23 March 2022
South Sudan: The Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition – the main “opposition” party led by Riek Machar which is part of the unity government formed two years ago – has announced its withdrawal from the peace monitoring body. It accuses “rival forces of unprovoked attacks”, the latest of them the day before yesterday, Monday.
BBC Africa Live 23 March 2022. 5:51
Batwa/Uganda: The Batwa are thought to be less than 7,000 in the country and most live at the margins of society. “(I)n the 1990s, the Ugandan Batwa were evicted from the Bwindi, Mgahinga and Echuya forests in the south-west of the country as the areas became wildlife parks, primarily for the protection of rare mountain gorillas.” Ten years ago, a group of Batwa took the government to court over the evictions. In late 2021, the constitutional court ruled that “the community had been treated inhumanly and ordered ‘fair and just compensation’ be paid within 12 months. However, the government intends to appeal. Is there no way to protect mountain gorillas and at the same time the Batwa and their traditional forest-based life?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60825768
Uganda/Kenya: Cattle rustlers have killed three geologists collecting soil samples and two soldiers in mineral-rich north-eastern Uganda. The attackers are thought to have been Turkana from across the border in Kenya who collaborated with Matheniko, a Ugandan Karimojong clan. Ten years ago, there had been a successful disarmament campaign in Uganda that brought relative peace to the region, but there had been a revival of cattle rustling recently so that last year a new disarmament programme was launched.
BBC Africa Live 23 March 2022. 8:57
Nigeria: Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa and “the Ogoni nine”? A group of widows accuse Shell of being jointly responsible for their deaths in 1995. After peaceful protests against pollution caused by oil leaks in the Niger delta, the nine had been accused of murdering local officials and were hanged after what Amnesty International called a mock trial. The widows accuse Shell of having bribed witnesses to give false testimony in the trial that led to their husbands’ execution. The court in The Hague that heard the widows’ case decided that “evidence was not sufficient or verifiable enough to establish the responsibility or involvement of Shell, or its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC.” The widows are yet to decide whether to appeal or not. They said that they consider the fact that they have been heard internationally a victory.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60851111
Palm oil: The article gives an overview of the history of palm oil in West Africa, where it was an important part of diets already 5,000 years ago. It was mostly harvested from wild oil palms. In pre-colonial times, only little planting took place (in Abomey and south-eastern Ghana). What finally ended West Africa’s position as the global hub of palm oil production was oil palm plantations in South East Asia.
https://theconversation.com/red-gold-the-rise-and-fall-of-west-africas-palm-oil-empire-179112
22 March 2022
Francis Kéré/Pritzker prize: Kéré’s buildings use locally widely available resources – this includes materials and also unskilled labour. He has worked in Benin, Kenya, Mali and Mozambique and across the world.
https://theconversation.com/the-inspiring-architect-from-burkina-faso-who-lifted-worlds-biggest-prize-179685
Woody encroachment on savannas: Savannas offer open and sunny conditions. If they become bushland, they will be less suitable for wildlife and livestock and lose many of their former plant and animal species. The article’s authors’ research found that high “concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stimulate tree growth but healthy grasslands and regular browsing by animals cancels out this effect. When trees are browsed by animals and grass is burnt regularly, savannas can be kept in balance.” But grazing needs to be managed – overgrazing also leads to woody encroachment (because it removes grasses totally and leaves the bushes/trees without competitors).
https://theconversation.com/high-co-can-upset-the-balance-of-trees-and-grass-in-savannas-what-can-be-done-about-it-179575
Tanzania: A year ago, former Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan became president by accident, taking over when Magufuli died, but she is leaving her mark and has cemented her power. The article analyses four aspects where her impact has been felt in the 12 months that she has been head of state: “the about-turn on COVID-19 protocols, her expansion of the civic space, a focus on the informal sector and her efforts to build her own team”. The ruling party remains in total control and its dominance is not threatened. Authoritarian restrictions are still in place, e.g. restrictions on public rallies. Some “draconian laws” (the Cybercrime Act, Media Services Act, the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act) should be gotten rid of. More fundamentally, to make real change possible, a new constitution is needed. With the present parliament totally faithful to Magufuli’s approach, this is unlikely to happen soon. Hassan will be a candidate at the 2025 presidential elections.
