African Blog Review – September 3, 2008

Here is a review of some of the issues that were discussed in the African blogosphere during the break.

Zimreview
http://zimreview.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/levy-mwanawasa-rip/
Zimreview comments on concerns that President Mwanawasa did not select a successor:
“African presidents have often justifiably been accused of corrupting the essence of democracy in various ways. It is therefore ironic when those who most frequently point this finger then go on to write, “Mwanawasa did not groom a successor.” In a democracy individuals should come and go without the system collapsing. No matter how good somebody is, when he or she goes, no matter how unexpectedly, the laid down process of succession should be able to produce a successor from among the political ranks.
That is what is going to happen in Zambia as politicians fight it out for the top job in the election to be held in the next 90 days, as is stipulated by the country’s constitution in the event of a sudden vacancy of the office of president such as has just happened. And that is how it should be…
Mwanawasa represented the beginnings of southern Africa’s move away from being beholden to liberation-era ‘founding fathers,’ as if we were slaves who owed something to new masters.”

African Aspects
http://africanaspects.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/remembering-mwanawasa/

African Aspects writes that the late president was one of those leaders who was very difficult to label:
“In a continent full of enigmatic heads of state and government, it is not surprising that his is a profile difficult to define. Anti-corruption crusader, darling of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), critic of the Zimbabwean government, father of six, the brunt of jokes (his intelligence was often challenged in the press), high profile lawyer, Chiluba’s nemesis - the list is as wide as it is endless.
President Mwanawasa’s unassuming persona and soft-spoken nature, were two traits about him that even his foes cannot dispute in retrospect. These characteristics were often mistakenly perceived as signs of weakness. It was with this backdrop that his firm stance against political events in Harare came almost as a surprise to non-Zambians. Many of us had assumed he was yet another African leader unwilling to express a divergent view on Zimbabwe. It is ironic that his death came at a time when his voice was increasingly gaining gravitas beyond Zambia’s borders…
Ultimately, my search continues - I am still looking for a box to package Mwanawasa’s place in history. For now, Africa mourns the loss of yet another son. Differences are cast aside as we allow his family to grieve.”

Another burning issue this week was Nigeria’s hand-over f the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsular to Cameroon.

Larry Backer
http://lcbackerblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/international-law-as-principles-of.html

Larry Backer uses the Bakassi issue to argue that modern African states are still victims of past colonial policies and present-day Eurocentric international law which are generally not in line with their national interests:

“This has all the stuff of politics, law, culture and economics. The territory is inhabited mostly by ethnic Nigerians, and it sits atop a vast amount of potential energy wealth. But the borders were never defined by reference to either characteristic, but by the desires of European princes in the 19th century. Those desires, it seems, have been inherited by the new rulers of the region...

Yet the most interesting aspect of this was the shadow of the old imperial order that hung over the whole affair. From start to finish, the decision was a European one--using European institutions, law, and the dead hand power of European imperial agreements. The Africans remained both passive, and passive-aggressive users of old colonial breadcrumbs and its institutions in new clothing. For at the end of the day, the issues in its legal, and political context were managed by the international community in a way in which the African states had little to say other than to stand in for the European powers in their now centuries old dispute. Overseen by the community of Nations in the form of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, the resolution of this dispute evidences both the power of management as law in international relations, and on the depth of the dependency in which Africa still finds itself.”

Reinventing Africa
http://reinventingafrica.blogspot.com/2008/08/bakassi-conflict-for-land-and-identity.html
Reinventing Africa uses the Bakassi crisis to analyze identity formation in modern African states:
“The situation in Bakassi Peninsula goes beyond that of land allocation, conflict over resources, or even development. It is clearly an issue of the effects that governance has on national identity...many residents of Bakassi are adamant about retaining their Nigerian citizenship. To the point that many of them have moved to overcrowded transit camps in Nigeria, abandoning their homes and businesses in Bakassi...
Ultimately, it is amazing how the creation of the nation state has developed identities- though officially controlled by its current inhabitants for less than 50 years- that are powerful enough to trump individuals' loyalty to land and history. During colonialism borders were so fluid and often changed without notice to the actual inhabitants. But today, we see country after country battling to rewrite borders that didn’t exist during their initial inhabitance and were drawn by foreigners who no longer (and maybe never) inhabited it!”

Sami Ben Gharbia’s Blog
http://www.kitab.nl/2008/08/20/silencing-online-speech-in-tunisia/

Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbia writes a detailed article on ongoing attempts by Tunisian authorities to silence online speech that country. He also publishes a list of 22 blogs that have been blocked in Tunisia:

“Three more blogs have been blocked in Tunisia this week. These blogs, Mochagheb (Disturber), Ennaqed (The Critic) and Place Mohamed Ali have all been particularly active in providing news of the struggle of The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), and especially about the latest social unrest in the southwestern phosphate mining region of Gafsa, where two people have been killed.…

As is the case of China, creating a strong atmosphere of fear and a climate of intimidation has led Tunisian citizen to in general adopt a low profile vis-à-vis freedom of expression. During the last 7 years, most internet users and bloggers were censoring themselves by avoiding to raise their voices to address political topics or write freely bypassing the strict state censorship. Only a handful of activists, cyber dissidents and bloggers, usually the same men, are leading the free speech movement on the Internet, going well beyond these limits and even organizing an online anti-propaganda machine to the official one.”

Scribbles from the Den
http://www.dibussi.com/2008/09/cameroon-rapid.html

Scribbles from the Den reprints an article by IRIN about Cameroon's special rapid intervention battalion (BIR) which was originally created to fight armed robbers operating on the eastern and northern borders, but which is now used to quell political protest:

"...in February 2008 in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé the BIR was called on to crack down on rioters protesting against the high cost of living. Jean Bertin Kemayou, leader of human rights organisation Freedom Services, claims up to 100 people died in these protests, most of them unarmed civilians at the hands of the BIR. 'The number of deaths in the riots was very high mainly because of the brutal repression of the protests by the BIR. People are now too afraid to speak out against anything because of the repression of those demonstrations"...

For some, diverting the BIR to cities means it is unable to carry out its original mandate…. In the meantime on the borders the bandit attacks continue. In June 2008 bandits killed 10 hostages of the 15 they had abducted in May, on the Chad border. In a separate incident that same month a group attacked a transport vehicle, killing a policeman."

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org/