IBM links researchers, African students

IBM Corp. is placing bets on African countries where it has launched a mentoring program for college students.

The project, called Makocha Minds, using the Swahili word for "teachers," puts 250 of IBM's top researchers in regular contact with engineering, math and computing students at universities in 10 sub-Saharan countries: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Botswana, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria.

The participants chat mainly by e-mail or phone, but in-person meetings could happen eventually.

The students usually want general guidance on becoming successful or pursuing advanced degrees, rather than help with their homework, said Mark Dean, head of IBM'S Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley and leader of the project.

Dean said the project lays groundwork for IBM to do business in Africa, where potentially groundbreaking research is being pursued on diverse topics like plant genomics and nuclear power.

"We believe that Africa is that next emerging opportunity," he said. "We need to be familiar with different cultures and languages and operations in the African countries. What we want is the African people and African businesses to look at IBM as a trusted provider."

Other technology companies have tried strengthening their interactions in Africa, including Google Inc., whose foundation has backed business-plan competitions in Ghana and Tanzania. However, experts in international technology development said IBM's mentoring program appears unique

'Fast economic growth' in Africa

The economic outlook for Africa is improving after a decade of growth of 5.4% for the continent that matches global rates, the World Bank has said.
The trend indicates that a fundamental change is occurring in Africa, a World Bank official told the BBC.
But the bank's latest report, Africa Development Indicators 2007 (ADI), says ongoing investment is needed to sustain long-term development on the continent.

Otherwise, a split may grow between affluent nations and stagnant ones.

The report looked at more than 1,000 indicators covering economic, human and private-sector development, governance, the environment and aid.

It concludes that growth in many African countries appears to be fast and steady enough "to put a dent on the region's high poverty rate and attract global investment".


The World Bank's chief economist for Africa, John Page, said he is "broadly optimistic" that there's a fundamental change going on in Africa.

For the first time in about almost 30 years we've seen a large number of African countries that have begun to show sustained economic growth at rates that are similar to those in the rest of the developing world and actually today exceed the rate of growth in most of the advanced economies," he told the BBC.

The key, said Mr Page, was that "Africa has learnt to trade more effectively with the rest of the world, to rely more on the private sector, and to avoid the very serious collapses in economic growth that characterized the 1970s, 1980s and even the early 1990s."

The report points to wide variations in Africa, however, highlighting three distinct groups of countries:


The big oil-exporting countries
Those with expanding, diversified economies
And those which have few natural resources, are conflict-prone and are experiencing slow or no growth.

Uneven growth rates between these groups risks splitting the continent between countries which become affluent and eradicate poverty and those which continue to stagnate.

For example, 60.5% of total net foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005 went to oil exporting countries.

South Africa and Nigeria account for more than half of the region's gross domestic product.

Poor infrastructure and the high cost of exporting from Africa compared to other regions of the world has been holding the continent back rather than any failures of African enterprise or workers.

Volatility in sub-Saharan Africa has dampened investment, the report says.

Corruption is also a factor that may limit needed investments in education and health.

"Perhaps the easiest illustration of that is in the resource-rich economies where the resources often accrue to a small number of corporations and to government," said Mr Page.

Nigeria: Policy on Foreign Ownership of Banks Out December

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday disclosed that it would by December 31, 2007 release a new framework on foreign ownership of Nigerian commercial banks.

It noted that foreign ownership of local banks had set back Nigeria's economic development.


The governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo made the statement in Enugu at the 11th edition of a seminar organised for finance correspondents and business editors.

THISDAY had exclusively reported a few weeks ago that the Bank would soon launch a new framework on foreign ownership of Nigerian banks.

Soludo who spoke in New York at the "Nigeria Meets the World Summit" organised by THISDAY had hinted that owing to growing foreign interest in the Nigerian banking sector, the apex bank would soon roll out a framework that would restrict foreign ownership of banks in the country.

He said the framework would deter foreign institutions from taking over the top ten banks in Nigeria, as they collectively account for 71 per cent of the country's banking system.

Speaking at the seminar in Enugu yesterday, Soludo said the CBN was currently putting finishing touches to a study on foreign ownership of banks the world over and Nigeria in particular, which would culminate in the formulation of a formal policy.

Soludo explained that the decision of the CBN was premised on what it had observed in terms of the relationship between ownership and control of the nation's financial system and economic development.

"We want to clarify this issue and that is what we have said repeatedly about limiting foreign ownership in banks. We are currently working on the policy and before the end of the year, we shall come up with a clear framework.

"It does not have much to do with corporate governance but has to do with the empirical evidence about the relationship between ownership and control of the financial system and economic development of a nation especially at the level of our own economic development," he stressed.

He however, explained that the Central Bank is not preventing foreign banks from investing in the economy, stressing that what the regulatory authority would not allow is the acquisition of just any local bank.

"Foreign banks are allowed to come into Nigeria and set up shop. If they meet the N25 billion requirement, we will give them a fresh licence but if they want to take over some of the existing ones, we will be reluctant to approve that.

"We are open to foreigners coming in and applying for a licence. We know if the history of the ones in existence is anything to go by, they are unlikely to be as aggressive as First Bank or United Bank for Africa or any of the Nigerian banks, in going out to every nook and cranny of the country and being very responsive to the local needs of the Nigerian economy," he stated.

Painting scenarios of foreign ownership of banks in Singapore and Mexico, he pointed out: "Singapore introduced a formal policy allowing foreign banks to come there and operate, and there are over a hundred of them. But they went to the extreme of restricting the number of branches that they could have. You are allowed to do anything and everything except attempting to acquire any of the three conglomerates, which constitute the local banks.

"The three local conglomerates constitute 90 percent of banking infrastructure there. There is sound logic to this. Lots of countries in the world restrict even entry of foreign financial institutions. This is the heart beat of the economy, if you close it, the economy stops breathing."

He made references to the Mexican experience where they gave foreign institutions free rein to the extent that today, foreigners own about 90 per cent of the entire banking sector.

The Mexican government, Soludo disclosed, is today compelled to establish government-owned banks to carter for the development of the economy," he said.

He cited the case of Citibank, which has been in the country for about 25 years with only five or six branches. He also noted that most of the decisions on its day to day operations are taken from outside the country.

"Now if you study the operations of foreign owned banks in Nigeria, Citibank has been here for about 25 years. Yet, it has only about five or six branches across different locations, and decision making is obviously taken from somewhere else, including decisions on loans," he explained.

Consequently, he assured the CBN "would soon come out with a formal paper because we are studying this globally and also in Nigeria."

