Great Musical Acts Come to SA

In the past three years of living in South Africa, quite a few big-name acts have come through. My first year, I saw U2 live, along with 110,000 other fans, in Soccer City. My second year, Coldplay performed in the same venue and even filmed part of their "Paradise" video during that concert. (try to spot me! ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4isv_Fylg)

In that line, this year I have tickets to see Linkin Park, Adam Lambert, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Jealous yet?

I say this to explain my dereliction regarding posts yesterday and today--I'm going to see AFROJACK! Afrojack is a Dutch DJ, possibly most famous for "Give Me Everything" by Pitbull, ft. Afrojack (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPo5wWmKEaI). He is playing in Joburg this afternoon.

My one disappointment is that I wasn't able to get Lady Gaga tickets before she sold out. :(

Living in Africa doesn't mean you have to give up awesome concerts!

Guinea Gets $2.1 Billion In Debt Relief

Yesterday, the IMF and World Bank announced that Guinea would receive $2.1 Billion in debt relief, since it qualified for their "heavily indebted countries" program. Guinea is not to be confused with Guinea-Bissau or Equatorial Guinea, as all three are different countries in Africa. The one called just Guinea (the one I'm talking about today) is also known as Guinea-Conakry, as its capital is Conakry (the capital of Guinea-Bissau is, you guessed it, Bissau). Guinea-Conakry aka the Republic of Guinea is the country that has been granted this exciting boon of debt relief. Being ruled by a dictator for over twenty years led to ruthless pillaging of its mineral wealth. Most of the country today is in complete poverty (75% of the country's 10 million people live below the poverty line).

Guinea!

Random Kate Thoughts: The IMF and the World Bank also gave Liberia a ton of debt relief after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf proved her merit and trustworthiness as president, so it is a good sign that the new Guinean president is following in her footsteps. That said, this debt relief will not create any immediate impact on the people of the country. It's just that now their taxes will go towards government programs as opposed to paying back the debt of their previous rulers. Thank you, global financial powers-that-be, just now please help Guinea rise economically, so the government has some businesses to tax and can begin providing basic services like education and healthcare.

Youngest African MP Sworn In

A 20-year-old Ugandan recently became the youngest Member of Parliament in known African history. It is very exciting that someone so young, and a woman even, was elected to such a powerful position.  She didn't do it out of the blue, however, as her father had been that MP. When he died, she decided to run for his position to "continue his work," with the help and tutelage of the ruling party, the party of her "hero," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. A publicity stunt by the ruling party to stay in power? Perhaps. Allegations of vote rigging, corruption, and violence by the opposition suggest so.

Proscovia Oromait, MP in Uganda, photo: AP

I asked a Ugandan former-student of mine for his opinion and this is what he said: 

"To be honest, I know that her ascension to power is a political maneuver by the ruling party in an attempt not to lose their majority seating in Parliament and has very little to do with a girl who doesn't even have a university education. I am as old as this girl, but even I do not think I would be ready for a seat in Parliament, and for her to think that she is, shows just how little she understands the role she is supposed to be playing as an MP. On the other hand, I would also like to see what the next four years of active politics does to her, because often it is assumed that old people are corrupt because they lost what they were fighting for a long time ago. I would like to see what will happen to a young person like herself who apparently is going into politics with the sole intention of benefiting her constituency. On the whole, however, this is nothing more than political chess by the government."

Random Kate Thoughts: It's such an exciting story, that a young woman would be elected to Parliament, that at first I was tempted to brush off the allegations of the opposition that it is a publicity stunt or pointing to her vast inexperience (essentially just finished high school)... but then I thought about ruling parties in Africa. And how much they love to stay in power. This back-and-forth of Democrats and Republicans every eight years in the US is totally foreign (pun intended) to most political situations on the continent. It is very likely that the President's party is doing its best to stay in power, through whatever means necessary. So I wish Proscovia good luck, but I also hope she doesn't turn out to be the pawn her new political "fathers" want her to be.

Awesome South African Cartoonist

Today, I am going to introduce you to ZAPIRO--(in)famous South African cartoonist, famous for his biting political commentary. He got in a lot of trouble for depicting President Jacob Zuma in a series of unflattering cartoons, like this one...

