Africa News Headlines for 8 July 2014

Kenya on the Brink
Source: Foreign Policy

Rwandan Shadows
Source: Foreign Policy/Democracy Lab

Bitter winter hits South Africa
Source: IOL News

Kenya, Tanzania attacks hit tourism
Source: IOL News

West Africa’s misguided war on drugs
Source: Arab News

Battered By Civil War, South Sudan Falters Toward 3rd Birthday
Source: NPR/All Things Considered

Ugandan university students forced to be porn actors against their will
Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Kenya: powerful groups in politics and war
Source: Global Post/AFP

Nigeria: Kidnapping and Escape of Women and Girls
Source: Africa in Transition

Kenyans fear fresh cycle of violence as ethnic reconciliation falters
Source: Christian Science Monitor

Africa in 2020: A Look at Major Sectors And Players
Source: Ventures Africa

Boko Haram 'scourge' a warning sign for all West Africa, envoy says
Source: Christian Science Monitor

10 Young African Millionaires To Watch 2014
Source: Forbes

Sisi looks to strengthen Egypt's African ties with Nile in mind
Source: Al-Monitor

Africa as we know her might soon be history thanks to rebels, minerals, and drugs
Source: Mail & Guardian

Mandela Secretary's Memoirs Cause Stir in S. Africa
Source: Voice of America

West Africa: UN envoy cites region’s daunting challenges, Boko Haram threat to Nigeria
Source: UN News Centre

Want to make an easy $300,000 in Africa?
Source: TechZim

The Re-Colonization Of Africa: How The US Military’s War On Terror Is Shield For Expansion Through AFRICOM
Source: MintPress News

Mobilizing Researchers to End Poverty in Africa
Source: World Bank

Scandal erupts over South Africa's 'farm of horrors'
Source: Los Angeles Times

The West is obsessed with ‘saving’ Africa. Is that the problem?
Source: The Washington Post

Africa World Documentary Film Festival kicks off this month
Source: Bizcommunity.com

Central Africa's c.bank cuts rate, revises 2014 GDP forecast down
Source: Reuters

EMD secures African locomotive orders
Source: International Railway Journal

ICTs key in MSMEs growth—Mbabazi
Source: New Vision

Upstanding gallery for 'members only'
Source: Times Live

The Moral Bankruptcy of Failed African States
Source: Somaliland Press

Today's Poll: Should Americans be able to hunt big game in Africa?
Source: The Batavian

Interview with Karol Boudreaux on prospects for African economic development

Karol Boudreaux (center) with UVA students

“Americans tend not to think about very many places outside of America, so I'm not sure how many Americans are thinking about Africa,” said Karol Boudreaux, director of investments for the Omidyar Network, “but if they do think about Africa, I think it's mostly in a humanitarian sense. It's a shame if Americans don't recognize the tremendous potential in African countries and the tremendous potential of the entrepreneurs” across the African continent.

Boudreaux, an expert on African policy who has served as African Land Tenure Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), made her comments in an interview after a lecture she delivered at the University of Virginia in October 2013.

The message of her formal remarks was an optimistic one: an entrepreneurial spirit is transforming Africa's economies in a way that would surprise many Americans.

“If the vision or the message or the narrative that they're listening to is, 'Things are bad and we need smart people to fix them,'” she said in the interview, “what they're not recognizing then is that very smart people in Africa are already starting to fix the problems. I wish that message were conveyed more frequently, that entrepreneurs on the ground in Africa are finding really creative ways to solve local problems. That whole local knowledge issue, I think, tends to be overlooked in some of those debates.”

Referring to international development agencies like USAID, she said, “there is a recognition that things are changing. The recognition comes from the fact that the development agencies themselves may have a less central role to play, frankly, and I think they're feeling that reality. They're feeling that the private sector is growing and thriving and they're not the central actors anymore.”

That, she smiled, is “a great thing for Africans.”



'Tremendous changes'
Boudreaux, co-author (with Paul Dragos Aligica) of Paths to Property: Approaches to Institutional Change in International Development, summarized the changes that are improving Africa's economic prospects.

“Some tremendous changes are going on on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa today,” she said.

First, there has “been a real focus on reducing regulatory barriers to make it easier to do business for the entrepreneurs, the millions of entrepreneurs, who are otherwise stymied in African countries.”