CBN he concluded, has observed the fundamental significant differences in terms of the behaviour emanating essentially from ownership whether it is foreign-owned or Nigerian-owned and "we will be able to elaborate on this when we bring out the policy and background study.

"We are lucky that in Nigeria, up till this moment we have a banking system dominated by Nigerians, and it is of strategic importance for us to manage it effectively," Soludo said.

Stop Trying To 'Save' Africa

A very controversial article by Uzodinma Iweala, the author of "Beasts of No Nation," a novel about child soldiers. Any comments?





Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the "African" beads around her wrists.

"Save Darfur!" she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!

My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.

"Don't you want to help us save Africa?" she yelled.

It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.

This is the West's new image of itself: a sexy, politically active generation whose preferred means of spreading the word are magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back. Never mind that the stars sent to bring succor to the natives often are, willingly, as emaciated as those they want to help.

Perhaps most interesting is the language used to describe the Africa being saved. For example, the Keep a Child Alive/" I am African" ad campaign features portraits of primarily white, Western celebrities with painted "tribal markings" on their faces above "I AM AFRICAN" in bold letters. Below, smaller print says, "help us stop the dying."

Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent's corrupt leaders, warlords, "tribal" conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like "Can Bono Save Africa?" or "Will Brangelina Save Africa?" The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and "civilization."

There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one's cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head -- because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West's fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West's prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.

Why do the media frequently refer to African countries as having been "granted independence from their colonial masters," as opposed to having fought and shed blood for their freedom? Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned? How is it that a former mid-level U.S. diplomat receives more attention for his cowboy antics in Sudan than do the numerous African Union countries that have sent food and troops and spent countless hours trying to negotiate a settlement among all parties in that crisis?

Two years ago I worked in a camp for internally displaced people in Nigeria, survivors of an uprising that killed about 1,000 people and displaced 200,000. True to form, the Western media reported on the violence but not on the humanitarian work the state and local governments -- without much international help -- did for the survivors. Social workers spent their time and in many cases their own salaries to care for their compatriots. These are the people saving Africa, and others like them across the continent get no credit for their work.

Last month the Group of Eight industrialized nations and a host of celebrities met in Germany to discuss, among other things, how to save Africa. Before the next such summit, I hope people will realize Africa doesn't want to be saved. Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.
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Ousmane Sembène, 84, Dies; Led Cinema’s Advance in Africa

By A. O. SCOTT

Ousmane Sembène, the Senegalese filmmaker and writer who was a crucial figure in Africa’s postcolonial cultural awakening, has died at his home in Dakar, Senegal. His family, which announced his death on Sunday, said Mr. Sembène had been ill since December. He was 84.



Widely seen as the father of African cinema, Mr. Sembène took up filmmaking in the 1960s, in part because he believed that film could reach a wider and more diverse African audience than literature. “Black Girl” (1965), his debut feature, is commonly referred to as the first African film. Combining realistic narrative techniques with elements of traditional African storytelling, it tells of a young woman named Diouana who commits suicide after traveling to Europe with her French employers.

Diouana’s identity crisis foretold some of the central themes of Mr. Sembène’s later work — he directed 10 features and numerous shorts — and of the nascent African cinema more generally. The tensions between tradition and modernity and between newly independent African nations and their erstwhile colonial masters are sources of drama and comedy in his films, which are nonetheless focused on the lives of ordinary people, frequently women.

“Xala” (1974), which many critics consider his finest film, takes a humorous look at polygamy, traditional African medicine and the contrasts between urban and rural life. Neither mocking nor nostalgic in its treatment of traditions, it is as much driven by the personalities of its characters as by its ideas about African life. At the same time, the characters’ foibles are clearly symbols of political and social dysfunction.

A similar logic obtains in later films like “Guelwaar” (1993) and “Faat-Kiné” (2001). Writing about the latter movie in The New York Times, Elvis Mitchell noted that some of its scenes could have been “whipped up into a tempest of tear-jerking” but that Mr. Sembène’s “trademark empathy” and sense of detail served as antidotes to melodrama. Even when he addressed painful and controversial subjects — as in “Moolaadé” (2004) which chronicles a middle-aged woman’s campaign to halt the practice of female genital cutting in her village — Mr. Sembène tempered moral fervor with warmth and humor.

Ousmane Sembène was born on Jan. 1, 1923, in the Casamance region of southern Senegal. He left school at 14 and moved to Dakar. There and in France, he worked as a fisherman and an auto mechanic, among other jobs, before being drafted by the French Army in World War II. His experiences as a dockworker in Marseilles formed the basis of one of his novels, “The Black Docker.”

He studied film at Gorky Studio in Moscow, turning to the medium because, as he put it in 2005, “everything can be filmed and transported to the most remote village in Africa.” After making three short films, he submitted the script for “Black Girl” to the Film Bureau of the French Ministry of Cooperation, an agency set up by the government of Charles de Gaulle to assist African filmmakers. The script was rejected, and while Mr. Sembène was able to complete the film independently, some of his later films would run into trouble with both French and Senegalese authorities. “Mandabi” (“The Money Order,” 1968), was attacked in Africa for its portrayal of political corruption and economic devastation, and “Emitai” (1972) was suppressed in France for five years because of its harsh depiction of colonialism.

“He could criticize Africa, he could criticize racism and he could criticize colonialism,” said Manthia Diawara, professor of comparative literature and Africana studies at New York University, in a telephone interview on Sunday. “He never spared anybody.”

In spite of occasional controversy, Mr. Sembène’s mastery and originality were celebrated both in Africa, where he served as an inspiration for later filmmakers, and internationally. He won prizes at the Venice Film Festival in 1968 (for “Mandabi”) and 1988 (for “Camp de Thiaroye”), and at Cannes in 2004 (for “Moolaadé”). He was a founder, in 1969, of FESPACO, the biennial festival of film and television held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Cheick Oumar Sissoko, a fellow filmmaker and the Malian minister of culture, said that with Mr. Sembène’s death, “African cinema has lost one of its lighthouses.”

Mr. Diawara added: “He really is the most important African filmmaker. The one that all subsequent filmmakers have to be measured against.”

The Sun has set on Ousmane Sembene

A Filmmaker Who Found Africa’s Voice

By A. O. SCOTT


Ousmane Sembène, by consensus the father of African cinema, was nearly 40 when he started making films. (He was 84 when he died over the weekend at his home in Dakar). By 1960, the year that Senegal, his native country, won its independence from France, he was already a novelist of some reputation in Francophone African circles.



He had also played a significant role in political and aesthetic debates that had gathered force as the postwar movement toward African decolonization accelerated. He took a radical, pro-independence line against what he took to be the assimilationist tendencies of proponents of Négritude, the more established literary movement associated with writers like Aimé Césaire and Léopold Senghor.