https://theconversation.com/tanzanias-hassan-has-made-changes-but-the-ruling-party-retains-a-tight-grip-179497
South Africa: With the overall downward trend of the ANC, the local government elections of 1/11/2021 brought no outright winner in many cities, also in Johannesburg, and makes coalition governments necessary. Mpho Phalatse of the Democratic Alliance has become mayoress of Johannesburg. In this interview, she gives her views of what is important and show she will govern while presiding the coalition. She’s up against corruption, wants to restore the rule of law and to create safe communities (1,800 additional city police officers have been mobilised) and improve revenue collection. To get the basics right”, “(w)e have also accelerated maintenance projects. Our service delivery teams from City Parks and Zoo, the Johannesburg Roads Agency, Joburg Water and City Power are conducting region-by-region blitzes to fix potholes, clean open spaces and curbs and cut trees, paint lines on the roads, fix traffic signals, repair leaking pipes and taps, and so on.” This seems to aim at making progress visible fast. It all sounds good – will it work?
https://theconversation.com/johannesburgs-first-woman-mayor-speaks-on-effective-coalitions-and-fighting-corruption-179246
Kenya: Elections in Kenya tend to incite violence – presidential, legislative, and county-level elections will be held in August. Media narratives can be used to decipher early signs of the risk of such violence. According to the article’s authors, the 2007-08 elections (which proved very violent) saw three violence-enhancing narratives: 1. political marginalisation (emphasising economic deprivation and political alienation of some groups, e.g., the Luo); 2. Victimisation (exploiting land grievances, casting some communities, e.g., the Kikuyu, as primary beneficiaries of post-independence policies); 3. foreign occupation (capitalising on fragile inter-community relations, e.g., in the Rift Valley where Kikuyus are termed “foreign occupiers” of Maasai and Kalenjin ancestral lands).
In the run up to the August 2022 elections, social media – where it is chronically difficult to contain inflammatory and intolerant content – are already heating up. On top of the three identified past narratives, three new ones could prove equally violence-enhancing for the contest between Odinga (backed by present president Kenyatta) and Ruto (presently Vice-president, but fallen out of Kenyatta’s grace): 1. Ruto has presented the contest as being between well-established “dynasties versus hustlers” like himself who have to employ their intelligence to get by. 2. Ruto is calling Odinga a “state project” – while Odinga is calling Ruto “a thief who cannot be trusted with public coffers”. 3. The failed Building Bridges Initiative to change the constitution “has increased political intolerance between rival political elites and their potential voters”.
So let us hope for peaceful elections.
https://theconversation.com/from-message-to-violence-what-to-watch-for-in-the-media-ahead-of-kenyas-elections-177459
Tanzania: Because of Covid, revenue from wildlife has dropped from 48m in 2019 to 19m USD in 2021. Now the tourism ministry wants to make up for some of the losses by auctioning the killing of aged, “unproductive” lions, elephants and other big game, hoping to raise 30m USD that way. About half of the world’s wild lions live in Tanzania. However, “(a)ccording to a 2019 International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report, 72% of big hunting zones in Tanzania are now classified as depleted because big game had been hunted out of these areas.”
BBC Africa Live 22 March 2022. 10:11
Congo-Kinshasa: 14 – 7 children and 7 adults – were killed in a machete attack on a camp of displaced people in Ituri province. The armed group Codeco is being blamed for the attack. Amongst the children killed was one aged 2, another aged 4 and a third one aged 8.
BBC Africa Live 22 March 2022. 5:24
Uganda: A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report has condemned the government for failing “to hold security officials accountable for the alleged detention and torture of hundreds of government critics and protesters” especially before and after 2021 elections. Witnesses had told HRW about rape, forced disappearances, detention in non-designated places (so-called “safehouses”) and torture.
BBC Africa Live 22 March 2022. 15:03
Ghana: The rate at which commercial banks borrow from the Central Bank (the “main policy rate”) has been raised to 17%, higher than ever before under President Akufo Addo. Inflation has been rising and the currency has depreciated. The Ukraine war will mean further woes for Ghana which imports more than half of its iron ore from Ukraine while a quarter of its wheat comes from Russia.
BBC Africa Live 22 March 2022. 15:50