Dear Readers

This week one of the most important Africa-related events in the world is happening in Chicago. Almost 2200 Africanists – anthropologists, activists, researchers, journalists, librarians, bloggers etc, are expected to attend the African Studies Association 51^st Annual Meeting. There’s a lot of things going on for which hundreds of people have been preparing in the last year. There’s a lot of excitement about this event. I promise to keep you posted as least regarding the workshops / presentations / commissions I will be attending. The full schedule of the conference is already made available online at the following link: www.africanstudies.org. If you have any questions, please let me know.

This is what I’m attending tomorrow. I will keep you posted about these people’s research at the end of the day. Tomorrow evening I will post the events I’ll be attending on Friday.

Thursday

(I-N13) Non-State Actors and Contested Authority in Contemporary Africa [Mississippi]
Chair: Ashley E Leinweber, U of Florida
Ashley E Leinweber, U of Florida, The Politics of Non-State Actors in Contemporary Africa: the Case of Islamic Organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Fredline A M’Cormack, U of Florida, Non-State Actors and Democracy Promotion in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone
Joseph Kraus, U of Florida, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Mantra of Good Governance: The Impact of Oil Company Engagement on State Authority and Capacity in Equatorial Guinea
Aaron Hale, U of Florida, Local Politics and Contested National Authority in Eastern DR-Congo: A View from North Kivu

(II-J8) Globalization, Africa and China [Parlor C]
Chair: Asgede Hagos, Delaware State U
Akwasi P. Osei, Delaware State U, Africa, China and the New Global Dispensation
Asgede Hagos, Delaware State U, Climbing a Wall of Pessimism: West’s Challenge in Africa
Ephraim Ahamefule Okoro, Howard U, Globalization of Markets: Chinese Strategies and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

(II-Q9) Living in the Promised Land? Public Culture as Politics in 1970s Kinshasa [Superior A]
Chair: Dominique Malaquais, The Africa Centre
Dominique Malaquais, The Africa Centre, “Rumble in the Jungle:” Politics of Public Culture in 1970s Kinshasa.
Pedro Monaville, U of Michigan, Excavating the Congolese Student Movement : Culture of Dissent and Politics of Repression in the early 1970s
Bob W White, Unversity of Montreal, Rapture, Rupture: The Zairian New Wave and “Animation Politique” in Mobutu’s Zaire
Discussant: Mbala D Nkanga, U of Michigan
Discussant: Bennetta W Jules-Rosette, U of California-San Diego

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Two more for myreaders

Codrin

One more from South Africa

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Questions about South Africa

These questions about South Africa were posted on a South African Tourism Website and were answered by the website owner.
Q: Does it ever get windy in South Africa? I have never seen it rain on TV, so how do the plants grow? (UK)
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.
Q: Will I be able to see elephants in the street? (USA) A: Depends how much you´ve been drinking.
Q: I want to walk from Durban to Cape Town - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden) A: Sure, it´s only two thousand kilometres take lots of water…
Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in South Africa? (Sweden) A: So it´s true what they say about Swedes.
Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in South Africa? Can you send me a list of them in JHB, Cape Town, Knysna and Jeffrey´s Bay? (UK) A: What did your last slave die of?
Q: Can you give me some information about Koala Bear racing in South Africa? (USA) A: Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the pacific. A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe which does not… oh forget it. Sure, the Koala Bear racing is every Tuesday night in Hillbrow. Come naked.
Q:Which direction is north in South Africa? (USA) A:Face south & then turn 90 degrees.Contact us when you get here & we´ll send the rest of the directions.
Q:Can I bring cutlery into South Africa? (UK) A:Why? Just use your fingers like we do.
Q:Can you send me the Vienna Boys Choir schedule? (USA) A:Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y,which is…oh forget it.Sure,the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Hillbrow,straight after the Koala Bear races.Come naked.
Q:Do you have perfume in South Africa? (France) A:No,WE don´t stink.
Q:I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in South Africa? (USA) A:Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.
Q:Do you celebrate Christmas in South Africa? (France) A:Only at Christmas.
Q:Are there killer bees in South Africa? (Germany) A:Not yet,but for you, we´ll import them.
Q:Are there supermarkets in Cape Town and is milk available all year round?(Germany) A:No, we are a peaceful civilisation of vegan hunter-gatherers. Milk is illegal.
Q:Please send a list of all doctors in South Africa who can dispense rattlesnake serum. USA) A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca, which is where YOU come from. All South African snakes are perfectly harmless,can be safely handled & make good pets.
Q:Will I be able to speek English most places I go? (USA) A:Yes,but you´ll have to learn it first.