ANC YL = ANC Youth League
COSATU = Congress of South African Trade Unions
SACP = South African Communist Party

All three of those groups are in coalition with the ANC (African National Congress), the ruling party in South Africa since the end of apartheid. This cartoon references a quote by Zuma saying he respects the justice system, while clearly flaunting it regarding corruption charges in 2008.

Zapiro always depicts Zuma with a shower head on his head, in reference to his alleged statement, when confronted with a rape accusation of an HIV-positive woman, that he "took a shower" after having sex with her and therefore was not concerned about becoming HIV-positive himself.

Random Kate Thoughts: Zapiro has been an epicenter of the free speech debate in South Africa for some time now. He has been sued many times and is deemed by many to be an enemy of the ruling party, the ANC. While the biggest controversies were in 2008, he is still going strong. You can read his daily cartoons here: http://mg.co.za/cartoon/

Happy Shaka Day!

Here in South Africa, today, September 24th, is a variety of holidays. Most celebrated/known is Heritage Day, which is the national holiday. Next to that is the more informal Braai day, which is basically using the public holiday as an excuse to drink and eat meat (braai = bbq - sauce + beer). The least known but most historical holiday today is--Shaka Day!

Named after the (in)famous King of the Zulus, Shaka Zulu, Shaka Day is celebrated mostly in KwaZuluNatal, aka KZN, aka the province where you find Durban (which is known for delicious Indian food, nice beaches, sharks, and that time my friend got arrested). Shaka Zulu is famous for uniting the Zulu kingdom into a terrorizing war machine and asserting its dominance over all of the other tribes. Insult Shaka, or bring up the British stories of how when his mother died he banned all farming and sex for six months and brutally killed all pregnant women and their husbands, and you are asking for major trouble from Zulu people, even today.

The current King of the Zulus, Zwelithini, is a character on his own. Lately in the press for receiving preferential treatment from the government and wanting to build his sixth wife an enormous palace, it seems like today is as good a time as any to remind others of the legacy his famous bloodline brings.

Random Kate Thoughts: The Great Man Theory of History is famous for ignoring context and historical background in favor of "then X came along and changed everything. Wow, he was such a fantastic/brilliant/insane leader/general/unifier." Napoleon, George Washington, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, and Shaka Zulu are all examples of this theory. Yes, these men were clearly one of those adjectives, but also just in the right place at the right time with the right friends and not killed of cholera at age three.

Also there is a Shaka-themed amusement park in Durban! Haha!

Happy Heritage Day, everyone

Senegal Abolishes Senate, VP, for Flood Relief

Senegal's President, Macky Sall, has called for and received the abolition of the Senegalese Senate and the position of the Vice President. After the disastrous floods that hit Senegal about a month ago and resulted in the discovery of some historically important debris (if you missed my blog on this, read it here) the country has been in a state of crisis with 13 dead and thousands left homeless.

President Sall's logic is that the government is made for the people, so why should 16 million USD go to a governmental body when it could go towards actual flood relief. And that pesky VP office that is allocated 4 million USD... who needs that anyway? Especially since the position has stayed open since its creation in 2009 by the previous president, Abdoulaye Wade.

The press on this is divided. Ex-President Wade was kicked out after waves of protest when he tried to run for an unconstitutional third term, so hopefully Sall is not making the similar mistake of trying to entrench himself in power. However, the Senegalese Senate was largely full of opponents of President Sall, so going unicameral doesn't look great. That said, allafrica.com had a Nigerian author who wrote to say that African governments are often out of touch with the people and that this is a selfless move by the government (ignoring that the Senegalese Senate voted to keep itself in existence but was outvoted by the National Assembly).

Random Kate Thoughts: My instinct is that this is a very scary early dismantling of checks and balances. That said, President Sall has donated a lot of money to help an entrepreneurial leadership summer camp that my students run in Senegal every summer, so he's probably not THAT bad of a guy. Floods are horrible things and as president, yes he does need to protect the nation's people. Trimming the fat is great, but abolishing the Senate sounds very strange to my American ears, even though the Senegalese Senate has only existed in this form since 2007. Can you imagine Bush offering to abolish the Senate to pay for the ruins of Hurricane Katrina?!