Senghor, a poet and scholar (and the first African elected to the Académie Française), went on to become Senegal’s first president. (He died in 2001.) Mr. Sembène, in his role as Africa’s leading filmmaker, would remain a thorn in Senghor’s side, as uncompromising a critic of Africa’s post-liberation regimes as he had been of French colonial domination.

In a 2004 interview with “L’Humanité,” the daily newspaper of the French Communist Party (which Mr. Sembène joined as a dockworker in Marseilles in the 1940s), he noted that “in more than 40 years since Senegal’s liberation we have killed more Africans than died from the start of the slave trade.”

In films like “Ceddo” and “Xala” he pointed an angry, often satirical finger at the failures and excesses of modern African governments, Senghor’s in particular, and his unsparing criticism made him a controversial figure.

Nonetheless, it is hard to overstate his importance, or his influence on African film and also, more generally, on African intellectual and cultural self-perception. Mr. Sembène was in many ways not only Senghor’s political and aesthetic antagonist but also his biographical and temperamental opposite. Senghor, who had received an elite education in metropolitan France, believed, at least in the 1950s, that Africans in territories ruled by France could carve out an identity for themselves within the larger cosmos of French language and civilization.

Mr. Sembène, whose formal schooling ended in the sixth grade, received his French education not at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, but rather on the Marseilles docks and in the radical trade union movement. Like Sékou Touré and Frantz Fanon, his allies in the radical wing of the anti-colonialist movement, he believed that Africans would experience true liberation when they threw off European models and discovered their own, homegrown versions of modernity.

“What was unique about Sembène was he began to challenge the dominant figure, Senghor,” recalled Manthia Diawara, a professor of Africana studies at New York University who grew up in Mali in the 1960s. “He valorized African languages over French. He began to say that independence had failed. He celebrated the equality of Africa with Europe. And it was very good for us to see a man who was self-taught, who did not come out of the French educational system, who went on to write these books.”

The books were quickly superseded by his films. “I came back to Dakar, and I made a tour of Africa,” Mr. Sembène told L’Humanité, reflecting on his return home in 1960 after nearly 20 years in France. “I wanted to know my own continent. I went everywhere, getting to know people, tribes, cultures. I was 40 years old, and I wanted to make movies. I wanted to give another impression of Africa. Since our culture is primarily oral, I wanted to depict reality through ritual, dance and performance.”

And so he developed a filmmaking style that was populist, didactic and sometimes propagandistic, at once modern in its techniques and accessible, at least in principle, to everyone. He frequently made use of nonprofessional actors and wrote dialogue in various African languages.

“The publication of a book written in French would only reach a minority,” he said. In contrast, he envisioned a “fairground cinema that allows you to argue with people.”

The arguments take place within his films as well as around them. In “Moolaadé” (2004), one of his last movies, a group of women rises up against the traditional practice of female genital mutilation, challenging the authority of the village elders as well as of the priestesses who perform the ritual. The film’s structure is antiphonal (given Mr. Sembène’s Marxist background, you might say dialectical), allowing the defenders and opponents of tradition to have their say before justice and enlightenment prevail.

Like all of Mr. Sembène’s films — he made 10 features in all — “Moolaadé” is grounded in African daily life. And yet, to a non-African viewer, it rarely feels exotic or strange. As an artist, Mr. Sembène was both a populist and a universalist.

“He showed us a way out of tribalism,” said Mr. Diawara, an expert on African cinema (and the co-director of a 1994 documentary about Mr. Sembène) in a recent telephone interview. “Sembène’s films are translatable. They’re never going to be blockbusters, but you can show one of them in China, in France, in Africa, in the United States, and people will know what it’s about.”

Mr. Sembène was thus a thoroughly African artist, one who achieved global stature by virtue of his concentration on local matters. He may, indeed, have found a bigger audience at international festivals outside Africa than he did at home. But that may have more to do with global conditions of distribution than with the movies themselves, which are lively, funny, pointed and true.

Mr. Diawara recalled a story that Mr. Sembène liked to tell about his travels across Africa in the ’60s. Mr. Sembene had finished showing his film “Money Order” in a small town in Cameroon when he was approached by a local policeman, whose attention made him a little nervous.

“Where did you get that story?” the officer wanted to know. Mr. Sembène replied that the plot, which chronicles the chaotic and corrupting effects of money from France on a Senegalese family, was his own invention. “But it happened to me,” the policeman said.

Fatiha (Part3)

When she woke up, she had the lower part of her body bind and couldn’t feel anything. Her eyes were dull and she was tired after a long battle between life and death. Fatiha's mother had circumcised her daughter as she was herself circumcised and as her own mother was. Nobody could blame her since she just followed traditions which were all she knew. She believed that circumcision was the best thing that could happen to her daughter and that without it her daughter would never fully be a woman. At an early age, she had learned to follow tradition and culture, to be submissive and suffer in silence so that she would be happy in this life and the next. She was feeling the pain of her daughter but she thought it was a necessary pain and a step that she had to take towards her life as a future woman.

After that episode, Fatiha never blew kisses to the wind for Mounir. Fatiha matured and grew up from night to day. She entered in the mutilator’s hut as a young innocent child and she exited as a woman. She was a child, with the body of a child and the eyes of a woman. From that day on, Fatiha never smiled. Some people say that when she grew old she would take long walks alone and look at the stars mumbling sentences that only she understood. She would repeat the word 'Mounir' with tears in her eyes. Those who knew her, say that she knew well the art of life and was an artist of nature.

God is without any doubt, the artist par excellence, the only black dot in his master-work was to create men who had the choice between being humans and being subhuman.

The End

Notes:

Sahel: a part of Africa
Touareg: African ethnic group

An estimated 85 million to 110 million women and girls alive today have undergone Female Genital Mutilation

Female Genital Mutilation is the term used for removal of all or just part of the external parts of the female genitalia

Fatiha (Part2)

Fatiha was a girl of the Desert and like most girls of the desert, she was used to leaving loved ones behind. However, sometimes, there are people who come into our life and make us feel so unique, people with who we have so much in common and love so much that losing them breaks our heart.

Fatiha was only 10 years old when Mounir left but she cried as she had never cried before. She cried for the loss of her friend, the loss of her fiancé and the loss of her confident. Tired of crying, the thought that one day she would meet Mounir again made her feel better. After that day, Fatiha smiled less. Each night, she would look at the stars on the sky and think that wherever he was, Mounir was seeing the same sky and the same stars. Every night, she blew kisses to the wind and begged the desert wind to bring them to Mounir. From where he was, Mounir was feeling the wind and reminiscing the days he spent with Fatiha. Every day, the wind blew kisses to him, soft and sweet.

