Review of the African Blogosphere – November 27, 2008

In the cover story of this month’s issue of the Palapala magazine, Nigerian writer, Tolu Ogunlesi explores Africa’s traditional relationship with food:

“You must have heard the statistics that Bob Geldof and his ilk like to bandy about (in very concerned voices), concerning the number of Africans who go to bed on empty stomachs; figures that tempt us to come to the conclusion that hunger is an African thing.

My take on this is that it is unfair to leave the argument at that point. We need to go a step further and boldly assert that, while hunger may be arguably be an African, so also is the capacity to fight it in a manner touched by wonder and skill, the capacity to create delightsome cuisine out of the humdrum of nature’s edibles…

The concept of ‘fast-food’ is alien to African culture; an insult to the sublime sacredness of the stomach. If it’s fast then it’s not food. Like someone said, the African mind could never have invented the sandwich. ‘What is worth cooking is worth cooking unhurried’ would perhaps be found hanging invisibly atop every cooking place in this part of the world.”

The Way I See It argues that there is no ideological or policy difference between the different Liberian political parties:

“Right now, we cannot distinguish our political parties based on any ideological differences… What is CDC’s stand on dual citizenship or the tax system, having a new national flag, creating wealth or caring for the elderly? Do people consider these positions before joining a political party or is such a decision based on whoever the standard bearer is?... Anytime I look back, I can’t pinpoint any major difference between, for example, LPP and UPP besides the different human faces of Tipoteh/Saywer and Baccus representing those parties. I cannot put a finger on what the NPP believes as opposed to the beliefs of LAP, NDPL or COTOL. All that is identifiable are the images of NPP = Taylor or NDPL = Doe/Krahn people. And that’s it?

In Liberia, we clearly see political parties that are tied around individuals, either their founders or presidential candidates. Instead of having political parties producing candidates, we have presidential hopefuls producing political parties. As a result of this back to front arrangement, we have individuals coming to power (and not teams) who spend the rest of their terms recruiting and figuring out who they can work with.

Ethiopian Recycler comments on world reaction to the recent spate of pirate attacks off the Somali coast:

“Mention Somalia and news reporters more than likely repeat a chorus of phrases: ‘war torn’, ‘stateless’, ‘warlords’ and so on. Now their lazy man's guide has one more word: pirates…

What is interesting is that the same nations with history of piracy are now the ones making sanctimonious comments. The same nations who plundered the environment in pursuit of development are the ones laying down rules for others.

In saying this, we are not condoning Somali pirates or China's and India's reckless use of natural resources. What we are saying is that there are fundamental issues that must be addressed before any reasonable assessment is made. And that includes identifying roles nations could play in resolving recurring problems.”

Mabi Fominyen takes a hard look at the plight of the African woman who is subjected to numerous forms of abuse:

“She is sometimes beaten in class by her male classmate, threatened at home by her brothers, sexually harassed in her office by her male colleagues, raped in her community by a man, coerced into sex by another man , molested by her husband or male partner, abused by a family member, assaulted by a neighbour, a stranger…! Yet she deserves a better world…

In spite of efforts to curb violence and abuse, statistics still paint a horrifying picture of what women go through in different communities. Violence has not been abated. Some gender specialists and activists have opined that violence against women has become as much a pandemic as HIV/AIDS or malaria…

In addition to raising awareness the issues surrounding violence and abuse, there's certainly the need for a change in perception and attitudes. The need to move from mere rhetoric to concrete actions such that perpetrators of acts of abuse get adequately exposed and punished, while victims report to the right quarters and survivors speak out in a bid to check such abuses. Of course governments and other individuals would have to give it more attention than is the case in most countries today.”

Epiphanies reviews a recent TV advert for the Water for Africa campaign, launched by Oasis Water, which is featured on the blog:

“Every humanitarian campaign needs advertising. Otherwise how will people know they need to drink more water in order to quench the thirst of people in Africa? How will people know that they can magically fill someone else's glass by filling their own?

Oasis Water has chosen to let people know through this cute little animation, featuring Lila and Sara.
Sara is a European-looking, presumably Arab girl, with a flowering garden and a fridge. She drinks bottled water out of a glass. Lila is an African girl in vaguely Native American getup, playing in a patch of dirt by a well. She drinks water magically provided by the benevolent Oasis consumer and she drinks it from a jar while the nasal-voiced woman encourages consumers to "drink water, provide water."

I think humanitarian adverts make me cynical.”

Scribbles from the Den reposts a Forbes magazine article on the Ushahidi engine which is used to collect information from the public for use in crisis response:

“Ushahidi is the latest effort to ‘crowd-source’ newsgathering on unfolding crises in remote areas via e-mail and mobile phones. The idea is to get immediate attention and relief to strife zones, and fill the gap left by news organizations that have slashed their foreign bureaus...

Ushahidi, Swahili for ‘testimony,’ has simplified the technology so that anyone can use it, and it's designed to take input from hundreds of people by cell phone or e-mail. It uses free software called FrontlineSMS that turns a laptop and a mobile phone into a text-broadcasting hub. As an SMS is sent from a hot zone, the message synchs with the Ushahidi software and shows up in a Web administrator's in-box. The Web admin can decide to send a text message back to the sender to verify the information, send out a blast alert to large numbers of people or post the information onto a Web page with location information from Google Maps (or do all three). FrontlineSMS provides phone numbers in areas where the larger SMS gateways don't operate. Okolloh hopes Ushahidi can be used to send reminder alerts to people on antiretroviral medication or warnings in regions that are at high risk for natural disasters. Some of these ideas are currently being tried in Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad and Ethiopia, among others.”