25 January 2023

Mbira for women: Stella Rambisai Chiweshe, the “queen of mbira”, singer, songwriter, musician, cultural activist, pioneering woman, educator, founder of Zimbabwe’s Chivanhu Centre (to preserve traditional music and culture) has died last Friday aged 76. Chiweshe had to defy patriarchy/her family & community – because the mbira was only played by men – and the British colonial masters who had banned the instrument because it was used for “ancestral worship (which) went against their Christian values”, so she played at “underground night ceremonies”. She made the instrument and Shona music and culture known beyond Zimbabwe’s borders.
https://theconversation.com/stella-chiweshe-zimbabwes-mbira-queen-rebel-music-star-and-pioneer-198421
Short video clip when she was young: https://youtu.be/6hmBDRciQl4
Video clip of 33:26 of 2020: https://youtu.be/TS_DN_R-w7c
Chachimurenga (It’s time for revolution), her most famous song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k9GM7vloIA

Congo-Kinshasa: The article describes the close relationship between football and politics. Mainly, but not only pro-regime politics. Gabriel Amisi, a close ally of Kabila and president of Kinshasa’s AS Vita Club, was in the past able to send club members “to infiltrate protests against the Kabila regime ‘and incite protesters to loot and commit violence’.” A stadium may also be a venue for political protest, e.g., for protest songs – the police know that the protest chanters are “way more numerous than them” and won’t try to do anything – but it is of course “questionable how much potential for change this carries”.
https://theconversation.com/football-and-politics-in-kinshasa-how-drcs-elite-use-sport-to-build-their-reputations-and-hold-on-to-power-197641

Tanzania: Opposition leader Tundu Lissu is back from exile. Since an assassination attempt in 2016, he spent almost all his time in Belgium – except for a short stint back home to participate in the 2020 presidential elections. Addressing a “massive” rally, he said that a new constitution should make it possible to control resp. lower prices of essential goods.
BBC Africa Live 25 January 2023. 17:43

Somalia/EAC: After a request by Mogadishu to join in July 2022, the East African Community has started procedures to verify Somalia’s “readiness to be admitted into the community”. After Congo-Kinshasa’s joining in 2022, Somalia would be the EAC’s eighth member.
BBC Africa Live 25 January 2023. 13:00

Rwanda/Congo-Kinshasa: A Congolese fighter jet that had allegedly violated Rwandan airspace was shot at by the Rwandan forces but was able to avoid a crash and returned to Goma airport. The two countries accuse each other of aggression. Tensions between the two are certainly escalating.
BBC Africa Live 25 January 2023. 4:40




24 January 2023

Cameroon: While Canada recently claimed it was brokering a peace deal in North-west and South-west regions, Yaoundé “has denied picking any foreign facilitator in its efforts to end armed conflict in the country's English-speaking regions”, where a war with separatists has been raging for more than five years.
BBC Africa Live 24 January 2023. 14:20

Zambia/External debt: Having been the first country to default on its debts during Covid times, China is often blamed by other creditors to stand in the way of a debt relief deal. But the finance minister is optimistic and thinks that the debt relief negotiations could be completed by end March.
BBC Africa Live 24 January 2023. 11:50

Cape Verde: Debt repayments to former colonial power Portugal will as from now be reinvested in renewable energy and other green projects. 13m USD are due to be repaid by 2025. Overall, Cape Verde owes Portugal 650m USD.
BBC Africa Live 24 January 2023. 9:21

Kenya/Death sentence: The authors’ research amongst 671 Kenyans on death row has shown that “the threat of being sentenced to death appears to have little bearing on how people behave”. Very few among the 671 “had, at the time of the offence, considered this potential outcome.” Against the usual deterrence argument, abolishing the death sentence thus couldn’t be expected to lead to a spike in violent crime. Kenya being a de facto abolitionist – the last execution dates back to 1987 – it should abolish the death sentence.
https://theconversation.com/kenyan-prisoners-on-death-row-werent-deterred-by-the-threat-of-the-death-penalty-new-research-findings-197701

Copper/Zambia/Congo-Kinshasa: Huge amounts of copper is what the green transition requires. A doubling of demand seems possible by 2035. But so far, copper has proven to be a resource curse, at least in Africa. Will the copper boom be converted into real national wealth this time round?
https://theconversation.com/copper-transformed-way-the-world-works-before-its-about-to-do-so-again-196812

South Africa: Water processing and distribution networks have been one of the foremost victims of the country’s power shortage. The pumping and treatment of water need electricity. The article describes what harm has been done.
https://theconversation.com/power-cuts-in-south-africa-are-playing-havoc-with-the-countrys-water-system-197952

Carbon market: COP27 having launched the African Carbon Markets Initiative, more finance should become available for African countries’ to access clean energy and make economic development more sustainable. “Carbon markets are trading platforms which allow individuals, firms and governments to fund projects that reduce emissions (instead of reducing their own emissions).” Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Togo have announced that they are interested. But care must be taken to make sure such projects are really beneficial for world climate.
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-africa-has-a-major-new-carbon-market-initiative-what-you-need-to-know-196071