One day, Fatiha woke up in the middle of the night and saw her mother next to her. She told her “Wake up Fatiha, we have to go somewhere”.
Years later, when she thought about that night, she told herself that it would have been better to just run. But because we do not know the meaning of things unless they happen, at the moment they’re happening, destiny makes itself. It is in those moments, that without knowing it, our destiny is shaped because we all have appointments with her. Appointments that cannot be missed because Lady Destiny knows exactly where and how to find us when the time is right.

That night, Fatiha followed her mother and they went to a hut around the camp. Without knowing it, she had an appointment with destiny. Inside the hut was a very old woman with no teeth. A long scarf was covering her head from her hair to her shoulders and of her face, only her eyes were visible. Big, round, red, scary, sharp, her eyes were similar to those of an owl. With her wrinkled and shriveled skin, the old lady looked like an ugly, shapeless portrait compared to Fatiha's beauty and youthfulness.
Fatiha's mum and the old lady exchanged elusive words and Fatiha's mother asked her to get undressed and lay down. Fatiha didn’t know it yet, but she has just encountered the one who genitally mutilates girls, the nightmare of every young girl and the killer of womanhood. The old woman had in her hands a blade that still carried blood spots. She looked at Fatiha with her owl eyes, a big smile on her face. Her toothless mouth was enraptured, widely opened and gave an image of a black hole. At that point, Fatiha was really scarred and ran behind her mother. The mother put her down and put a piece of wood in her mouth. The old lady opened Fatiha's legs and Fatiha struggled violently. However, with a strength that was surprising due to her old age, the old lady kept Fatiha on the floor. Fatiha heard the sound of the blade between her legs. She felt the pain of the human flesh being cut. The blade was going up and down depriving her of her womanhood. A stream of blood was flowing between her legs. She wanted to scream her lungs out but not a sound came out of her mouth. Then it was a complete blackout, Fatiha passed out...

(To Be continued)

Fatiha ( Part 1)

I will share with you a short story that I wrote. Here is Part 1

She is six years old and loves to listen to stories on the moonlight. Pure and innocent daughter of the Sahel, she loves to play with her friends on evenings and help milk the cows in the morning. Knee high, the only type of life she knows is happy-go-lucky. Fatiha was her given name in remembrance of Arabs who came to visit her land years ago and with whom her dad has kept a friendly and strong bond. Her skin, shiny and light was common to the Tuareg girls and some say explains the beauty and delicacy of her features.

Very traditional, the Tuaregs are fond of milk and dry meat. Nomad by nature, they move where the water is very mild to their herd. This is how, at the age of six, Fatiha had alredy lived in different places. In those areas, the landscape was always the same, only the people were different. The landscape was always similar, every part of it reminding the visitor of the one he just left. On that land, bonds and relationships never lasted. Sometimes right after meeting somebody, you realize that they have to go on their separate ways. People are leaving on a daily basis and wishing each other good luck and saying to each other: 'May Allah guides you'. Most times, they hope that destiny would reunite them somehow, somewhere, some day in a similar place, in an identical scenery.

It was during one of the numerous trips that Fatiha met Mounir. Mounir was eight years old but he was already thinking of himself as the head of his family. Because he was the eldest of his siblings and the only boy, he held a lot of responsibilities. Every morning, he milked the cows and one morning he was walking his flock near Fatiha's. Very quickly, they became inseparable. A strong bond grew between them and they made promises to each other while their only witnesses were cows whose only worry was where to find a greener grass. Despite their youth the two of them thought they knew everything they needed to know about love and swore faithfulness to each other. They exchanged rings, made by themselves and were secretly engaged. They kept their secret from everybody, not wanting to share those stolen moments of happiness.

As inevitable as it was, three months later, Mounir's parents thought that the grass was greener in the east and decided to migrate east while Fatiha's parents decided to go west. Fatiha and Mounir had to go their separate ways. Fatiha watched as Mounir and his parents went east. Just the day before, they swore their love to each other and promised that they will reunite one day when they were older. They planned to then get married and have lots of children, hundreds of children...

( To Be Continued)

Mali: New Film Focuses on Life and Debt in Africa

Bamako, a film set in that city, is a complex and ingenious production dealing with Africa's relationship with the West.

The film is the creation of Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako, who grew up in Mali and has been making films since the early 1990s. It includes cameos by U.S. actor and activist Danny Glover (also the executive director), French director Jean-Henri Roger, Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, and Sissako himself. The cameos appear in a film within the film where the directors star as cowboys in a parody of the American western – just one part of the formula that adds to the film's ingenuity.


The film's interweaving story lines form the backdrop of its main focus, a show trial in which Africans serve as the plaintiffs in a trial of crimes committed against "African society" by the West, the IMF & the World Bank. During the trial witnesses come forward to testify on the impact of debt, loans, and the social programs attached to the loans. The economic relationship between the World Bank, the IMF and African leaders is blamed for many of the social and economic problems facing Africans.

Witnesses address the lack of adequate health care and education in Africa, and the levels of poverty in which the majority of Africans live. African governments are accused of often being, at most, corrupt and at least complicit in the implementation of the failed neo-liberal economic programs, privatization schemes, and structural adjustment programs that have benefited only Western nations and the continent's elite.

The immigration problems facing Western nations are said to be the result of failed policies that have created economic refugees who flee Africa in large numbers. The film includes a witness who tells of a harrowing trek across the Sahara and into Morocco in search of better economic opportunities.

The film also features a cast of European and African characters who debate the validity of witness testimonies and challenge the accusations of the plaintiffs. The defense brings out the issue of misappropriation of funds as well as examples of Africans benefiting from Western aid.

The film moves between documentary and fiction as its symbolic battle between African society and the West is played out in sometimes comedic form. Its weighty topics are lightened by the location of the trial in the courtyard of someone's house, in the poor neighborhood of Hamdallaye. Throughout proceedings there are constantly people coming and going, as well as secondary story lines of characters who are only indirectly involved. Scenes include children of the families in the compound walking about, families fetching water, the gun of a security guard going missing, and even a wedding procession.

The main subplot of the film centers on two residents of the house, Melé and her husband Chaka. Melé sings in a bar, while her husband is out of work. The couple's story is uniquely woven into the film, and could in itself be a whole separate film.

All of the activities and subplots add layers and depth to the film in way that makes this project unique. The complexity, while sometimes a struggle to follow, makes the film multi-dimensional. The activities and secondary storylines, perhaps most of all, symbolize the fact that while politicians and scholars debate Africa, the daily routine and realities of African lives are unchanging.

