18 February 2021
The growing isolation of Mt Kilimanjaro: Extensive urbanisation and development have led to the mountain being almost completely surrounded by developed areas including wheat farms, commercial sugar cane plantations, rice paddies, smallholder and growing, built-up settlements. “This means the mountain’s ecosystem is at risk of turning into an “ecological island”, entirely surrounded by cultivation and development. When natural habitats are isolated in this way, species are less able to migrate, leading to less genetic variation and diversity.”
The authors’ research looks into the negative effects of such isolation on Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, bushcrickets) and also on bigger animals such as elephants.
https://theconversation.com/increasing-land-use-could-turn-mount-kilimanjaro-into-an-ecological-island-153473
Nigeria/Angola/How oil rents grease the wheels of political dynamics: The oil/resource curse is well known. In 2018, Angola’s fuel exports constituted 92.4% of the country’s total exports. Oil rents (difference between the price of oil and the average cost of producing) accounted for 25.6% of the country’s GDP. Nigeria’s oil exports in 2018 were 94.1% of total exports, oil rents amounted to 9% of GDP. “Where citizens are relatively powerless to hold ruling elites to account, resource wealth undermines development prospects”. The author provides succinct résumés of the Nigerian and Angolan contexts and its major differences: “unlike in Angola, no aspirant Nigerian autocrat was able to monopolise personal control over the national oil company. (…) oil exacerbated fragility in Nigeria. While Angola’s dos Santos maintained a stable bargain among elites, Nigeria’s balance of power remained precarious.”
The article is a résumé of the author’s book on the topic. Its strength lies in description more than analysis, it would seem.
https://theconversation.com/why-being-endowed-with-oil-is-not-always-a-boon-the-case-of-nigeria-and-angola-153892
South Africa: In 1994, the political rules were changed, but not society nor the economy. “(O)nly the third of the population who have both the resources and the connectedness to the economy to enable them to speak are heard.” The elite has black members – these blacks can now (more or less: seniority provides advantages) do what white members of the elite do.
All the others are disappointed.
https://theconversation.com/what-a-real-state-of-the-nation-address-would-say-about-south-africa-155487
An African Psychology: A psychology developed elsewhere cannot work for Africa. An African Psychology needs to be based on traditions, knowledge systems, cosmologies, languages… from Africa.
The article doesn’t seem to go very far. Life is equal to health in Sesotho. And the collective is more important in Africa than the individual and the individual needs to be seen in her/his relation to others. But what is stated is undoubtedly correct.
https://theconversation.com/psychology-carries-a-dark-past-how-the-discipline-can-be-africanised-155165
17 February 2021
Adolescent girls in conflict zones: To achieve lasting peace, peacebuilding needs to be inclusive. Local actors need to be implicated. But adolescent girls are always forgotten, even where such inclusion is put into practice. In 2017 and 2018, the article’s two authors conducted a survey with 698 girls in conflict zones in South Sudan, Uganda, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon. And found the adolescent girls to be highly aware of the security risks they faced and ready to deal with them.
Child marriage increases in times of crisis (to restore a girl’s/family’s after sexual violence; to provide physical protection from abduction, sexual violence and forced marriage by militant groups; to address economic insecurity of girls/their families – one less mouth to feed, bride price). Early marriage increases the likelihood of family violence, poverty, denial of education, and health complications associated with early pregnancy.
Conflict-related gender-based violence moreover means (fear of) abduction, sexual violence, forced recruitment by militants – which leads to restricted movement and fear of moving about the communities.
The girls’ ability to attend school is undermined. Yet school is “a protective mechanism against early marriage and family violence, a safe space to learn, a network that built their confidence and happiness, and an opportunity to develop independent pathways and future economic security”.
https://theconversation.com/adolescent-girls-in-five-african-conflict-zones-share-stories-about-their-lives-155068
African Union/Gender equality: Since the AU summit, four of the six members of the AU Commission are women. While the AU Commission chairperson (Moussa Faki Mahamat) is a man, his deputy is a woman (Monique Nsanzabaganwa) – for the first time. On top of that, the female Commissioners have not been given the stereotypical gender/youth/social tasks, they are instead responsible for the blue economy, sustainable environment, infrastructure and energy, and science, technology and innovation, etc. In 2018, the AU Assembly had decided 50% women and 35% youth quotas for the staffing of the Secretariat by 2025. The new Commission points the right way. Now gender equity and equality need to be mainstreamed into all AU work (and beyond).
https://theconversation.com/au-commission-has-made-a-good-start-on-gender-equality-but-a-lot-remains-to-be-done-155005
Birds’ orientation during migration: Studying the Eurasian reed warblers (12.5-14 cm long birds that breed in Europe and winter in Sub-saharan Africa), it has been proven that their orientation is based on a “magnetic map” that works like a system of coordinates: “if birds have learned that magnetic intensity increases as they go north, they should be able to detect their position on the north-south axis wherever they happen to be. Similarly, if they experience a declination value that is greater than anything they’ve previously experienced, they should know they’re further east. On this basis, the theory is that they can calculate their position on the grid and correct their orientation.” The big remaining question now is how the reed warblers sense the magnetic field so as to make them find their way, even when strong winds get them way off course.
N.B. Magnetism is how reed warblers and other songbirds find their way, but “(o)ther birds, including seabirds and homing pigeons, have been shown to require olfactory cues (scents and smells) to navigate. At this stage, we don’t understand the reason behind these different preferences.”
https://theconversation.com/birds-use-massive-magnetic-maps-to-migrate-and-some-could-cover-the-whole-world-154992
Malawi/GBV: UK’s Camellia Group will pay 3m USD to women who were allegedly (would Camellia pay if they were not?) abused, some raped, and sexually harassed at two tea estates in Malawi’s south. They had taken their case to a UK court in October 2019. The law firm representing the women said there will be compensation for the individual claimants and measures to improve the safety and security of female employees.
BBC Africa Live 17 February 2021. 13:15
Zanzibar/Covid-19: 77 year old Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, first vice-president of Tanzania’s semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar, has died a couple of weeks after contracting the coronavirus.
BBC Africa Live 17 February 2021. 10:21
South Africa/Covid-19: South Africa’s schools, which were closed because of second wave concerns in December, have reopened this week.
BBC Africa Live 17 February 2021. 17:17
Uganda: Several journalists reporting on Bobi Wine delivering a petition to the UN highlighting human rights abuses in the country have been beaten and injured with batons outside the UN Human Rights Office in Kampala.
BBC Africa Live 17 February 2021. 16:28
Nigeria: Gunmen have killed one pupil and abducted 27 others plus 3 members of staff and 12 of their relatives in a night-time raid on a boarding school in Kagara town in Niger state, north-west of Abuja. On Monday 20 people returning from a wedding had been abducted after an attack on their bus also in Nigeria’s Niger state.
BBC 17 February 2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56095731
Mozambique: Tom Bowker, the British founder/editor of the independent website Zitamar News, has been deported and banned for 10 years from entering the country. He had been reporting extensively on the islamist insurgency in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province while the government is trying to limit the coverage of the escalating war.
BBC Africa Live 17 February 2021. 15:25