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I run across this fantastic caricature on the current situation in the economic sector in the United States. I think it’s a wonderful caricature so I’m putting it here on the blog.

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Lovely Nina - offering her services on the market

A couple of weeks ago I received a series of emails from “a very interested young lady” from Liberia who allegedly read my articles on AfricanLoft. The initial message was actually sent via the messaging system offered by African Loft. It certainly looked life a fairytale and I would have certainly fainted had I not had enough experiences with Nigerian scams.  The first email was the following:

My name is Nina. a 22 yrs old girl . I am average in height and fair in complexion ,am a loving, romantic and caring angel. I read your profile. truely is quiet intresting to me then , i deciede to contact you. i really want to have a good relationship with you. Beside i have a special something i want to discusse with you , so your can reach me through this Email: nina22bah at y a h o o c o m   Hope  to hear from you soon. i will send my beautiful pictures to you and also tell you more about my self. I know age will not be a bearier to our relationship, what i need is just your love and caring. I will give you my best, bye for now. contact me from here  nina22bah@yahoo.com

Now, I’m very used to these scams since I used to have a web generated email for an organization I used to work with that used to flood my gmail account with hundreds of obnoxious scam proposals. I guess had I accepted all offers that were sent to me I would have theoretically made more than 2 billion dollars by now. But this scam is different. It’s more organized, it involves a new tactic, it targets particular individuals, not just random email addresses. It is very interesting that these scams have now evolved.

I also received a second email from her after I answered back to her asking how I may be of assistance – the general email I send to every person who contacts me for the first time. The email started with:

“thank you very much for honoring my invitation,like i told you before age or distant can’t deny any good love,i hope that this my mail find you in good health dearest heart. My name is miss Nina Jonson dabah from Liberia… ” Now that was her first mistake – the email address she’s sending the message form is actually nina22bah@yahoo.com and the name listed in my inbox is Nina Dabah. Now after a long message she gets to what is really is the intention of the email:

“tell them that you are my foreign partner and that you want to know the possibilities of assisting me transfer my $9.7 million dollars deposited by my late father which i am the next of kin to your account in your country.
Then all i need now is your full contact information,such as number,country of origin and also your bank information if there is any. Am glad that God has brought you to see me out from this situation and i promise to be kind and will equally need you in every area of my life including investing this money since i am still too young to manage it.i am just 22yrs ”

The last thing I believe it’s interesting to mention is that this person actually sent me pictures of this “imaginary” Nina whereas in the past the scams continued with more fantastical details, millions and dead uncles / fathers / brothers etc.

Briefly, how do you know you have a scam in your inbox

1. Generally it’s an email that’s not actually personal. Since scammers send the same message to hundreds of people, they cannot afford to make it personal.
2. There’s no reference to your own identity, generally the first two words are actually are Dear + your email address.
3. There’s a dead…something involved and the necessity to send some personal details – name, address, bank account etc.
4. There’s a share you have in this generally “about” one million dollars.