Somali President Inaugurated

Apologies for the late post, but Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was inaugurated a couple of days ago. I've already posted about his election and the el-Shabaab assassination attempt against him, so he is now officially the President of Somalia! Hopefully he manages to unite the country and bring it forward.

Now--official President of Somalia

Africa Is BIG

Do you realize how big Africa is? Maybe you've seen the West Wing episode that rails about the social injustice perpetuated by different kinds of maps in the world (and if you haven't, watch it now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8zBC2dvERM), or maybe you've heard me rant about how diverse this continent is.

But this is a pretty great graphic to give you an idea of how big it is (note the US chilling there in West Africa, also dang Madagascar is the size of the UK!):

Random Kate Thoughts: Maps lie! Well, not exactly... but by definition of being two dimensional, there is some bias in there. The most accurate map in the world is the globe.

This map also shows why this blog is important--a continent almost three times the size of America just might be worth learning about. ;)

Kenyan Court Recognizes Lesbian Marriage

Thanks to the African Studies Department, I read an article the other day about a Kenyan court recognizing lesbian marriage. It turns out that woman-woman marriage is found in certain cultures in Kenya, specifically among the Nandi, Kipsigis, and Kalenjin. A barren woman can pay bride price to marry another woman. The second woman will then have children by men who have no claim to the children, as they belong to the barren woman, or the "husband." There is even a word that means "of a woman," meaning born to two women.

In this particular court case, the barren woman, or the "husband" died, leaving a very large estate, to which her wife and her wife's biological children claimed as their own. Other relatives of the deceased woman filed suit, but lost, as the court upheld woman to woman marriage as a recognized family institution under Nandi customary law.

Random Kate Thoughts: This is very interesting, as it goes against a commonly held belief that homosexuality is "not African" and instead something brought to the continent by Europeans. Instead, it was the religious fervor that Europeans brought to the continent that in many instances demonized already existing homosexuality. Many traditional cultures on the continent have histories of embracing homosexual individuals into their own niches in those societies.

ALSO: The article that described this court case had a very inappropriate and somewhat pornographic picture of two topless women next to it, link here. What was an article about a legal dispute regarding marriage has been degraded to the shameless exploitation of lesbian bodies. How unfortunate. Cropped picture below:

Map of Africa If Every Separatist Movement Succeeded

The other day I found the coolest map of Africa ever. Created by the Guardian, it shows the map of Africa if every separatist movement succeeded in gaining independence/sovereignty. Many of the movements I've known about, studied, or even taught in African history, such as the repeated attempts to divide Somalia, the extremely contentious issue of Western Sahara "in" Morocco, and Nigeria's already divided North/South government and religion.

Here are screen shots, but you are also highly encouraged to go to the actual website here because then you can put your mouse over the arrows and see more details on all of the movements after you've gone to the second screen.

AFRICA, right now!

And Africa with new borders, assuming all movements got their sovereignty today:

Sorry I cut the bottom off, but don't worry, South Africa doesn't have any movements of note

Ta-dah! How freakin' neat, you might say, and yes you would be right.

Random Kate Thoughts: I showed this map to my students in African Politics class the other day. A very loud 30 minute conversation ensued. Several students had not even realized there were separatist movements in their own countries. Of course, it is not generally in the interest of a national government to publicize or allow the publicity of movements trying to leave it. Also, yes of course some of these movements are more serious than others. Western Sahara has been recognized as a country by 82 countries and the African Union, so it is more of a serious movement than the Lunda Kingdom of Angola, of which all we seem to know is that it "has a facebook page." Most of this chaotic map is the result of Europeans drawing lines in the 1880s and deciding they wanted to own hunks of land, regardless of who lived there and whether they some day wanted to be singing the same anthem. Before you get too cocky, America, remember that you too have a separatist movement--the SOUTH (oh, and Puerto Rico, Cascadia, Vermont, Hawaii, Lakota, Alaska, and last but certainly not least Texas).

