Review of African Blogs, 15 April, 2009

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/428/april16_01_spartakus.gifSpartakus writes about Makerere University’s very first election that were conducted using the university’s E-Voting System:

“The online system that has the aspirants and their pictures entered into the system was built at the Makerere University faculty of Computing and IT (CIT) as part of the National Software Incubation Center’s first batch of projects to be incubated...

The system boasts of several advantages over the traditional ballot process. For one, it relies on the voter’s student number and because this is verified at the entrance by polling agents, it makes it nearly impossible for one person to vote twice unless they have two identity cards. The system then uses the student’s number on your identity card to generate n code, which then gives you access from any networked terminal in the voting area to the ballot paper. You tick the candidates of your choice and click VOTE and go. The whole process takes about 2-3 minutes.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/428/april16_02_thespear.gifThe Spear in Arabia explains the low expat turnout in the first South African elections open to the country’s expatriate community:

“The ANC didn’t make it easy for us to vote. If you wish to vote overseas you must be registered in SA as a voter and you had to fill out a special request form to vote overseas. The special request form you could fill out in the foreign country and fax or email it back…

Unfortunately first time voters, a lot of those between the ages of 18 – 23, had to be registered in SA on the voters roll to be able to vote overseas. Unfortunately this first time registration can only be done in SA, so immediately we have thousands of our young people… excluded from voting… because they can’t get to SA to register.

The older expats, whom can vote is asked to drive or fly hundreds and in some case thousands of kilometers to vote…

Mark my words, next election, they will say, but the voter turn out was low and the cost is too much to justify it.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/428/april16_03_marvintumbo.gifMarvin Tumbo laments about ethnic realignments taking place in Kenya today beyond the glare of the spotlight:

“My parents bought a piece of land a while back and were planning to develop it when all the kids were through with their education...

On the surface, it seems that all is well in the country, but once you look beyond the façade, you will realize that tribal realignments are taking a physical, more concrete shape. My parents have decided not to settle on that piece of land that was once a prime investment, because they know they will be the victims when the second wave of tribal violence comes along. So as they search for a more serene place to settle after they retire, it is almost obvious that they will choose to live among people from their own tribe, or remain in the town where there are no “tribes”…

One gets the feeling that physical demarcations between tribes are being drawn in readiness for the epic battles, reminiscent of the old wars from which movies like the Troy and The Last Samurai were conceptualized. Tribal wounds have not healed, and people are no brighter than they were last year when they picked up machetes to kill their neighbours…

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/428/april16_04_startupsnigeria…Startups Nigeria comments on recent enhancements to “legwork”, the budding Nigerian social networking site:

"Legwork.com.ng is Nigeria’s premier meeting place on the Internet for information, business, career and social networking. The social networking site has recently redesigned their site and added more interesting features such as mobile blogging, mobile clubs, Twitter updates and lots more...

The site which claims to have membership of over 500,000 Nigerians (with over 150 000 members living in Nigeria) has features including Twitter, SMS Channels, Mobile Meetup, Mobile Clubs, 150 Blogging that allows members to network socially, research opportunities, find businesses and receive informative, interesting and entertaining content via their mobile phone...

Legwork has taken me by surprise with these new and interesting features. This shows that the social networking scene in Nigeria has yet more and more places to explore. With this rebrand, my guess is that Legwork will be able to compete with social networking rival, Naijapals."

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/428/april16_05_dibussi.gifScribbles from the Den carries excerpts of a rare interview of former Captain Guerandi Mbara, the sole survivor of the group of young Cameroonian officers who led the failed coup attempt against president Paul Biya 25 years ago on April 6, 1984:

“We were motivated by a number of factors, some dating back to the colonial period and others to events of the 1980s… Cameroon was already suffering from a sclerosis caused by an organic, hegemonic and even legitimacy crisis. The state was sliding towards what the Anglo-Saxons refer to as a “failed state.” The collapse of the state was already very very visible back then, from the race to plunder state resources to an increase in tribalism and nepotism, etc. Who does not remember the statement “It is now our turn?” Or “the goat eats where it is tethered”? ...Who does not remember the squandering of financial resources under the guise of creating a new ethno-regional bourgeois? Who does not remember the arbitrary arrests? Or, the desire to wipe out certain regions that were targeted by the ethnofacists in power?

Our primary objective was to prevent the chaos that we are witnessing today, and to anticipate solutions to the sociopolitical and economic disorders which were emerging from within the new administration.”

* 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/