Second, she continued, “many countries have adopted new macroeconomic policies that have led to much lower inflation rates, that have made the money supply a bit more stable, that have done things like privatize businesses that were run by the government, introducing a more competitive environment into these economies.”

In short, Boudreaux said, “more competition, lower costs of doing business, [and] more stable money supply [have] really contributed to improvements on the ground.”

Cell phones
The introduction of cell-phone networks, for example, “has been a dramatic change. Having the cell phone technology on the ground has meant that people have had a whole new tool that they can use in creative, interesting ways.”

For instance, she pointed out how “cell phones are used to send information about crop prices, they're used to send information about medical care, they're used for entertainment, they're used to transfer money supplies. Every one of those different activities is creating jobs, leading to competitors who do more [and] do better, transfer money faster, provide education over cell phones, provide a whole variety of other sorts of information and connections and so, in important ways it really has changed the nature of Africa.”

Another change that is now taking shape is the decision of francophone countries like Rwanda and Gabon to emphasize English-language instruction.

That will “make the French even more irritated than they already are. They're sort of irritated,” she said, by these countries' other attempts to distance themselves from French dominance that characterized the post-colonial era.

Adopting Engish as a medium of instruction “shifts the focus of attention in those countries towards English-speaking consumers and so you see things in Rwanda like call centers set up to service Great Britain,” Boudreaux said, although they do less to service the United States.

Even so, she added, “I can easily imagine in ten years Rwanda being a back office for a whole variety of English-speaking countries and that's good for the Rwandans who have those new jobs that otherwise didn't exist.”


Indian investment
While there has been a lot of coverage in the news media about China's economic interests in Africa – investing in commodities production and infrastructure, among other things – less attention has been paid to India's interests in Africa.

“India is investing,” Boudreaux acknowledged. “Some of the investment has been in extractives but a significant amount of Indian investment is in agribusiness,” specifically in “having access to land to grow a variety of crops and then process the production and send the crops either back to India or elsewhere in the world.”

As an example, she pointed out that “Indians are very involved in cashew production, increasingly involved in production in South Sudan” – which is now in the news on account of political violence – but “especially, in Ethiopia,” where Indian investors have poured a lot of money into the agricultural sector.

(This article previously appeared in slightly different form on Examiner.com.)

New Africa Book of the Day - 8 July 2014

Continuity and Change in Sub-Saharan African Demography, edited by Clifford O. Odimegwu and John Kekovole

Release Date: July 8, 2014
Publisher: Routledge African Studies

This book offers an in-depth African perspective to the major issues in demographic discourse in sub-Saharan Africa. It provides comprehensive analysis of sub-Saharan African censuses, profiling demographic changes, trends, patterns and consequences in the region. Interdisciplinary, comprehensive, accessible, simple and topical, this volume is perfectly suited to researchers, students and lecturers who are interested in understanding sub-Saharan African population dynamics and issues.

Clifford O. Odimegwu is the head of Demography and Population Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand and John Kekovole is executive manager in charge of Census Inputs and Outputs at Statistics South Africa. Together they have edited Social Demography of South Africa: Advances and Emerging Issues (2014) while Kekovole is author of Components of Kenya's future population growth and population policy implications (1996).  Odimegwu also wrote a research report entitled An appraisal of the national population policy for development (1998).

Africa News Headlines for 7 July 2014

Pistorius: Last witness testifies for defense
Source: Seacoast Online

Swimming S. Africa Disciplines 2 Athletes For Sex In Front of Minor; Punishment Deemed Lenient.
Source; Swimming World

Bill Gates’ new milk can helps organize Africa’s milk supply
Source: Dairy Herd Management

Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai scoffs at Mugabe’s “failed ideas”
Source: StarAfrica

US Startup Recycling Smartphones To Combat Poaching In Africa
Source: AFK Insider

Beyond the Rhetoric: U.S. Late in Courting African Leaders
Source: Black Press USA/NNPA

Why Saving Africa’s Elephants Matters More Than You Ever Imagined
Source: One Green Planet