Muslim Brotherhood Writes to NYT

In the US, the Muslim Brotherhood tends to get pretty poor press. Described as extremist, conservative, dangerous to US interests, etc., but two days ago the Muslim Brotherhood proved them all wrong. In a NYT letter to the Editor titled "Our Condolences," Khairat El-Shater, Deputy President of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, sent his condolences and those of the Egyptian people to America for the loss of our Ambassador and diplomatic staff in Libya.

The best line?

Finally someone speaking sense!

It's not just the Deputy President, as the President as well, Mohammed Morsi, said on state tv last week: ""It is required by our religion to protect our guests and their homes and places of work." His party has instead called for peaceful protests.

Random Kate Thoughts: As much as Islam is seen as an extremist religion in the US, hopefully this letter will show Americans that not all Muslims are like those responsible for this violence. Many Muslims are horribly saddened by the tragic events last week and many too will fight for the rights of Christians and foreigners in their country as well.

Assassination Attempt of New Somali President Fails

If you've been reading this, you saw that I posted about the election of the first president of Somalia on Somali soil since 1991, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Overall, he seems like a good guy, started some schools, worked as an education officer for UNICEF, stayed in the country throughout its twenty-something years of civil war when many other Somali intellectuals fled, etc. Seemingly happily married to two wives and with a handful of kids, he is a moderate Muslim and firmly against Al-Shabaab, the militant Islamic group tied to Al-Qaeda that currently terrorizes much of the country.

President Mohamud, if you forgot what he looks like

Just days after his election as president, Al-Shabaab sent in twin suicide bombers in an attempt to kill the new president, releasing a statement saying that they wanted to "take Somalia back." Al-Shabaab has been mostly kicked out of Mogadishu in recent months, but it is clear that some militants remain. AU forces have been doing their best to protect the new president and three soldiers (two Somalis and a Ugandan) were killed in the blasts.

Random Kate Thoughts: While my post about the assassination of the US Ambassador to Libya might have put a lot of blame on the filmmaker, it is clear that extremist Islam is a dangerous force in the world. While they feel justified and righteous in what they do, to the rest of the world they look, to put it bluntly, like insane suicidal psychopaths. Boko Harem in Nigeria, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and random mobs in Libya and Egypt, none of this is good. These groups are anti-women, anti-democracy, and anti-religious freedom, among other things. My Muslim students strongly denounce everything these groups do, as do moderates the world round of all religions (and the non-religious as well). May Mohamud stay safe enough to try to reunite his country. It certainly needs it.

Kenyan To Kiss Million Women

In a significant change of tone, today is about one particular man, John Telewa, a 28-year-old Kenyan, who has a dream. This dream is to kiss one million women and to get his name in the Guinness Book of World Records.

John Telewa

It started when he went to a party, kissed a woman, and put the picture on facebook. His friends commented, asking who she was, if she was his girlfriend, so he responded by putting another picture of him kissing a different woman on facebook. It seems that the rest is history, as he is now known as the "Kissing Bandit," and has kissed over 600 women so far. Part of his goal is to also invent a "Kenyan kiss," since "the French kiss is so famous." He has told reporters that the GBWR has given him a patent code so he will be in the books if he succeeds. That said, to get to a million, he'd have to kiss 600 women every day for almost five years, so he'd better get crackin'.

Random Kate Thoughts: My initial reaction was he better not have oral herpes, cuz otherwise a million women are in a lot of trouble... but in reading articles about him, it seems that he is well-intentioned. He gets in trouble with boyfriends and husbands, but never kisses a women under 16 or without her consent. He's probably a little sleazy, and he certainly will get much more approval than if a woman were trying to kiss a million men (slut v. stud double standard, argh patriarchy), but maybe this quote of his says it all: "I'm just doing what I love."

US Ambassador to Libya Killed

Christopher Stevens, US Ambassador to Libya, was killed in an attack in Benghazi, Libya, yesterday. Stevens had gone to UC Berkeley undergrad, taught English for the Peace Corps in Morocco, got a JD from UC Hastings, and spoke French and Arabic. This is the first assassination of a sitting US Ambassador since 1979.

