FranceAfrique and the burden of the CFA

And Francophone Africa thinks its independent? Sanou Mbaye writes about the yoke of the CFA franc:

More appalling is the fact that France guarantees the CFA franc’s free convertibility into hard currency, originally on the condition that all 15 Franc Zone countries surrender 100% of their foreign reserves to the French Treasury. The amount was reduced to 65%, and then 50%, in 2005, but France still deducts its share directly from these countries’ export earnings.
Moreover, the mandatory 20% foreign exchange cover stipulated in the convention signed with France in 1962 now stands at 110%. And a foreign-exchange control enacted in 1993 ensures that only France benefits from this capital drain by limiting the free flow of capital to France alone. The ensuing massive capital flight has bled the region’s economies and eroded their competitiveness.

More here
via Loomnie

...why Africans can't speak for themselves?

Bunmi Oloruntoba of Bombastic Elements asks?:

...why Africans can't speak for themselves. Well, no African I know of has that degree of media enabled celebrity to combine with advocacy in order to amass the amount of soft power it takes to leverage and access political power in ways the Bonos, Geldofs, Brajelinas, Oprahs and others can. That's why they do the talking to the donors on our behalf and what I guess we find annoying, apart from them, is the how aid to Africa, under late capitalism, works better for them rather than us.
It's time to start thinking of the poverty fighting industry like we are learning to think of Wall Street, credit default swaps and the whole industry of debt creation; like the director of "Enjoy Poverty," Renzo Martins, alludes to, Africa's poverty is now a resource and it is those who have accumulated massive amounts of soft power that can leverage this resource to, on one hand, fight the same poverty, and on the other hand do with it whatever

More here

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Technology is a Culture and a Mindset

Bright Simmons writing in Ashoka Tech:

Africa has been consigned to the passive consumption of technology rather than the latter’s utilisation for transformation in view of this “charitisation” of tech transfer. Such a pattern of appropriation is inert, and, by so being, also an added drag on a continent buffeted by retrogressive currents. Technology is disseminated in the same design that other commodities are distributed, thereby entrenching patterns of underdevelopment. In the past 50 years, matters have steadily become worse.

Continuing he asserts that:

Technology is not merely a catalogue of tools. It is a culture and a mindset. It is an approach to getting ahead, taking over, making do, reaching out, and thinking through. A worldview animated by technology is a counterpoint to one decorated by mythology. No one argues that mythology can’t be beautiful. Mythology requires as much creative and persuasive power to get right as technology since it also requires social buy-in. But where we are interested in poverty-busting development, I bet you, dear readers, that in any prudent society technology must come up tops.

More here

" Women Are Heroes?"

Why the emphasis on misery? And the single story... from Medecins sans frontieres

Building Transperancy

From the Global Voices Technology for Transparency project:

Technology for transparency projects stand to benefit more Africans. However for this to be realised, it is necessary that the project leaders do more promotion of their projects, and aggressively and collectively lobby their governments to provide a safe working environment. The project leaders also need to be more creative in reaching out to illiterate people in rural areas. For funders, they should consider more funding towards personnel, operating costs, and technical training.

More here

Unlock Africa's migrant fortune

Image via Wikipedia

Sanou Mbaye on reasons for renewed growth in the continent:

Many factors have contributed to this upturn. Emerging-market demand has pushed up commodity prices. Urbanisation has given rise to a dynamic informal sector. Improved governance, higher food production, increased inter-regional trade, debt cancellation, better use of official development assistance (ODA), and thriving telecommunications and housing markets have helped as well.
But transfers from the African diaspora stand out as the most significant contributing factor. A study commissioned by the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development indicates that more than 30 million individuals living outside their countries of origin contribute more than $40bn annually in remittances to their families and communities back home. For sub-Saharan African countries, remittances increased from $3.1bn in 1995 to $18.5bn in 2007, according to the World Bank, representing between 9% and 24% of GDP and 80-750% of ODA...[continue reading]

How Asians are becoming a Philanthropists

A while ago George Soros answered the question "How does one Become a Philanthropist?"with the answer, "Get Rich First".Rising Asia is proving him right the FT reports "As Asia emerges, so do philanthropists":

Asia’s emerging wealthy elite don’t have a wide reputation for giving to charity, but new data shows they have not been getting the credit they deserve.India this week become the first BRIC country to be ranked a major donor by Save the Children, reflecting widening philanthropy in the world’s fastest growing economy after China. It is now on a par with donors like Italy, Germany, Romania and South Korea.International non-governmental organisations are registering the highest growth of donors anywhere in the world among growing Asian economies.