So guys, please don’t ever fall for things like this. These are very sophisticated scams, and sometimes people lose a lot of money because of them. You cannot even imagine how many people fall for this every year. In the meantime, smile when you get these messages. There’s a lovely scammer pretending to love you at the other end. Just like your husband or wife :P

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“Toward an Angola Strategy: Prioritizing US-Angola Relations”, An Independent Commission Report
Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, The Center for Preventive Actions, has a separate section dedicated to the Angola-China relations. I think some of their arguments are very convincing and describe the general concern the West has regarding the techniques employed by China regarding the “conquest of the dark continent” [phrase used by one of by good friends from Angola]

In February 2006, Angola surpassed Saudi Arabia to become the number one supplier of oil to China. China’s growing role in Africa has generated wide speculation and heated argument. In adition to financing multi-billion-dollar oil-baked loans to Angola, rehabilitating the Banguela railroad, and constructing a new airport, China has acquired equity positions in several oil concessions. These developments may increase China’s potential influence in Angola in the coming years. Talks between Sonangol and Beijing’s Sinopec on the construction of a multibillion-dollar refinery in Lobito, however, collapsed in early March 2007. 28

For both the Angolan and Chinese perspectives, the relationship is pragmatic and strategic. Angolans receive loans at lower rates than they would from commercial banks, while the Chinese receive guaranteed oil deliveries at world market price as well as business for Chinese companies. 28

To be sure, there are causes for concern. There is a lack of transparency about Chinese operations in Angola. Loans from Beijing are funding major infrastructure projects, directed by Chinese firms and staffed with Chinese labor. But what’s unclear is how much money is on the table, how contracts are awarded, how many Chinese are in the country, and how many Angolans are actually employed by Chinese companies operating in Angola. Furthermore, Angola should be wary of outsourcing jobs Angolans could do themselves; importing labor may be sowing the seeds of future resentment. Nonetheless, China is making significant contributions to Angola’s development by building and rebuilding roads, hospitals, schools, and sanitation systems. 28-29

There are some interesting ideas in this article and also a phrase that might be undetected by most readers. It is highly precient and fully in accordance with my predictions regarding the future of the Chinese-African relations. Let me highlight it for you

“Furthermore, Angola should be wary of outsourcing jobs Angolans could do themselves; importing labor may be sowing the seeds of future resentment. “

Let me be the first one to make this predicament. At one point in the next ten years there will be xenophobic attacks against Chinese in Africa that will kill hundreds of Chinese. These seeds of resentment are already sown. Chinese are getting to Angola and do not plan to leave. They go there and work for less money than Africans. They start small business and steal jobs from Africans. In Luanda you can see some Chinese selling roasted peanuts in small plastic bags. This is what extremely poor Africans do. You find Chinese everywhere, getting special deals and special treatment. One day Angolans will say enough is enough. And so will Nigerians, Tanzanians, South Africans or Kenyans (these are the 4 African states with the largest Chinese diasporas.) The tragedy is that we can see it coming, African intellectuals see it coming as well, but nobody talks about it. The only reason anti-Chinese treatment or even Chinese slaughtering has not yet happened is because Africans still don’t know too much about Chinese. They are exploring these new strangers. They don’t have any historical strong feelings against them. But when they will realize that Chinese are acting against their interests they will revolt. And people and politicians will be shocked and appalled. And we would ask ourselves how did this happened.

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I recently read a very interesting report / book called Toward an Angola Strategy: Prioritizing US-Angola Relations, published by the Council of Foreign Relations. Its mission is simple: to show why the US should be interested in strengthening relations with Angola. It does that by exploring the colonial legacy of the war and the destructive effects of the civil war that ended in 2003 after 20 years of fighting. The report doesn’t really bring anything new into discussion but it is certainly a very neat and short review of Angola’s political and economic evolution in the last 30 years.

There is one section that is of particular interest to me. It’s about the Chinese investment in Angola. I will publish some quotes from that section in a different post.

I strongly advise you guys to read this report because it is a very good way of putting yourself into the shoes of politicians, strategists and policy-makers. The report is available online here and can also be bought from the Council of Foreign Relations.

Notable quotes (China Africa relations excluded!)