Bamako has received much critical acclaim and accolades, including winning Best French-Language Film at the Lumiere Awards in France in 2007.

Bamako (2006)

1 Hour 58 Minutes in French and Bambara with English subtitles




Written, Directed and Produced by Abderrahmane Sissako

The film's Website: http://www.bamako-film.com

The film can be purchased by contacting the U.S. distributor New Yorker Films at 1-877-645-1700.

allAfrica.com

The Water Challenge! That Aint Right

Every living creature on the planet needs water to survive. In certain parts of the world having access to running water isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. People lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. Can you believe that every 15 seconds a child under the age of five dies from a water related disease? Imagine that your child’s next drink of water might kill him/ her. Imagine yourself living in an area where sanitary water is a luxury. Imagine yourself being part of the 2.4 billion (that is two out of every five) people in our world who don’t have access to adequate sanitation. That Ain’t Right!

In poor areas, children and women have to walk many miles, before they reach the nearest water source, to collect water in buckets. These water sources are also used for bathing, washing clothes and also by the livestock. The water collected in the buckets is also the home of many germs and diseases. Every time that they are taking a drink of water they putting their lives at risk. Every time that they are taking a drink of water they are sending out a message of despair, a cry for help but yet nobody listens. That Ain’t Right!

In some under developed countries the people who have access to running water don’t necessarily have clean water. A few months ago a friend of mine went back to Senegal (West Africa) and noticed that the water was red and even black in some areas. He wanted to know why the water distributed to households in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, was so filthy. He then went to see the mayor to let him know about the water situation in the capital but the mayor told him to go and check with the National water company. He learned that that he needed to pay a fee to file a complaint to the water company and gave up. He met with the manager of that same water company who told him that if he wasn’t satisfied with the state of the water he could go and buy bottled water. Sometimes, there are water shortages for days in the capital and people who have the means to do so buy bottled water. The truth is that in poor countries there is often one water company who owns the monopoly of water. In the case of Senegal, the water company also has shares in the company that makes and distributes bottled water. To gain profits they make sure that few people have access to clean water ensuring a need to buy bottled water. The bottled water that they are forced to buy is not cheap and not accessible to all. That Ain’t right!

A study published by the Senegalese tourism department states that only 56 % of rural and 78 % of urban households have clean drinking water in Senegal. The poor quality of water and shortages is due to obsolete pipelines and a lack of infrastructures. Water shortages are also related to electricity outages that are very common; in fact there are continuous power cuts that lead to water supply breakdowns. The availability of clean water is then often unpredictable; one never knows when he/she wakes up if clean water will be available on that day. That Ain’t Right!

There are few things that can be done to decrease water shortages and to provide people access to clean water. For a country like Senegal, decentralization could be one of them. If pumping stations were built for each Senegalese town then the likelihood of a national water shortage would diminish. Governments could also use foreign aid and private investors to build new pipelines and sanitary facilities. Governments can monitor health education programs to educate people on the importance of using sanitary water and the diseases that could come from unsanitary hygiene practices
Water needs to be supplied not only in sufficient quantity but also in the highest quality possible to ensure human development. It might seem that the world has plenty of water but one would be amazed to know that more than 97% of the world’s water is too salty and therefore unsuitable for either drinking or agriculture. Of the 3% remaining, 70% is locked up as ice at the North and South poles making drinkable water a precious and scarce resource. One might wonder why water is not valued like precious stones given its rarity but like the air we breathe water is also taken for granted.
Clean water is still a luxury in certain parts of the world. According to a study by UNICEF, the United Nation’s Children’s Fund, over 40 billion work hours are lost in Africa in fetching drinking water. Many children, particularly girls, are prevented from going to school because the need to get water, squandering their intellectual and economic potential. Each and every one of us must fight for the world’s access to clean water and basic sanitation. When you take your next drink of water think about the child who is going to die in the next 15 seconds from a water related disease. Think about the little girl who will never go to school because she needs to walk long miles to fetch drinking water. Picture that! That Ain’t Right!

My Blog featured on Pambazuka

Just to let you know that my blog has been featured on Pambazuka.org . I wanna thank my readers and Sokari Elkine who wrote the Review. Here is what it says:

''The Other Africa is a new blog from Senegal by Ndeyefatou. Her latest post “Discover Dakar, she posts a photo essay showing places and monuments in the city – one of my favourites is a piece of modern art depicting “Mother Africa”

'The Millenium Door. This was constructed in 2000 on the Corniche of Dakar. It has a door in its middle thats known as the Millenieum door . This door symbolizes the entry to a new century or millenium. At the top of the door there is a statue of a woman named Yaye Boye= Mother in wolof. She symbolizes mother Africa watching over its children.''

You can read the full article http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/40572#comments

Motivational Quote

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous.
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us — it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”
-Nelson Mandela

African Proverbs

· A feeble effort will not fulfill the self (Dogon)

in reference to the idea that the drum should be played as a method of communication between man and God, "the drum is the ear of God" Blekete is the name of a Dogon God but also is the name of the principal drum used in the Blekete cycle. (Richard Hodges page)


· A bird is in the air but its mind is on the ground (Mandinka)

Wherever you are it is important to remember where you come from and what is important.

· In God's shrine, this world, what everybody wants is a good life. Why do people always make trouble? God has given principles to live by, But only you yourself can follow them. (Dogon)

Example of the prime moral law, the sacredness of life, life is meant to serve God. (R. Hodges)

· Between true friends even water drunk together is sweet enough (Zimbabwe)

· If words fail no others will avail (Zimbabwe)

· A shade seeker and sunset met (Mandinka)
that is to say a happy coincidence occurred.

· A ripe melon falls by itself (Zimbabwe)
All things happen when thier times come

· The dead say to each other "Dead one" (Mandinka)
an analogy for a wicked person poiting out another persons wickedness, like "the pot calling the kettle black"

· A student doesn't know about masterhood but a master knows about studenthood (Mandinka)
A master was once a student and cannot be fooled easily.

· Long ago did not live long ago (Zimbabwe)

· If you see an elder bending his neck for the fufu, it's not because of its sweetness, but because he doesn't want it to drop on him (Mandinka)
If you see a man making peace between himself and the other man, it is not because of cowardice, but because he doesn't want trouble.

· O God, we beseech Thee to bless our native land; The land of our fathers bestowed upon us all; From Zambesi to Limpopo, May leaders be exemplary; And may the Almighty protect and bless our land. (Zimbabwean National Anthem)

· This great panorama of creation dates back to time immemorial. No one lives who saw it's beginning. No one will live to see it's end, Except God. (Asante)
The last words of this saying are represented in the symbol Gye Nyame which translates into, "Except God" and is a symbol of God's omnipotence. The symbol Gye Nyame resembles a yin yang symbol in some respects.