More here

Where are the other Iboris?

In Sahara Reporters Okey Ndibe writes:

A nation that jails or amputates the limbs of petty thieves, but encourages its big thieves to run for the presidency – such a nation is bound to sail from one disaster to another. There are many Iboris in the space called Nigeria. It’s our individual and collective challenge to ensure that there’s neither rest nor hiding place for these plunderers – neither in Abuja nor in Dubai

.

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"Why are Muslims so hypersensitive?"

Ayaan Hirsi Ali discusses tolerance and Islam during an interview about her new book Nomad:

If you compare the way Muslims take offence at perceived insults that are not insults, but are just a critical way of looking at their religion, then I start to ask myself, why are Muslims so hypersensitive to criticism and why don't they do anything with it except to respond by denying it or playing the victim? And I've come to the conclusion it's because of the gradual indoctrination – from parents, teachers – that everything in the Qur'an is true; Muhammad is infallible, you have to follow his example and defend Islam at all times, at all costs.

More here

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Africa Town Guangzhou

In the Globe and Mail Tristan Coloma reports on the African immigrant/trader community network in China:

This place is not really China, nor is it Africa; it lies in the midst of major highways in Guangzhou, southern China (formerly known as Canton). Officially, 20,000 Africans – probably more like 100,000 – live in or pass through the 10 square kilometres of “Africa Town,” where Igbo, Wolof and Lingala mingle with Mandarin and Cantonese. Some Chinese call it “Chocolate Town.”...In this roaring city of 18 million inhabitants and tens of thousands of micro-factories, the commercial activity is very different from the oil deals and huge public-works contracts the Chinese have secured in Africa.“We’re not here for fun,” said Ibrahim Kader Traore, an entrepreneur from Ivory Coast. “We work hard and do well. In Abidjan, people still swear by France, where you might be able to save $13,000 over 25 years; in China, you can have $130,000 in just five years.”...[continue reading]

On the question of who Chinese should be dealing with:

A new transnational African business class may be emerging, which could flood sub-Saharan Africa with low-cost products from China. “China is trying to keep things at government level,” said Mr. Barry, “but the Chinese people will soon realize that it’s better for business to deal directly with ordinary Africans.” China would prefer Africans to do business with China without living here, yet 90 per cent of Guangzhou’s Africans act as intermediaries between the African continent and Chinese factories.

Image courtesy of the Globe & Mail

France's continuing Shenanigans in Africa

In the BBC, more of the same from France and Francophone Africa:

Image via Wikipedia

...since he took office, President Sarkozy has perpetuated France's time-honoured tradition of parallel diplomacy in Africa.One set of advisers presides in public over the official business with Africa, while high-ranking Elysee staff, in tandem with unofficial middlemen, is in charge of the lucrative and highly personalised politics that Mr Sarkozy denounced during his presidential campaign...[continue reading]

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A new Nigerian-ness is infusing the nation

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes in the Globe & Mail:

Fifteen years ago, what little Nigerian pop music existed was niche. Today, it is mainstream cool. The young musicians are legitimate stars; some are very talented, others leave me puzzled about why anybody would listen to them, but what is never in doubt is how central they are in the newly energized self-image that young Nigerians have of themselves. The music is cross-cultural, polyglot, derivative, but is also, at its core, very nationalist. It is music whose centre is its Nigerian-ness.

More here

The Mythology of Eurocentricism

Reason Wafawarova on Eurocentrism:

European history, Western values, as well as Western democracy are all mythological concepts -- they are pretty much a well-packaged set of propaganda designed to create in us a personality other than our own, a culture divorced from our own reality, and beliefs that have nothing or very little to do with our own setting.

More here

Reacting to "Welcome to Lagos"

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani on Nigerian reactions to Welcome to Lagos:

...hardly have I come across passionate expressions of "Oh my goodness! There are people in our country living like this? What shall we do about them? How fast can we act?"
The Nigerian obsession with image often approaches neurotic proportions. What people think of us appears to take manic precedence over who we really are. You might imagine that the rational response to some of the infamies we are accused of across the globe would be: "Are we really like this? If we are, then let's do something about it – quick." Instead, we perpetually harangue and speechify to "correct" the world's impressions of us. If it isn't moaning about the depiction of Nigerians as criminals in the movie District 9, it is berating Hillary Clinton for daring to describe the situation in our country as heartbreaking and our leadership as a failure, or boycotting Oprah for warning against Nigerian 419 scams on her show.