Angola must rebuild its physical infrastructure, create democratic government institutions capable of providing public services, address the issues of transparency that have plagued its governance, reduce poverty and unemployment, develop its human capacity and training, revive its non-oil sectors and, promote national reconciliation, and cultivate constructive international relationships – all of which could transform Angola into a more equitable society and prevent future instability. 8

With roughly thirteen million people in a territory nearly twice the size of Texas, Angola is blessed with a bounty of natural resources: offshore oil, coastal fisheries, mineral deposits, and fertile farmland. But Angola has a tragic past – a harrowing colonial heritage and an even more traumatic decolonization experience. 10

Ultimately, up to 1.5 million people – nearly 10 percent of Angola’s total population – may have perished from 1975 to 2002. Approximately one hundred thousands Angolans were maimed by land mines, leaving Angola with the highest number of amputees per capita of any country in the world. International humanitarian organizations estimate that five hundred thousands Angolans fled into neighboring countries and over four million were internally displaced during the twenty seven years of fighting. 13

This is a feedback to the African Reading Challenge.

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The U.S. Senate approved the $700 billion bailout bill by a 74 to 25 margin. The full text of the bill can be found here. I know you are used to reading news about Africa but I feel that this news has come links to African realities as well. For instance, the economic crisis in the US has hit hard on the Kenyan economy since 45% of the foreign investment comes from US banks and multinational companies that have been affected by the economic crisis. Other African states are in a similar situation - South Africa, Liberia, Tanzania or Zambia, to name just a few. That is why knowing the current situation in the US economy can help predict the future course of business related activities in the above-mentioned states.

However, I must warn you that the new bailout bill is 451 pages long so…good luck in reading that

CSA

PS: Both Obama and McCain voted yes.

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Sunset in the Tarangire National Park. Photo Credit: www.danheller.com

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I was in Goma two weeks ago renewing some of my contacts in the DRC. This is a message from a friend of mine from Goma who will tell you more about the volatile situation in the DRC. There have been reports of increased violence and looting. Jeannot has more details. His message was translated from French so any linguistic inconsistencies belong to me.

Dear Codrin,

main street in Goma with the volcano in the background

We are again witnessing a time of increased volatility in Goma.
Apart from the various attacks that you heard of lately, that happened 30 km away from Goma, not one single day passes without new episodes of violence, crime and looting.
Since yesterday, women soldiers have been protesting against the “absurd” death of some their colleagues, who are poorly equipped for this war, and against the fact that in some cases their [the soldiers’] salaries have not been paid in years. The situation is even more absurd since one Congolese soldier receives a salary of no more than US$40 a month. In the last few months their salaries dropped to only US $34[In contrast, during my stay in Goma I found that the UN soldiers – mainly Indians and Pakistanis – are paid an average of 130 US dollars a day, getting one free paid day for every six working days - Codrin Arsene]
Two gas stations have been looted, the thugs destroying every last oil pipe.
All shops, internet and adjacent shops, were looted from top to bottom around Goma.
One of these stations Amani-station, belongs to Nkunda [Wiki quote: Laurent Nkunda alias Laurent Nkundabatware or Laurent Nkunda Batware (born February 2, 1967) is a former General in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is the current leader of a rebel faction operating in the province of Nord-Kivu, sympathetic to Congolese Tutsis and the Tutsi-dominated government of neighbouring Rwanda. Nkunda commands former RDC troops of the 81st and 83rd Brigades of the DRC Army.]. That one was really destroyed! Every window of this three-floor building was destroyed. The population even wanted to burn the whole place down. The only thing that stopped them was the thought that their action could wipe out the entire neighborhood from the map of the city.
Until now, small shops are still at risk of being looted in some neighborhoods.

Jeannot - my friend from Goma

Crowds of people are now coming from everywhere: Caramel, Katindo, Himba … They are blocking the roads and setting up barricades. Today, a police station was the target of the infuriated crowd who is joining the unpaid soldiers in their protests against the state. Bullets are flying in every direction and I assure you that these are in abundance. Since yesterday Goma looks that hell on earth.
Traffic was cut in the middle of the day, the police is patrolling every meter of the main road … In short, panic is ruling over the city.
Indeed, it was by chance that I just found the open Internet because all the stores downtown were closed.

Good evening to you. Thank God you’re away.
Sincerely,
Jeannot K.

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