Christopher Stevens, US Ambassador to Libya, RIP

The craziest part of this is the cause: a movie clip put on YouTube. The movie, "Innocence of Islam," reportedly shows a fictional attack on a Christian family by Muslims and then, in describing the origins of Islam, depicted the Prophet Mohammed as a womanizer, pedophile, or homosexual (possibly all three). Unsurprisingly, the Muslim world is very upset about the film, as it is an insult to Islam to depict the Prophet Mohammed in any way, much less in a negative way. The connection with America? The filmmaker was an Israeli living in California, Sam Bacile, and it was promoted by over 100 Jewish donors and the Qu'ran-burning Florida pastor Terry Jones, among others. The violence has been in Libya and Egypt, both of whom recently lost their presidents, straining their relationship with the US (the US contributed to the ousting of Gaddafi in Libya and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt post-Mubarek has put the US on edge).

Riots in Benghazi, Libya

Random Kate Thoughts: The eternal battle between Muslims and Christians has been a constant theme in African history since the arrival on the continent of the two religions. The US is not known for its tact in North Africa or the Middle East regarding Islam, and so this movie was another step in convincing the region that Americans are out to get them, though obviously the US government was in no way involved in the making of the film. The really unfortunate part is that the filmmaker has gone into hiding, but not before being interviewed and describing Islam as a "cancer." It is clear that he and others promoting the film mean this as an attack on Islam, and Muslims will take it that way. Once again, Americans will see on their tvs footage of Muslims using automatic weapons to try to kill their brothers and sisters, and any attempts for moderate Muslims in the US and the world to explain that Islam is at root a peaceful religion (well, as peaceful as Christianity) will be once again moot.

Horn of Africa Elects New President

Torn apart by decades of civil war, yesterday brought a ray of hope that Somalia might be able to return to some semblance of peace. 

Somali

Over the past months, the democratic process in Somalia has grown under pressure from the UN and recently, --a Parliament was elected by a group of traditional elders. That Parliament has just succeeded in electing a new president. Dark horse candidate Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was voted Somalia's new president after coming in second in the first round of voting and then beating out-going President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who incidentally is from his same clan, in the second round. Mohamud is known to be associated with the Somali version of the Muslim Brotherhood, but don't get scared just yet, Americans.

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud

The founder of a university in Mogadishu, the capital, ("the dish" as my colleague calls it), Mohamud is a lecturer there and an activist known to work with NGOs. He also founded the Somali Institute for Management and Administrative Development (SIMAD). SIMAD managed to hold talks with al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based cell for al-Qaeda, which is an impressive feat considering Shabaab chases most other groups out of areas they control.

Random Kate Thoughts: Most of my students who are Somali grew up in Kenya, because the Horn of Africa has been such a huge mess since 1991. Many of you know a bit about Somalia from the movie "Black Hawk Down" but, as exciting a movie as it was, many Somalis found it to be a very poor representation of the people, from the actors hired to the language they seem to speak in the film, etc. Nonetheless, it is about time that Somalia shaped up. One suggestion that has been tossed around is splitting the country into three parts, with the argument being that that would enable more peace in the region as clans would not have to fight as heavily for power. That said, the world does not take kindly to separatist movements (see: Western Sahara). For now, let's just hope that Mohamud manages to keep the country together.

The Battle for Madagascar

Today, the great island of Madagascar is known for its rosewood (illegal logging is a huge problem and there is, no joke, a "rosewood mafia"), its lemurs, and the obscenely long last names of its population.

It is less known, however, for its history as a WWII battle site. This day (Sept 10) in 1942 marked the climax of the British invasion of Madagascar. Madagascar was a French colony and France at the time was under the Vichy Government, which was known to be controlled by Hitler's Germany and the Axis powers.

Allied troops disembarking, nine days after the September 10th invasion

"Operation Ironclad" had begun in May but met with strong Vichy French resistance. September 10th marked the relaunch of Allied forces into Madagascar, with an amphibious landing into northwestern coastal town Mahajanga. Madagascar fell to the British in early November and Free French General Paul Legentilhomme (literally "the nice guy") was appointed High Commissioner. Madagascar would remain under Free French control (and after WWII, just regular French again) until its independence in 1960.