World Pension Summit Africa Commits To Shaping The Future
Source: Channels

Risk And Opportunity Analysis for African Countries
Source: Ventures Africa

New thinking needed on food aid for refugees in Africa
Source: IRIN

Africa Rising: Prospects for the Hopeful Continent
Source: Diplomatic Courier

Young philanthropists raise thousands for clean water in Africa
Source: KCTV

Out of Africa: mobile phone banking surges in EM
Source: Financial Times

NBA legend Mutombo, Israelis team up to help Africa
Source: Times of Israel

Big Agriculture Looks to Africa
Source: Triple Pundit

Jill Biden talks women's issues on Africa tour
Source: Politico

US travel warnings, 'Out of Africa' is more a strategy than a summer read
Source: PRI

Nairobi rally criticises Kenyatta government
Source: Aljazeera

Moroccan exports to Sub-Saharan Africa increase
Source: Fresh Plaza

Uganda, Gabon added to MobileRecharge.com’s top up list
Source: IT Web Africa

Marines, sailors partner with task force in Gabon
Source: DVIDS

'40 percent' of Madagascar budget lost to corruption: PM
Source: Yahoo! News/AFP

LRA Defectors Say No One Has Seen Joseph Kony In Years
Source: Huffington Post/AP

Ethiopia’s Juba deployment alters regional dynamics
Source: The East African

Amisom, Somalia army using child soldiers
Source: The East African

Politics and terrorism: Kenya's ticking time bombs
Source: Institute for Security Studies

Can Africa learn from China?
Source: New Vision

Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill 'Misinterpreted' By International Donors, Officials Claim
Source: Huffington Post/Reuters

East African Presidents Support Launch of Regional Exchange
Source: Wall Street Journal

How NRM has failed to kill 'Mbabazi 2016'
Source: The Observer

Morocco urged to stop jailing gays
Source: News24

Africa News Headlines for 6 July 2014

Kidnapped Nigerian girls escape from Boko Haram abductors - reports
Source: The Independent

Akin Bello wins Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa
Source: WorldStage

US military Africa chief: Chaos in Libya is destabilizing the region
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat

Equatorial Guinea leader's son Obiang loses legal case against French magazine
Source: RFI English

Video footage shows Pistorius re-enacting killing
Source: NBC29

Senegal prime minister sacked
Source: Aljazeera

Uganda taxpayers to pay for Kutesa’s one-year stay in New York
Source: The London Evening Post

Cape schoolgirls in animal porn shock
Source: IOL News

Muhwezi envious of Mbabazi – ex minister Hope Mwesigye
Source: The Observer

Malaria Remains A Threat In Southern Africa
Source: Bernama

African Youth and the Job Market: Asset or Liability?
Source: Fair Observer

13 Nigerian banks make top 1000 world ranking, lead Africa
Source: The Guardian Nigeria

Philippines, S. Africa in air talks
Source: Business World Online

Avoid unhealthy competition, PM tells universities
Source: New Vision

Gambian passport is 5th most powerful in Africa – report
Source: Star Africa

Ugandan president accuses sex as root of African problems
Source: Business Standard

Guinea-Bissau gets new government
Source: IOL News

Ugandans celebrate Pride in secret, despite anti-gay laws
Source: Gay Star News

Could it be that African farmers are seeking new jobs?
Source: GhanaWeb

Uganda salutes USA Independence
Source: New Vision

No visa required: Africa’s most powerful passports
Source: How We Made It in Africa

Nine low-income African countries win funding to transform renewable energy services
Source: Star Africa

Into Africa: Capturing unforgettable memories on a photo expedition
Source: The Anniston Star

Malawi celebrates fifty years of independence
Source: Aljazeera

Electrify, energize and power Africa: Partnering with Africa for the long run
Source: Business Day

Jill Biden Travels to East Congo on Africa Tour
Source: ABC News

This time for Africa: why India must woo this continent
Source: Hindustan Times

Uganda army kills 41 'tribal gunmen' near DRC
Source: Aljazeera

Airtel to work with Government in developing ICT and help fight Ebola
Source: PC Tech Magazine

Unrefined oil politics: How close links to Mbabazi cost Chinese US$3bn deal
Source: The Independent

New Africa Book of the Day - 4 July 2014

Africa Beyond the Mirror, by Boubacar Boris Diop, translated from the French by Vera Wülfing-Leckie and Caroline Beschea-Fache

Release Date: July 10, 2014
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Boubacar Boris Diop's latest collection of essays pushes the reader to look beyond the many clichés that are all too common currency in descriptions of Africa today. From the perspective of such diverse topics as the Rwandan genocide, African literature, and globalization, Diop interrogates the portrayal of Africa in the international media and points to truths that must be told—and heard.