· Having a good discussion is like having riches (Kenya)
Even though Many Westerners will agree with this statement it is particularly true in areas of Africa where history and news are conferred exclusively orally.

· A master drummer must have seven eyes (West)
a master drummer must be insightful into human nature and sensitive to the effect music can have on people. A master drummer must be responsible with his influential position. The seven eyes of the master drummer see the inside of people and helps him to know them, it is a metaphor for insight into human nature.(R. Hodges)

· Every time an old man dies it is as if a library has burnt down -Chiek Oumar Ba- (Mandinka West Africa)
This is Again referring to information in it's West African form, as an oral tradition. The Memory of a Musician, Genealogist, Story teller, Historian, myth maker, (often the same person) and a strong sense of culture and community help to keep African tradition and sensibilities alive in the present day as they have been for centuries.

· Words are spoken with their shells, let the wise man come to shuck them (West African, Mossi)

· Lack of knowledge is darker than night (Nigeria, Hausa)

· Do a thing at its time and peace follows it (Mandinka)

· Even the Niger River must flow around an island (Nigeria, Hausa)
sometimes the strongest person must turn aside.

· When the drumbeat changes, the Dance changes (Nigeria, Hausa)

· He who rides the horse of greed at a gallop will pull it up at the door of shame (West Africa, Fulani)

· A Fulani will lie but he will not make a lying proverb (Fulani)

· A child who's hand is clean may eat with the elders (Mandinka)one a child learns proper manners and discipline he may participate with the elders.

· Justice today, injustice tomorrow, that is not good government (Ghana, Asante)

· if one is fortunate people say he has been to the diviner, if he is destitute they say he is hopeless (Ghana, Asante)
· If you say you have no business with anybody no one will have any business with you either (Mandinka)


· If you want someone more knowledgeable than yourself to identify a bird you do not first remove the feathers.When consulting an elder it is not proper to withhold information

· No one points out Nyame (God) to a Child (Ghana, Akan)

· Unless You die of Nyame let living man kill you and you will not parish (Ghana, Akan)

· The bitter heart eats it's owner (Tswana)

· Until Lions have their own historians tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter (Igbo, Nigeria)

· A Tiger does not have to proclaim his Tigritude (Nigeria, Wole Soyinka)

· A family is like a forest, when you are outside it is dense, when you are inside you see that each tree has it's place (Ghana, Akan)

· One goat cannot carry another goat's tail (Nigeria).Possible double meaning. One person cannot do another persons job or everyone must accept thier lot in life

· The family is like the forest, if you are outside it is dense, if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position (Akan).

· It is the woman whose child has been eaten by a witch who best knows the evils of witchcraft (Nigeria).

· The hunter does not rub himself in oil and lie by the fire to sleep (Nigeria).

· The hunter in pursuit of an elephant does not stop to throw stones at birds (Uganda).

· If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow the path under the trees (Akan).

· Even the mightest eagle comes down to the tree tops to rest (Uganda).

· Althought the snake does not fly it has caught the bird whose home is in the sky (Akan)
Classic "David and Goliath" analogy to "you can do what you put your mind to"

· A man does not wander far from where his corn is roasting (Nigeria)

Little Senegalese Girl

Little Senegalese girl on the streets, don’t cry
Coz one day everything's gonna be alright
She is only 8 years old but she’s got woman hands
On her shoulders lies the future of an entire land
Everyday, to bring water to her family, she walks miles and miles
On her pretty face never lays a smile
Everyday, she learns more and more about life
From how to cook, how to love, how to give, to simple things as how to be a good wife
Everyday, she skips school coz she's too poor to attend
Everyone runs away when she wants to be their friend
Rich kids look at her with a nasty grin
They don’t know that true wealth comes from within
One day she will find her freedom from that cage
One day she will find out that this was just a stage
Life is about passing over bumper hills
Learning the hard way and standing still
Someday she might be more than she ever thought
Because certain things in life can’t be bought
So little Senegalese girl on the streets, don’t cry
One day everything's gonna be alright...

Loans That change lives!!!!

I recently discovered this website http://www.kiva.org/ and I think they are doing an amazing job in helping people worldwide. Kiva lets you connect and lend money to small businesses in developing countries. Anyone can be a lender. You can start lending money as little as $25. The way it works is, they have profile of borrowers with their businesses and how much money they need on the Kiva portal. You can then pick a business or a borrower that you want to lend money to, and make a loan using your credit card. Kiva will then transfer those funds to local partners who will disburse them to the business you chose. Businesses and borrowers could be located in a remote village in Africa, South America, or East Europe......Now every borrower states on their profile their repayment time(usually between 3-9months). So over time, the partners collect repayments and provide business updates to you on the person you lent the money to. Finally, the funds are returned to the lender and at his point, the lender can choose to either withdraw the funds or re-loan to someone else. What is great about it, is that you get to see where the money you are lending is going to , you get to know that these are real people with real businesses. You get to know that your money is making a huge difference in someone's life. You will also hear periodically from the business you sponsor. Partners will keep you informed on the progress of the business you sponsored. For more information, please visit the Kiva website http://www.kiva.org/ or you can go to the Kiva Blog http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/kiva-chronicles/


Here is one business in need that is featured on KIVA

Lydia BoakyeWonderful God Ent.
Location: Somanya , Ghana

Activity: Food Market

Loan Amount: $850.00

Loan Use: Working capital

Repayment Term: 9 - 12 months

Status: Raising Funds

Partner Rep: Kwabena Yeboah-Asuama Jnr

Sister Lydia is a trader who buys foodstuffs from farmers in the rural areas and transports them to the urban markets. She needs a loan of $850 to expand her business. She is a client of Kraban Support Foundation. She is also familiar with the TEACH Lending program. She will be able to manage the loan because she keeps her records very well.

$775.00
loaned so far

$75.00 still needed

Myths and Facts about Africa

A presentation of my thoughs mixed with those of Jacob Crawford in his excerpt that can be found at http://crawfurd.dk/africa/

Most people frequently use the word Africa, not only for the continent,
but also as a common denominator for 50 countries, 720 million people and 1000
languages. We say "Africa" when we don't remember the names of the countries and
many people wrongfully believe there is a common language called "African". We
also use terms like "African culture", "African music" or "African
religion" even though there is no single culture, music or religion for all of
the countries/regions. A first step to understanding "Africa" is to acknowledge
that it consists of a huge number of religions, tribes and groups of people each
with a very different history.

