emptier than it was during the 1994 botched international intervention.

2) May 5: Somalis protest the deaths of civilians after the U.S. launches airstrikes into Somalia, targeting al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. Since January 2007, the U.S. has intervened with cruise missile assaults and air attacks multiple times in Somalia, with little success in eliminating key terrorist targets.

Controversial Media Bill In Bostwana Up For Vote

Botswana is generally considered a flourishing democracy with free and fair elections, a growing economy, and a good human rights record. Though there have been a few rough patches for governance since the constitution was formed in 1966, in recent years, the government has been praised for respecting civil liberties, including press freedom.

Media in Botswana has thrived during these years, and journalists have grown accustomed to having their independence, which could be the reason they were irate about the introduction of the Media Practitioners Bill in late June. Reporters across the country, along with international press advocacy organizations, continue to voice disapproval of the proposed law that would give the government more control of the media.