Contents:

Introduction.
Rwanda: Against the Habit of Misery.
Remembering Genocide Through Art.
Yolande Mukagasana: Talking to the Killers.
Kigali-Paris: The Two-Headed Massacre.
Beloved Country, My Beautiful People!
Senegal Between Cheikh Anta Diop and Léopold Sédar Senghor.
The New Wretched Earth.
A Letter to a Friend About the Sinking of the Joola.
African Literature: Words Versus Things.
Write and ... Keep Quiet!
Mongo Beti and Us.
Exchange to Change Our World.
Carona, The Global Village.
Negro-African Identity and Globalization.
Invisible Cities and the Armchair Traveler.

Senegalese author Boubacar Boris Diop has also written Murambi, The Book of Bones (2006), La gloire des imposteurs (2014, with Aminata Dramane Traore), Le Temps de Tamango (2002, with Mongo Beti), and Louise Im Blauweiss Gestreiften Leibchen (2011).

Africa News Headlines for 3 July 2014

Will Ethiopia’s New Sovereign Credit Rating Increase Foreign Investment?
Source: Brookings/Africa in Focus

Arab Spring Largely Ignored in Sub-Saharan Africa
Source; Gallup World

West Africa fertile ground for pharmas
Source: Destiny Connect

Ex-Ugandan intelligence chief warns against military intervention in S. Sudan
Source: Sudan Tribune

Equatorial Guinea disqualified from Africa Cup of Nations
Source: Soccerway

Africa: Four reasons skilled workers leave - and how to keep them
Source: Radio Netherlands

Analysis: Uganda sucked into CAR vortex
Source: Daily Maverick

Africa: On the frontier
Source: Financial Times

E-commerce could challenge bricks and mortar retail in Africa
Source Bizcommunity.com

RED ALERT: Africa's vulture population in danger
Source: The Himalayan

African nations give Rwandan rebels six months to disarm
Source: Ahram Online

John Githongo: corruption in Kenya is poisoning politics
Source The Guardian

Kagame hosts Museveni, Kenyatta for integration meet
Source: New Vision

How fast is Africa really growing?
Source: Business Times

Challenges of transit trade and trade facilitation in West Africa addressed by UNCTAD at workshop
Source: UNCTAD

Central African Republic: “It’s the Economy, Stupid!”
Source; Africa in Transition

China is a force for good in Africa
Source: People's Daily

Camco, Eiser to help run Africa fund
Source: ReCharge

China Continues to Expand Its Influence into Africa
Source: IVN

Thai ivory boom 'fuelling Africa elephant crisis'
Source: New Vision

African-Elephant Poaching Soars as Ivory Prices Triple in China
Source: TIME

Analysis: Understanding organized crime in Africa
Source: IRIN

What are the Chinese up to in Africa?
Source: The Spectator

PSD student to be ‘youth ambassador’ in South Africa
Source: Coloradoan

Tech solutions from Africa: The next big thing?
Source: Deutsche Welle

African wildlife-hunting cheerleader Kendall Jones targeted by critics
Source: Fox News

Ugandans ignorant about the East African Court of Justice
Source: New Vision

Booming economies are not boosting employment in Africa, why?
Source: The Guardian

Africa Must Have Coherent Approach to Trade Negotiations
Source: Ghana Broadcasting Corporation

Africa's number crunchers leave investors in the dark
Source: Reuters

Africa's Richest Man To Build 11 Health Centers in Nigeria To Combat Polio
Source: Forbes

Electrify Africa, Energize Africa and Power Africa: Partnering With Africa for the Long Run
Source: Roll Call

US warns of terror threat at Ugandan airport, nearly 4 decades after deadly hijacking
Source: Fox News

Ugandan president calls Western aid ‘unreligious,’ ‘sinful’
Source: The Washington Times

African Union sponsors AGOA retreat for Washington diplomatic corps

On July 2 and 3, the African Union Mission to the United States will host a retreat for African diplomats based in Washington, D.C., to discuss prospects for renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Held at the Bolger Center in the Washington suburb of Potomac, Maryland, the two-day event will feature several panel discussions, presentations, white papers, and open-ended conversations about AGOA's past successes and failures and what the future holds for U.S.-African trade relations.