Random Kate Thoughts: This is particularly fascinating, as most don't remember that the British and the French were at war, much less this far south of the equator. Today, the Malagasy population is predominantly French and Malagasy-speaking (my students from Magadascar are mostly Francophone). It's sad, actually, that the illegal logging in Madagascar today isn't more well-known.  China has been consistently infiltrating the entire African continent economically, but nowhere has it been so blatantly destructive as the rape of the Malagasy tropical rainforests by poorly paid loggers responding to Chinese demand for rare hardwoods. Today, the battle for Madagascar isn't between European powers, but between China and poverty-stricken Malagasy loggers on one side and the Malagasy government on the other.

Pre-Colonial Democracy in Africa

The "kgotla" in Botswana was a traditional community forum where elders gathered with the chief to make important decisions affecting the community. Everyone had their say and was listened to until consensus was formed. You were not allowed to interrupt if someone else was speaking. It's a sort of town-hall court. Because of this, Botswana often claims to be one of the world's first democracies.

1920s kgotla, source University of Botswana

Random Kate Thoughts: Democracy is such a buzz word these days. Is Democracy right for Africa? Would benevolent dictatorship be better for countries still struggling to provide order and security for their citizens? People on both sides of the ocean seem to think that democracy was brought to Africa by the Europeans. But nay! Here is an excellent example of the many varied types of governance systems in pre-colonial Africa. Yes, there were empires and kingdoms, but also village conglomerates and little democratic city states too. It's a big continent.

Did you know the President of South Sudan wears a Ten Gallon hat?

Although there is much to be said about South Sudan, the world's newest country, today we are going to discuss one thing--the President's head-wear. 

Salva Kiir Mayardit

Yes, the first and current President of South Sudan wears a Ten Gallon Hat, of the Stetson variety. Why does a country in North-East Africa have a leader who looks like he just came off his Texas cattle ranch? Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, because he got that hat from a Texas cattle rancher--former President George W. Bush. 

Bush gave Kiir the hat six or seven years ago and he liked it so much that he bought himself several more. He has been seen wearing it at his inauguration, while speaking to the UN, and when he signed South Sudan's new constitution. 

Random Kate Thoughts: I did not realize that Bush had played such an important role in the independence of South Sudan. Oddly enough, it seems he might have seen it as some kind of Christian crusade--freeing the mostly-Christian south from the Muslim north. In some ways, South Sudan and Texas are quite similar. They have extremely violent histories, an arid climate, and a lot of oil. And in other ways, they are very different. But at least you know what to wear in both!

Ethiopian Math is Different Than Yours

Thanks to still lurking on some old college panlists, I recently discovered a fascinating thing about Africa! Ethiopia, specifically. Ethiopia is actually one of my favorite countries in Africa, for a variety of reasons, including that it is one of only two countries that was never colonized. Also famous for its coffee, Haile Selassie, Communist massacres in the 1970s, an extremely good-looking populace, and possibly the origin of Christianity. The Prime Minister died last month and that's also been in the news.

Ethiopian woman, browncondor.com

Ethiopia is less famous for--its MATH! That's right, Ethiopian math is different from American math. Let's see how Ethiopian multiplication works...

Ethiopian Multiplication

Say you want to multiply two numbers, 23 and 17, but you don't know American multiplication.

23   17

Halve one of the numbers (let's do 23), ignoring any remainder, and double the other (17).

23      /    17
halve / double
11     /    34
5      /     68
2      /     136
1     /      272

Add the numbers on the right that are across from odd numbers on the left (so not 2     /     124).
17 + 34 + 68 + 272 = 391

Guess what 23 X 17 = ?

Ethiopian Multiplication = American Multiplication
391 = 391

BBC explaining how it all works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nc4yrFXw20Q#!

Random Kate Thoughts: We forget sometimes that a lot of the math we use came from Africa. Timbuktu, Mali, was the home of Black Islamist scholars developing sophisticated math, astronomy, and sciences back in the Middle Ages. We ALSO think that our way of math is the "only" way of doing math. Ethiopian multiplication (also sometimes known as Egyptian multiplication) is just as accurate as ours, but ignores fractions and remainders. Sometimes Africa amazes me. And next time you don't feel like doing long multiplication... try some Ethiopian math.