I have noticed that most people who've neber been in Africa think its a huge country with all its citizens living in the same conditions, eating the same food, dancing at the same rythm,listening to the same music and speaking the same language. In Senegal alone, there are more than 10 spoken languages, ethnic groups, cultures.....

''Quite describing for our view on Africa and it is history, "Africa" is
not even an African word. The origin of the word is still a little uncertain,
but it is credible to see a connection from Latin (Africa = sunny) and Greek
(Aphrike = not cold). The Romans were the first to use the name. For them it
covered Tunisia and the most northern parts of Algeria and Libya. They could
also have been inspired to the name from some of the first people they met on
the continenent: The Afri, which were a berber tribe in the Carthage area. Egypt
was already known territory, but further South was unknown land. Around 2,000
years ago "Aethiopia" seems to have been used to describe the land found south
of Sahara, but Europeans later used "Africa" to describe the entire continent.
This is why we began to see Africa one land with only one kind of people.
Strangely enough it changed from the land of sunshine and warmth to "the dark
continent". The story is much more complex than that: a more fulfilling
explanation can be found in the excellent book "Wonders of the African World" by
Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr

It has always been comfortable and easy for Westerners to see Africa
as a whole. Africa used to be somewhere far away with dark skinned people,
having customs so different from our own: A land of fairytales or sometimes
horror. Today we are a bit wiser, but it still seems like an impossible task to
really understand the amounts and numbers we are dealing with in Africa... the
cultural diversities – and the social disparities.
The African continent is
so vast, varied and rich in every way. It is fantastic and completely
incomprehensible. Nothing compares to all this and yet we try to make it all fit
into a small word of 6 letters. It is almost an insult! It is Impossible! No
word can hold so much ...but in some way it does.
When used to generalise
and simplify the word can be harmful, but most people on the continent proudly
describes themselves as Africans. Sometimes the African identity is even
stronger than the actual nationality. Historically this could be due to the fact
that most nations and borders in Africa are a European-colonial invention.
Before colonialism there were around 10,000 kingdoms, but no countries called "Kenya", "Ghana", "South Africa" or "Ivory
Coast". Independence gave birth to the nations we know today, but also to a
pan-African feeling. Generalising again, I risk saying that Africans all over
the world calls each other "brothers and sisters". Obviously the colonial
exploitation had given the Africans some kind of a common history. But long
before any white man sat foot in Africa the tribes and people had already been
mixed together and switched homelands several times. Obviously there ARE
similarities between tribes and people in Africa.''

Even it it has been misused and people dont always know the meaning of the word 'Africa'. I love the word for everything it has to offer. I love the word Africa for every bit of history that has been written about it. I love the word Africa for the thousands and thousands of cultures it describes. I love the word Africa for the thousands and thousands of people who identity to it and call themselves African. I love the word Africa for every emotion that could be read and felt at its sound. Keep it Up Africa!!! We Love u

Making the G8 Accountable

UN
Integrated Regional Information Networks
April 4, 2007Posted to the web
April 4, 2007
Addis Ababa
Africa's economic growth is estimated to average
5.8 percent in 2007, but this rate of performance is insufficient to meet the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, according to Léonce Ndikumana,
chief macroeconomic analyst at the trade division of the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA).
"Countries will never be able to achieve the
MDGs if they are not creative," Ndikumana told reporters at the end of the
two-day Conference of African ministers of finance, planning and economic
development in Addis Ababa on Tuesday. "Business as usual just won't do."

For more Go To http://allafrica.com/stories/200704040456.html

Well let me tell u some: the G8 doesnt beleive it is acountable. Why? Reality check: what is the G8?A group of 8 of the world's richest countries . What does it do? It talks, supposedly to make plans and policy about trade, debt and aid.And yes, these 8 men at the G8 have the power to change the lives of 800 millions lives.These men have the power to make 'poverty history', to make poverty end. But do they care? that is the question.
Poor countries do not need free trade , they need trade justice. What the G8 does is force poor countries to liberalize their economies through conditions attached to aid and loans.They dont allow poor countries to protect their infant industries or their farmers . Did u know that the G8 system robs the developing world of an estimated $700 billion in lost earnings every year?(with free trade). This system helps the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. So how do u make the G8 accountable ? Make them care! But how can they care since there is limited membership on the G8 that excludes the needs and views of poor countries.The G8 focuses on its own economic needs, and pursues policies that will benefit G8 members. This is often done at the expense of other countries in the world.I can't see any of the G8 nations being prepared to sacrifice their own capitalist agendas to help in any real way.If making Africa strong and independant doesnt benefit the G8 nations, they will not allow it to happen.Also through the G8, member countries can make deals and compromises with one another and then form powerful alliances to exert influence on international institutions.Imagine that you are in an organization in which everyone is supposedly equal. However, a small group of people meets separately without you, decides how it is going to act, and is able to dominate the organization. Would you feel that the organization is credible?
What poor countries should do since they cant force the G8 to be accountable even though they must be acountable for these problems that they do create, is form their one G8, how about a P8( the poor countries version )It's only Africa that will develop Africa. Africa's slow growth in the last three decades coincided with the heavy flow of aid. Free aid has had zero effect on the continent and it doesn't take rocket science to realise that zero plus zero never gives a positive.There's an old saying that goes something like "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach him to fish and you feed him for life." Lets take care of our own economies, thats our only way of salvation

Discover Dakar I ( places and monuments)

The Central Bank of West African Countries ( The Siege) . This is located in the downtown area next to hotels and restaurants




The Central Bank of African Countries( The Offices)






The 'Garde-Rouge'( Red Guards) of the White House. They always have a straight posture when they're not marching in front of the White House.


The Anse-Bernard Beach, the only beach that is located in downtown Dakar next to the Millenium Door





The Millenium Door. This was constructed in 2000 on the Corniche of Dakar. It has a door in its middle thats known as the Millenieum door . This door symbolizes the entry to a new century or millenium. At the top of the door there is a statue of a woman named Yaye Boye= Mother in wolof. She symbolizes mother Africa watching over its children.






The IFAN Museum dedicated to African traditions and cultures.

The White House







An aerial view of Dakar


Another picture of Dakar driving.




This is Place Soweto in souvenir of the fight of black people in Soweto, South Africa. It is located in downtown Dakar.




Independance Place: This is one of the most famous avenues in Dakar. It is where Senegal got its independance on April 4th 1960

African Queen, I salute you

There is a woman living in Dakar named Yassin
Her heart very pure, is unknown to sins
She is the one I truly admire for her courage
Coz she's stronger than a thousand men her age
Her inner strength, her motivations keep her daily alive
Alone, with her own means, she taught herself how to survive...