The opening panel on the morning of July 2 will be moderated by Tanzanian Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, with remarks by Ambassador Amina S. Ali of the African Union Mission, the AU's commissioner for trade and industry, Mrs. Fatima Haram Acyl, and Ethiopian Ambassador Girma Birru, who also chairs the AGOA Consultative Group.

The second panel of the day is called "Reauthorization of AGOA: The State of Play, Challenges, and Opportunities." The moderator will be Ambassador Girma, with a presentation by Botswana's Ambassador Tebelelo Mazile Seretse and a white paper read by Jane Karonga, a program management officer at the African Trade Policy Center and the Regional Integration and Trade Division of UNECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa). The panel will also include a presentation on strategies for the reauthorization of AGOA by South African Ambassador Ibrahim Rasool.

After lunch on Wednesday, there will be a discussion led by Moono Mupotola, division manager for NEPAD Regional Integration & Trade Department at the African Development Bank (AfDB) on the topic, "The African Development Bank: Its Role in Supporting U.S.-African Trade and in Advocating the Renewal of AGOA." The discussion about this paper will be moderated by Zambian Ambassador Palan Mulonda.

That panel will be followed by a discussion with the unwieldy subject "the Implications of the Multilateral Trade Negotiations and Regional Agreements on the Process of AGOA Reauthorization." Professor Molapi Sebatane, ambassador of the Kingdom of Lesotho, will moderate the conversation, which will include a presentation about the European Union's economic partnership agreements (EPAs) by Namibia's ambassador in Brussels, Hanno Berkhard Rumpf.

The day's events will close with a discussion about the next AGOA Forum, moderated by Senegalese Ambassador Cheikh Niang.

The second day will begin with presentations by U.S. government officials, moderated by South African Ambassador Rasool, followed by presentations by U.S. congressional staff members from the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. That second panel will be moderated by Malawian Ambassador Steve Matenje.

The post-lunch panel will include presentations from various private sector organizations, including think tanks and representatives of the African diaspora. Cameroonian Ambassador Joseph B.C. Foe-Atangana will moderate.

The day will close with a summing-up conversation moderated by the Ambassador of Mozambique, Mrs. Amelia Matos Sumbana, and farewell remarks by Commissioner Fatima Haram Acyl.

Africa News Headlines for 1 July 2014

Oscar Pistorius ruled sane, as South Africa again transfixed by murder trial (+video)
Source: Christian Science Monitor

John Oliver Breaks Down the U.S. Influence on Uganda's Anti-Gay Laws
Source: The Wire

Priest Pioneers Peace Process Amid CAR’s Chaos
Source: Eurasia Review

Detained journalist to appear in #Swazi court
Source: MWC News

Is the United States Cutting Aid to Uganda Going to Help?
Source: Care2

Industrialise, Africa's Least Developed Countries urged
Source: IPP Media

Texas teen hunts game in Africa, petition asks Facebook to take down her pictures
Source: KVUE-TV

UN blacklists Ugandan group for using child soldiers
Source; Aljazeera America

Tropical countries' growing wealth may aid conservation
Source: Phys.org

Marzouki Visits Sahel Seeking Investment Opportunities
Source: Tunisia Live

Top Turkish real estate company to invest in Uganda
Source: New Vision

Kenya wants Modi visit
Source: Business Standard

Uganda TV station banned after showing president asleep in parliament
Source: Citi 97.3 FM

Global viewpoint: African cement sector
Source: World Cement

John Oliver goes after Uganda’s anti-gay law (Video)
Source: Washington Post

Obama's Secret Neo-Con Agenda
Source: Forbes

To Save Nigeria's Girls From Boko Haram, We'll Need to Help the Boys Too
Source: Take Part

Soccer: African Islamism and the “Beautiful Game”
Source: Africa in Transition

‘Oil to cash’ module can reduce corruption
Source: GhanaWeb

Kenyans can now register business via phones
Source: Capital FM

Kabila May Change Congo’s Constitution To Hang Onto Power
Source: AFK Insider

For Rangers on the Front Lines of Anti-Poaching Wars, Daily Trauma
Source: National Geographic