The Arch and the Hague

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, fondly known in South Africa as "The Arch," recently called for George W. Bush and Tony Blair to be sent to the International Criminal Court for their war in Iraq. Citing that more than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict, more than 4,500 US soldiers killed and 32,000 wounded, he lambasted the immorality of the war against WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) which never appeared. Tutu even pulled out of a conference in protest here in Johannesburg last week because Blair was going.

The Arch, thefamouspeople.com

Tutu has had a long history of defending human rights, earning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and chairing the Truth & Reconciliation Commission to hear apartheid-era crimes. In general, he is quite a boss, and overall an incredible man. He even made an "it gets better" video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95c5HRYanlo

Random Kate Thoughts: The funny thing about the Hague (the ICC) is that the only people to ever be indicted have all been Africans. So is it really this ultimate pillar of justice? Is the West implicitly (or explicitly?) saying that Africans do not have sufficient systems of justice to try their own criminals? There was a lot of protest about this aspect of the Hague back when the perpetrators of Kenya's 2008 post-election violence were being sent there last year. Why just us? Africans asked. America is too good to have its criminals sent to the Hague? As Americans, we do tend to think that our justice system is pretty dang good. Obviously we should not try a westerner just to have done so, but hopefully we can all work to creating better justice systems in Africa and not be afraid to make America susceptible to international law. It's only fair.

Final thought, though in as much as The Arch has a point, the moral grounds argument doesn't have a ton of legal sway. Until 2017 when the ICC is allowed to indict on counts of "crimes of aggression," we'll just have to wait and see.

Media Coverage of Africa is Strange

Senegal is a French-speaking country in West Africa. It is a dream of mine to visit, but for some reason it costs the same to fly to Dakar, the capital, from Johannesburg, South Africa as it costs to fly from Joburg to NEW YORK CITY. But I will save the rant about the cost to fly between African countries for another post.

I want to visit Senegal very badly.

There have been some pretty bad floods in Senegal recently. But on the bright side, something fantastic (and history-related!) came of it--the discovery of pieces of jewelry, pottery, and iron tools from thousands of years ago!! A local academic stumbled upon them in a construction site after the floods washed away the sand. Tests will determine the exact dates of the artifacts, which could be as far back as 2,000-7,000 B.C.

AFP, the artifacts

Now, all of that is well and good. In fact, most of that info I gleaned from a BBC article, here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19474531). The ridiculous thing about this article, however, is the last line. The entire article is about these artifacts, quoting the man who found them and his colleague at the university, etc. I enjoyed it especially because it was a positive story about Africa! Finally! But my excitement was premature. Here is the end of the article (feel free to skim to the last line):

What.

Random Kate Thought: As nice as it is that big news channels cover Africa and not all of the news is bad news... could we just have a separate article?? Please?? All of my hopes and dreams were crushed in that last line. Thousands of people homeless eclipses some pieces of clay that might have been dropped there by the neighbor's daughter on her way home from getting the family's water.

Sometimes, news coverage of Africa makes me sad.

SA Police Kill Striking Miners

It seems silly to do a blog about Africa and not at least touch on the story that has been all over the South African papers for over two weeks now.

On August 16th, armed strikers at the Marikana mine in the North-West Province of South Africa were shot at by police, after tear gas and rubber bullets were unsuccessful in dispersing them. Why the anger? Marikana mines platinum, which has increased in value in the last few years, but wages have not.  The miners were demanding to be paid R12,500 a month in wages, which is about $1485 (USD) per month, more than double what they had been earning. 34 miners were shot dead by police and over 70 injured. It also looks like the first 14 were shot in the initial confrontation (see picture below), but police then pursued the fleeing miners and killed another 20 in an enclave of boulders, not shown in the videos or pictures.

dispatch.co.za

The deaths were called the "worst security incident" since the end of white rule in South Africa in 1994. One police officer was killed.

To add crazy to the crazy pie, an apartheid (pronounced "apar-tate," rhyming with "hate") law holdover then allowed the prosecutors to hold the other miners (~270 of them) responsible for the murder of their colleagues. Yes, the apartheid law said if you attack armed police you are responsible for the consequences. Crazy, right?

Fortunately, after lots of outcry, the murder charges have been dropped. Thank goodness.