There is a woman living in Bamako named Awa
She is more immaculate than a virgin flower
I don’t know what keeps her going every day
Stones and rocks are all she finds on her way
I don’t think that I know what she's made of
But one day, she will walk across the sea like a dove...

There is a woman living in Darfur named Fatima
She doest know how to wear a bra
She has lost all her sons in a war she doesn't understand
She labors sorrow, pain and tears in her unfertile land
For this life, she doesn't deserve, but she didn’t choose
She's waiting for the good Lord to pay her her dues...

Yassin, you are my true African queen
Awa, you are my true African queen
Fatima, you are my true African queen...


You are me and I am you
Life has been harsh on you
But I carry your pain in my soul
And in my heart, there is a hole...

Coz some day, one day, you will die being a hero
But in the book of life, your page will be a zero
No monuments, no schools will be built in your honor
Because your last name is not O'Connor
No prize or medal will be given to you
You'll be forgotten like a bee in a zoo...

And it hurts like a bullet on my chest
And it hurts like a bird killed in a nest
In my heart, you have a monument
In my soul, your life is an achievement...

When I grow up, I wanna be just like you
In the forest, I will be the strongest bamboo
African Queen, with my pen n these words, I honor you
You are my hero and with this poem I salute you...

African Universities link up to offer regional PhDs

African universities are collaborating to develop degree programmes that will accelerate agricultural research and biotechnology development in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The announcement was made at a conference on biotechnology, breeding and seed systems in Maputo, Mozambique, this week (27 March).

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), made up of 12 Eastern and Southern Africa universities, has developed doctoral programmes in dairy science, food science, plant breeding and biotechnology, research methodology and rural development, and crop improvement.

Adipala Ekwamu, RUFORUM's regional coordinator, says the degrees will be developed jointly by the universities and will involve roving tutors and web tutorials.

"These are regional PhDs," Ekwamu told SciDev.Net. "We are running these programmes to equip our scientists and fill the gaps that are being left by those fleeing for greener pastures."

After graduation, students will be given jobs in research institutions in the region to boost research capacity.

Universities involved include, among others, the University of Zambia, Malawi University, Makerere University, Africa University and the University of Zimbabwe.

Each programme will cost RUFORUM US$800,000. The programmes are sponsored by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) under its Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program and its Strengthening Capacity for Agricultural Research and Development in Africa.

FARA secretary general Monty Jones said Africa needs to train more scientists in agricultural research to make significant progress in scientific research.

"So many younger African scientists are coming up and they need further training in order for them to make progress," said Jones.

The training will be modelled on course-based systems in the United States, with mandatory publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The programmes will start in August this year.

The project is not part of the plans for networks of centres of excellence developed under the New Partnership for Africa's Development, but RUFORUM has the same objective of using collective action to build science and technology capacity to speed Africa's development.

At the end of the Maputo conference, scientists said more human resources were needed in agricultural science.

They also called for African systems of research and innovation to create better crop varieties that will improve food security.

Officially closing the conference, Gary Toenniessen, director of the Rockefeller Foundation, said it is only through human resource development that Africa is going to realise its dream of a green revolution.

"We should always emphasise the importance of training and human resource development in order to realise our goals," he said.

Allafrica.com Feed

Africa's First Elected Female Head of State to be Honored at 2007 Africare Award Dinner

The 2007 Africare Bishop Walker Dinner, to be held on Thursday, October 18, in Washington, D.C. , will honor Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who will receive the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award. The award is given annually to the people who have made major contributions to the continent of Africa. Prior recipients include former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, then President Nelson Mandela, Andrew Young, Dorothy I. Height, Graca Machel, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates. The Africare Dinner is now the largest annual event for Africa in the United States.
“We symbolically chose International Women’s Day to announce President Johnson Sirleaf as Africare’s 2007 honoree,” noted Africare Senior Vice President Jeannine B. Scott. "As the first elected female head of state in Africa, President Johnson Sirleaf embodies the progress of women in achieving leadership positions on the continent. At the 2007 Africare Bishop Walker Dinner, Africare will pay tribute to her efforts to bring peace, economic prosperity, and a bright future for the people of Liberia Africare's work endeavors to do the same thing, every day."
Similar to the mission of International Women’s Day—a tribute to the global celebration of women of the past, present and future-- the October Africare Dinner will center on themes of “Women’s Empowerment,” in addition to honoring Africa’s first female president.
The Africare Dinner is named after the late John T. Walker, the first African-American Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., and long-time Chairman of Africare. Bishop Walker passed away on September 30, 1989.
Event proceeds will support Africare’s mission of humanitarian assistance. Africare is a leader in aid to Africa as well as the oldest and largest African-American organization specializing in African aid. Over its 37-year history, Africare has delivered more than $592 million in assistance—representing over 2,000 projects and millions of beneficiaries—to 36 countries Africa-wide. Today, Africare's 150-plus programs reach families and communities in 25 nations in every region of Sub-Saharan Africa.
For more information about the 2007 Africare Bishop Walker Dinner, contact the event office at (202) 328-5364 or mailto:dinner@africare.org. ....from (allafrica.com)

Dakar on the map

Dakar is the capital of Senegal located on the Cape Verde Peninsula. It is situated on the Western Edfe of Africa, actually it is the westernmost African city. According to a December 31, 2005 official estimates, the city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 2.45 million. It is a big city with a small town feel. And I recently learned that it was a sister siter with Washington DC ( where I reside)! What does it mean? According to Wikipedia," the concept of sister city or twin city is a concept whereby towns or cities in distinct geographically and politically distinct areas are paired with the goal of fostering human contact and cultural links. " Its like a penpal scheme with the pals being an entire city or town. These sister or twin cities offer a variety of exchange program for students, as well as economic and cultural collaboration.Its like a penpal scheme with the pals being an entire city or town. These sister or twin cities offer a variety of exchange program for students, as well as economic and cultural collaboration.

The other side of Africa

I am starting this blog to tell the truth about Africa, one that is not often known outside of the continent. I am originally from Senegal and I live in Washington, DC. One thing that probably all African expats have in common is the discovery of how little is known of their continent outside of Africa. People still beleive that in Africa , people dont wear clothes, or people still live in huts and branches! Personnaly, I am from Dakar,Senegal ( West Africa) and I've never seen monkeys or lions wondering on the streets, I have never met someone who lives in a hut, and yes I was wearing clothes before I came to the US. I dont know the sign language and noone I know is dying of hunger . If u've read this far, I think u kinda understand what the purpose of this blog is. I will tell funny stories I heard about the continent, stereotypes, I will share pictures, news, and true facts about Mother Africa. Its time for people to wake up ! So welcome to my African Ride !!!