Africa blogging roundup 10 September 2008
Sokari Ekine reviews this week the following blogsites:
Kenyan Environment & Political News
Kenya Enviornment & Political News provides a historical “snapshot” of women organising in Kenya which he dates back to 1952. I am a little confused by what is meant here especially as he names a white women’s group as the first women’s group. I cannot imagine that Kenyan women were not organising themselves way before this date. Maybe the error here is taking some written historical registration of a women’s group as the date to mark the first organsing of women rather than to trace the history of Kenyan women and their roles in Kenyan society.
CyBlug
http://abujacity.typepad.com/abuja_and_beyond/2008/09/efcc-where-are.html
CyBlug asks the Nigerian anti-corruption body the EFCC, “where are the 23 corrupt governors?”
“To most Nigerians it is no longer news and strange that almost all the 36 Governors as at May 1, 2007 are corrupt. Former EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu having conducted thorough investigations into their affairs had then said that the Governors were found to have corruptly abused power, personalized their state treasuries thereby enriched themselves and were therefore liable to face prosecution.”
An excellent question to which I would add the question where are all the ex-Presidents, Military rulers etc? Promises promises promises – possibly the EFCC is itself compromised?
Timbuktu Chronicles
http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/09/santa-yalla.html
Timbuktu Chronicles reports on Santa Yalla, a “homegrown women’s loan association” working in the Casamance region of Senegal
“The Sante Yalla Cooperative is a microfinance group with twenty members dedicated to raising poultry and other activities. The women of the group find that demand outstrips their output, so they are asking for a loan to support their enterprise and meet market demand. This loan will be serviced by all the members in turn and they will reinvest their profits to continue raising poultry without outside financing.”
Loudrastrass
http://pumlagqola.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/where-are-zimbabwean-women-in-the-news
Loudrastrass returns from a recent visit to Zimbabwe on a “feminists solidarity mission”. In the post she explains why it was important for her to attend the sessions. Here are some of her reasons:
“Conversations matter; It is important to offer the kind of sisterhood and comradeship that makes sense for those you want to link arms with in struggle. This was part of my motivation; and one I particularly like:
“if you shiver with indignation whenever you know an injustice is done in the world, then we are comrades. I think we are all each other’s business;”
The group of women who participated have now set up a blog to discuss their impressions at http://tenafricanwomyn.wordpress.com/
Tree Revolution
http://www.treevolution.co.za/?p=871
Tree Revoultion looks at the implications for rising oil prices in Africa along side the issue of biofuels which are increasingly being produced in Africa at the expense of food farming. TR asks what are our choices for energy production?
“Three main technologies stand out: wind, solar and biofuels. The world’s capacity in wind power is growing at 30 percent per annum. This year wind power generation will have reached 100 gigawatts.
As more wind turbines litter the landscape, the incentive to improve the technology increases. Wind turbines can reach levels of efficiency of about 50 percent and costs have come down radically to about eight US cents a kilowatt hour. Similar levels of efficiency and new innovations are being made in solar energy.
Two key technologies will offer new pathways to mass-scale production and roll-out of solar energy: concentrated solar power using large arrays of mirrors or troughs to concentrate power where the heat is used to generate steam and run a turbine, and the other is thin film solar, which promise massive cost reductions and greater flexibility in the usage compared to crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells.”
Black Looks
http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/09/hiv_couples_paired_up_for_marriage.html
Black Looks comments on a new policy to combat HIV in Nigeria’s Bauchi State – the pairing up of HIV+ couples for marriage.
“There are real complex issues around the “drug cocktails” such as resistance, side effects and the need to change drugs from time to time plus the implications for getting pregnant for both mother and baby. The more I think about this the worse it seems as it leads both the couples and everyone else thinking everything is OK when in fact it is not - it is deceitful on the part of Bauchi State to lead couples into believing this is to their benefit and is an appropriate HIV prevention policy.”
* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/