Miners released: Reuters

Kate Thoughts: South Africa is the continent's largest economy. Johannesburg's province, Gauteng, is responsible for 9% of the GDP of the entire African continent. I could wax all day about the disparities and class differences in South Africa. The ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has been in power for 18 years now, and while many blacks have risen up into the middle and upper classes, the huge disparity in wealth between races is still there. White South Africans make on average eight times as much as blacks, and whites are only 9% of the population (blacks are 80%). I honestly do not know what the right thing to do is, other than to create better educational and vocational opportunities for black people. Doing what Zimbabwe did (land redistribution) and causing whites to flee would certainly hurt South Africa's economy terribly, so it is good that the ANC hasn't gone that far yet. My ideal South Africa? A change of power. Allow the ANC to give up power to another party for a while and then it can come back with fresh policies and minds. We forget how lucky we are in the US that Democrats and Republicans switch office so often. That, in my mind, is true democracy.

Togolese Women Go On Sex Strike

Like many countries in Africa, Togo is what we in African Studies call a pseudo-democracy. It is called the Republic of Togo, it has democratic elections, but in most ways Americans would think about democracy (freedoms, civil rights...), it isn't one.

 

www.worldatlas.com

The Gnassingbé family has been in power in Togo since 1963, following the assassination of Sylvanus Olympio, the father of Togo's independence. Gnassingbe Eyadema ruled as President for 38 years before he died in 2005 and his son, the current President Faure Gnassingbe, took over. Throughout their reign, there have been rigged elections, no free press, tons of corruption, massacres of the opposition, and pretty much everything else you would expect from a dictator. Elections are coming up in October and the Let's Save Togo women's collective wants to do something about this. The logical choice--a sex strike!! So there you go, men of Togo. Get politically involved and help the women of Togo end the policy of unlimited presidential terms... or sleep alone this week.

stock.xchng - womanhood

Random Kate Thought: Women's bodies are very contentious subjects on the African continent. Sexism is prevalent in many (dare I say most) societies and the idea that a man owns a woman's body once he marries her (or even takes her virginity) is common. Empowering women to control their own bodies is important in empowering them, both as social and economic actors. The flipside of this campaign, unfortunately, is that domestic violence is rarely persecuted in Togo. My thoughts go out to these Togolese women and I hope for their safety. Hopefully their campaign raises the kind of awareness they desire.

New Blog + Cure for Malaria Found?

Thanks to the pestering of my good friend Malia, I have decided to start a blog about African events. As many Americans couldn't point to Mauritania on a map and don't know anything about the presidential race in Angola, I'm going to post one short item on Africa every day for that audience. Read daily or weekly, and you will have a decent idea of what is going on on this beautiful and inspiring continent. Enjoy!

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Researchers at the University of Cape Town in South Africa believe they might have found the "holy grail" of malaria cures. Although South Africa is not known for a prevalence of malaria, the mosquito-borne disease kills a million people a year elsewhere on the continent, especially in the more tropical equatorial regions. This cure, if proven in human trials, could transform the African economy and way of life. And as anyone going on a safari to Kenya or a trip to West Africa knows, malaria pills are no fun (many cause sun sensitivity, yeast infections, or scary "fire dreams"), so this cure could truly change the face of African tourism, for the better.

Side bar: Los Angeles EMT courses do not discuss how to treat malaria, so when a student came to school with a bad case my first year here... well, I learned fast.

A bit about the curing compound from the Chemistry teacher at my school: MMV390048 drug is a derivative of aminopyridine. Pyridine itself, found in smoke from charcoal fire, has been contested as a possible carcinogen and has been found to significantly reduce sperm mobility in mice at all levels of exposure, though not a threat to men at this stage. Just another example of the wonders of the "double-edged" nature of many chemical substances.

For more info: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/news/the-holy-grail-of-malaria-cures-1.1371631

Random Kate Thought: Remember how Europeans killed off the Native Americans with their many diseases, most famously small pox? Ever think about why that didn't happen in Africa? Malaria is a big reason why the exchange of disease went the other way in the colonization of Africa. Why are Native Americans a minority in America and Africans a majority in Africa? Both native cultures (vastly overgeneralizing here) put up a fight when the whites came, but malaria stayed in the ring for Africa. Read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond for more.