Françafrique: We’ll go when we’ve finished

In 2006 Oxfam published a report ‘Up in Smoke’ on the impact of climate change in Africa, which stated although the continent had played ‘virtually no role in global warming’, it would suffer the most. It lays the blame squarely with the economic activity of ‘rich industrialized nations’.

‘Climate change is overwhelming the situation in Africa... unless we take genuine steps now to reduce our emissions, people in the developed world will be condemning millions to hunger, starvation and death,’ campaign group Friends of the Earth’s Tony Juniper added. Five years later, Ethiopian Feminist posts an excellent in depth report on the vulnerability to climate change on women in Ethiopia. She lists land degradation, soil erosion, droughts, floods, water shortages and pollution as the main areas of concern.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/531/CLIMATECHANGE2.jpg‘Women in Ethiopia make up 50% of the total population according to a 2007 Central Statistics Agency report. As approximately 85% of the Ethiopian population resides in the rural areas, most women therefore are engaged in subsistence form of agriculture. The interaction of women in Ethiopia with their environment is multifaceted. Like in most rural communities, women have been socially assigned the task of safeguarding and tending to their family’s basic needs in the provision of food, health and hygiene maintenance. Where poverty is rampant in rural communities women do not have access to technological facilities or mechanisms that reduce the amount of labour that goes into their house work or food production. Often women have to walk very far distances to gain access to water for drinking and other household needs as well as to collect fuel wood for cooking or for sale. Their involvement in subsistence farming also directly engages them to their natural environment where production for the household and provision of food for the home is solely their responsibility. In terms of biodiversity, Ethiopian women are also engaged in livestock management especially in pastoralist communities where their livelihood is livestock dependent. Additionally, from a spiritual perspective, tree species, mountains and river streams are important to the Oromo ethnic group of Ethiopia, some of whom practice an ancient spiritual tradition that entails performing sacred rituals in the presence of natures attributes aforementioned. The preservation of a healthy and functioning ecosystem is therefore critical to the country’s well being generally but also specifically to Ethiopian women’s safety, socio-economic and spiritual dimensions of their existence.’

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/531/Kforest2.jpgNigerian blogger The Activist reports from Kenya on a water based project ‘Carbon for Water’. The Activist is one of three bloggers chosen to visit Kakamega in the west of Kenya and report on the project.

‘The Carbon For Water project in Kakamega will cost over 30 million USD with distributions of LifeStraw water filters reaching nearly one million people in five weeks with 4,000 community workers and 4,000 transporters involved. All in all,4.5 million people will benefit! This project will be run for ten years and families will be offered free replacement of the LifeStraws when they wear out.’

The funders of the project, Vestergaard Frandsen, are hoping to recuperate their costs through a system of carbon credits (carbon trading) for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the global south. However wonderful this may sound on paper, the fact remains that it does very little to address the problems of climate change such as the continued use of fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal). It remains far easier to buy carbon credits than it is to make the necessary industrial and infrastructural changes. (For more on carbon trading see Oil Watch Dog.

Justice in Nigeria reports on environmental activists from oil- producing regions speaking out against Chevron’s harmful operation in their communities. From Nigeria, Emem Okon says:

‘I am here to represent the women of the Niger Delta who live in communities near gas flares and who suffer health issues of infertility, early menopause, miscarriages, cancer, rashes; women who fish in waters polluted by Chevron; who drink Chevron polluted water because there is no other source of drinking water; women whose traditional means of livelihood of farming and fishing have been destroyed by Chevron oil business activities; the women who confronted Chevron years back over the injustice perpetrated by Chevron in their communities. Chevron claims to recognize the value of fresh water as a fundamental social, environmental and economic resource but Chevron pollutes the fresh water in the Niger Delta with impunity. I have questions from the Niger Delta women: WHEN WILL CHEVRON STOP ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN? WHEN WILL CHEVRON STOP THE TOXIC FLARES IN THE NIGER DELTA? WHEN WILL CHEVRON STOP DESTROYING THE HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF THE WOMEN IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION? If Chevron is not ready to stop the toxic flares, Niger Delta Women say: “LEAVE THE OIL IN THE SOIL”’.

Africa on the Blog posts on the truth about biofuels made from a shrub called Jatropha, described as ‘green gold in a shrub’, and its use in Africa:

‘Governments in both Africa and Europe have failed to factor in the social costs of a biofuel-heavy agricultural development agenda in the former or sustainability strategy in the latter. No one is holding big business to account as it fills up marshes, cuts down trees and displaces people. According to a joint briefing paper released by the aforementioned charities, “The EU criteria potentially allow up to 50% of global forested areas to be eligible for conversion for biofuels.” As one British member of parliament, vehemently opposed to RED’s targets puts it: “there is a sustainability question about the sustainability policy.”
So here’s the truth, well at least through the prism of my understanding and experience: biofuels are not the enemy. Energy consumption in the developed world and among BRIC countries is undoubtedly leading to climate change, the impacts of which are felt hardest by the poorest, so something has got to give and in the aviation industry, for example, biofuels are the only viable alternative. In the same breathe, the seemingly arbitrary way in which the EU has set its targets for reducing emissions and increasing energy sources from biofuels is creating yet another market in which the few profit at the expense of the many. Industry is never altruistic. If profit is not to come at the expense of people then the rights of local communities must be spelt out in the law and protected to the letter.’

