When the African media drops the ball

West Africa Always Wins condemns two leading African magazines, the French language Jeune Afrique and the English language New African for publishing fawning and inaccurate articles about Presidents Ali Bongo of Gabon and Faure Gnassingbé of Togo:

'One would think that the defenders of African pride had something critical to say about the chubby despots. Instead, they published full-color specials portraying both men as champions of change. It remains unclear what is different besides the fact that they are not their father, but I have no doubt money was paid somewhere down the line to publish the obsequious drivel that is supposed to pass for journalism. Jeune Afrique argues that Ali Bongo is "modern" because he likes fancy suits, fast cars and expensive mobile phones. “The new master of Gabon has restructured the system built by his father to fit his own style. The country is governed like a company under the obligation to deliver and produce results." Gabon exports 13 million tons of crude oil annually. Half of the tiny population of 1.5 million lives below the poverty line. Jeune Afrique conveniently omits these embarrassing figures….

Even more revolting is the eight-page interview with Faure Gnassingbé in New African. It starts like this: 'It is not often that one meets a young Francophone president who speaks impeccable English, a young man who has an open mind and wants the country to be run on democratic lines, a young man with abundant joie de vivre.” There is no mention of vote-rigging, army brutality, or corruption.'

Africaphile argues that the African woman still has a long way to go in spite of the annual International Women’s Day celebrations:

'Women are still marginalized across the globe and even countries that boast women’s rights still aren’t entirely equal e.g. women in the US still earn less than their male counterparts. Makes me wonder…

'Now we have this day, but what does it mean? Does it mean we are going to make resolutions to change the status and actually act upon those resolutions or does it mean that we are going to forget about the plight of women until next year’s international women’s day? Or does it mean we will leave it up to people working on women’s issues to continue what they are doing and we will silently applaud by the sidelines?

'By no means am I denying the progress that has been made by African women, but I am saying that we still have a long way to go in politics, business, medicine and virtually all areas of the formal work sector. President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson of Liberia, Prime Minister Luisa Diogo of Mozambique, a number of female politicians in Rwanda, and the list goes on (not indefinitely unfortunately), but we are definitely seeing a trend of female politicians.

'As for business, strides are being made (no I do not have statistics at the moment to back up my assertion, but simply walking.'

27months comments on the recent launch of iHub Nairobi and its potential impact on technology development and innovation on the continent:

'The idea behind the iHub—and other new technology labs cropping up across Sub-Saharan Africa—is to put a group of exceptionally smart “doers” under one roof, provide them with a top notch work environment, generate ideas at a rapid pace, filter out the dead ends, present the best candidates to investors and produce viable businesses (and success stories) along the way. The end goal isn’t to generate wild profits for the iHub itself under an exclusive brand, but rather to grow a stronger technology community that hackers, researchers, policymakers and VCs are naturally drawn to.
It’s not a far-fetched idea that world class products and services can grow out of a place like the iHub. Africa is a continent renowned for innovations conceived and built from limited resources. Countless examples exist of indigenous technologies borne from constraints that have led to hugely successful solutions. Among them is M-Pesa, Kenya’s popular mobile banking and payment system, whose model has only recently been prototyped in the West. Likewise, witness how Ushahidi, an open source software effort conceived in the wake of Kenya’s 2008 post-election violence has elevated Africa’s global tech status and attracted worldwide acclaim for its rapid deployments in conflict and crisis zones such as the DRC, Gaza, Haiti and Chile, as well as serving as an invaluable tool for election monitoring. Even Washington DC has Kenya to thank for the part it played in cleaning up after Snowmageddon.'

After a five-year absence, Sudanese Thinker returns to a Sudan that has changed significantly – for better in some cases, for worse in others:

'As soon as I was out of the airport cruising in my uncle’s pick up truck, the change was instantly noticeable.

'It was already night time, and yet, it didn’t feel gloomy. Unlike before, most main streets were bright with lamps that stretched as far as the roads they lit. Most cars weren’t ancient moving chimneys anymore. The majority seemed to be Korean-made and manufactured within the last couple of years probably…

'Not everything was rainbows and butterflies though…

'This one took me a while to notice. Five years ago, it was always so easy to spot crowds of Southern Sudanese walking around together in big groups in different parts of the city. Now, their numbers have dramatically gone down.

'Drima: Where did they disappear to?
Friend: They were gradually pushed out of the city and forced to head to the South back to where they came from.
Drima: Interesting, I thought so. Well, there’s another reason to add to the list of reasons for why the South is going to separate into its own country soon.'

Grandiose Parlor argues that the recent sectarian conflict in the Nigerian city of Jos that left over 500 dead was triggered by inequality:

'The common denominator in the Jos crisis — as in most sectarian crises in Nigeria — is traceable to the deep inequalities in the society. The elements of religion and geography are just mere facilitators in the conflict…

'Nigeria is a nation of natives and settlers; the Nigerian constitution even empowers this ethnic affiliation by giving credence to the of “state of origin” status. Any official job posting, local or federal, asks applicants for their states of origin, likewise, political appointments are based on ethnic and state of origin.

'This inequality is made even more potent at the state levels, and the crisis in Jos is not immune to the “state of origin” contraption: the Christians are the natives, while the Muslims are the settlers; the natives feel entitled to the largess but not the settlers. The natives feel threatened by the increasing population and prominence of the settlers. The natives are not too keen to share their lands with the settlers, nor offer their hands in partnership on the political tuft. The settlers on the other hand feel cheated, and threatened too, by the natives whom they feel have failed to recognize them politically and socially, despite having co-existed for decades. That the two are on the opposing sides of the religion divide certainly does not help. The cumulative effect of these factors — the aftermath of cultural and societal inequality — is what has been happening in Jos over the years: an intractable bloody violence.'

Scribbles from the Den interviews Prof. Victor Mbarika pioneer president of The ICT University which offers degree programs that target Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Prof. Mbarika explains the rationale for the Louisiana based university thus:

'A plethora of information and communications technology (ICT) experts and management scholars and practitioners have suggested the need for human capacity development in the ICT domain in developing economies. Empowering these economies to develop the right solutions with contextual and cultural relevance requires institutions to educate and train graduates to meet their contemporary needs. Most developing economies face challenges in establishing and sustaining ICT degree programs, namely, the acute lack of qualified faculty and the exodus of the few graduating talents to the West. Further, some existing degree programs may be considered to be more of an adoption rather than the adaption of content from universities in developed countries, usually North America and Europe. In essence, these economies need to move from being primarily consumers of the information age to becoming producers of ICT and management knowledge, products and services.
The ICT University (ICT-U) is a plausible solution to the aforementioned challenges. The distinctive characteristic of ICT-U is that it goes beyond conventional modes of graduate education to provide a creative and challenging educational platform on which graduate scholars can develop their potential. Scholars are required to conduct research, publish and present their research in academic and practitioner conferences and seminars. In the doctoral program, for example, students are required to develop a thesis/dissertation and to publish academic journal and conference papers before completion of the program. Scholars are individually mentored by international reputed faculty to ensure successful program completion.'

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* 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 Pambazuka News.