Southern Perlo publishes an interview with Liberian activist, Leymah Gboween who was one of the main women leaders in bringing peace to Liberia as dipicted in the film ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’. Here she speaks of her work with child soldiers.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/531/gbowee2.jpg‘During the years of engagement with these little boys, it became very clear how patriarchy as a system first influenced first their decision to join the rebellion. John (not his real name) told me he had joined the rebellion because his older brother joined, and that every time he came back from the war front, the community hailed him as a “real man”, and he also at 12 wanted to prove that he was a real man. When we met at 19, he had lost an eye and had many physiological scars that would render him unfit to achieve his full life’s potentials.

‘Joseph’s story is also similar; “the boys who joined the rebellion came back and were really respected and were seen often in the company of the elders and community leaders. When we came around we were told we were little boys and could not sit in the company of men. I wanted to prove that I too could sit in the company of elders, so I joined to rebellion”. Joseph lost a leg during the war, and now lives in Monrovia as a shoemaker.’

This is Africa publishes a post on how France continues to live off Africa:

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/531/we'llgowhenfinished2.jpg‘Just before France conceded to African demands for independence in the 1960s, it carefully organised its former colonies (CFA countries) in a system of "compulsory solidarity" which consisted of obliging the 14 African states to put 65% of their foreign currency reserves into the French Treasury, plus another 20% for financial liabilities. This means these 14 African countries only ever have access to 15% of their own money! If they need more they have to borrow their own money from the French at commercial rates! And this has been the case since the 1960

‘As a result of the “colonial pact” former French colonies are tied into selling their natural resources to France and in awarding government contracts, French companies must be considered first.

‘Overall the Colonial Pact gives the French a dominant and privileged position over Francophone Africa, but in Côte d'Ivoire, the jewel of the former French possessions in Africa, the French are overly dominant. Outside parliament, almost all the major utilities - water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and major banks - are run by French companies or French interests. The same story is found in commerce, construction, and agriculture..........In short, the Colonial Pact has created a legal mechanism under which France obtains a special place in the political and economic life of its former colonies.’

In Black Looks, Mia Nikasimo publishes a piece of prose on the need for an increased dialogue with the ‘T’ in LGBTIQ:

‘The day after the night before the unlocking of the activist’s jaws “Sweet!” said she to say goodbye and welcome in one voice, one. I am transgender, not a transgenderist, a transsexual woman! No Butcher than butch, no femme® than femme, me: a lesbian at arms, No Less; not less, no more baby, have no fear, have no fear, just be!
Don’t be afraid to let me change ala Leslie Feinberg, warrior dame! No side bitching bitches will unsettle the earth from its axial perch, The diversity of the unit depends on us uniting; no back talking… Yes, so I admit to being a lesbian albeit fearful of your nationalism You and your fag hag bitching like we weren’t even here together.
The night was a success, I can feel me: black, transsexual, woman A lesbian. Why did you ask? Why didn’t she answer? Why not fly Free in the face of it all. Cautiously treading these uncharted tides. How long was I sat there without voice? Is there a lesbian panelist? I was there doing the personal is the political… Not speaking yet.
In me, speaking my voice in us; raising consciousness that we know, That we speak out, we exist in this world, respect ourselves, others When admissions arise, “what is transgenderism, any how? Answer: Come one, come all under one umbrella and unite; speak one voice. Tracy O’Keefe said it best, “Trans X u all”1 watch this active fist.’

Finally an excellent informative post from Buala on the ‘Role of Music in African Cinema’.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/531/La-vie-sur-terre2.jpg‘Since the early days of African cinema, music has formed part of a (self) conscious discourse concerning the problematic realities of Africa. Its use has rarely been gratuitous and goes far beyond the traditional—and much less experimental—Western customs of dramatic punctuation, of evocation of place, of establishing an emotional relationship with the spectator in which the image is almost always predominant, or as accompaniment to the never-ceasing rush of action that hardly leaves one time to think… In African cinema, music is stressed in terms of its cultural, poetic, and artistic functions in relation to oral tradition, with reference to such figures as the griot; it is used to critique the reductive commonplace of tradition versus modernity employed by partisans of a fabricated, purist, and ultimately nefarious—in its insistence on the notion of an “unadulterated essence”— “return to the roots”; it is blended into narration as an essential component and as a marker for critical moments; it works to evoke spaces where time slackens and opens up, giving way for ambiguity and reflection; and it mirrors the continuing urbanization of every aspect of African life, its constant contact with a West for which music is often a tool of domestication, of modernization, and of cultural imperialism.’

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* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks.
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