More here

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The Rise of Blogging

Current TV profiles bloggers in the DRC and Chad:

via "Usnico"

A Pool of Youthful Talent

TMS Ruge on the potential of Africa's youth:

What would be your guess if I told you that there is such a place in the world synonymous with world-class innovation? What if I told that if you wanted to make a name for yourself as an innovator over the next five years, this is place to be? If I said it is a wide-open marketplace standing a billion customers strong with a cumulative GDP growth projected at 7 per cent by 2011, what say you? What if I screamed it is a youthful pool of talent, half a billion under the age of 15? What if I told you it has the highest potential for ICT sector growth than anywhere else in the world? What would be your first thought?...[continue reading]

More on Clustering - From Tailors to Mini Manufacturers

A paper by John E. Akotena and Keijiro Otsuka on Kenyan Garment clusters shows:

...that the well educated and highly socially networked tailors who are capable of producing a certain product quality standard are likely to link up with traders to become mini-manufacturers over time. This suggests that transactions with traders enable mini-manufacturers to outperform tailors, thereby contributing to the transformation of the mode of industrial production in developing economies.

Photo courtesy of Donkey Crossing

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ICT does not need Aid-Hamadoun Touré

From This is Africa ICT can stand on its own two feet:

In October of that year ITU held the “Connect Africa Summit” in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. The meeting brought together governments, the development community and, crucially, international investors, to discuss issues such as broadband infrastructure development and enabling policy. Over 1000 participants attended the meeting, which resulted in investment commitments totalling $55bn, to be spent over five years.
“Connect Africa was a big success,” says Mr Touré(SG of the ITU), stressing that much of this pledged investment is from the private sector, both domestic and international.
“This is money that the private sector wants to invest and make a profit, not give out to anyone or spend as part of corporate social responsibility.”

More here

Redraw the Borders?

G. Paschal Zachary revisits the issue of the continents borders in FP:

Silence about borders has become Africa's pathology, born in the era of strongman leaders that followed decolonialization. Loath to lose any of their newly independent land, the continent's leaders upheld a gentleman's agreement to favor "stability" over change. Today, the unfortunate result is visible in nearly every corner of Africa: from a divided Nigeria, to an ungovernable Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to the very real but unrecognized state in Somaliland. Borders created through some combination of ignorance and malice are today one of the continent's major barriers to building strong, competent states. No initiative would do more for happiness, stability, and economic growth in Africa today than an energetic and enlightened redrawing of these harmful lines.

More here

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Africa’s youth: An energy to liberate or detonate

Ken Saro Wiwa asks:

...where, I wonder, are the younger, vibrant leaders who can harness the energy of Africa’s increasingly youthful, urban and restless societies?

continuing he adds:

“Do any of my colleagues in government have the vision and conceptual tools to channel this youthful energy to the common good? ”

More here
photo courtesy of the Globe & Mail

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Post liberalization Kenya

"...Kenyas middle class has grown to 10 percent of the urban population — or 1.5 million people — making Kenya home to one of the largest middle class populations in sub-Saharan Africa.Government deregulation stimulated economic growth and turned Nairobbery — a former nickname for the city — into a booming economic center. Nairobi reflects this trend with multinational businesses, towering office buildings and a growing middle class..."More here
HT June Arunga

Jacqueline Kasha

Jacqueline Kasha "...is the founder and director of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), the only exclusively lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersexual organization in Uganda. FARUG strives for the attainment of full equal rights and the eradication of all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Jacqueline and others established the group as a platform for both socializing and political activism in an intolerant environment..." Oslo Freedom Forum.

Lindaba Ziyafika "The News is coming"

Ethan Zuckerman reports on Lindaba Ziyafika a sms news creation and dissemination project:

Harry Dugmore of Rhodes University is working on a pioneering project to provide news and information into urban neighborhoods in South Africa via mobile phones. The project – Lindaba Ziyafika (the news is coming) – is designed to create and distribute news in the context of the “techno-social flux” that South Africa is experiencing...The journalists behind the Lindaba Ziyafika project are largely unemployed adults in their early 20s. They’re producing content that’s ending up in the 140 year old newspaper that serves Grahamstown. The content is distributed first via online media – SMS, messages through systems like MXit (an incredibly clever hack that uses the cheaper data connectivity available on African cellphones to evade the huge expenses of SMS messages)

More here

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Peter Nwangwu & University Financing

Peter Nwangu in 2007 on an alternate path for more entrepreneurial university financing, for the UNN he proposed:

...raising the investment capital of N14 billion, the management of University of Nigeria Research and Economic Development (UNRED) Foundation shall orchestrate several specific investment and industrial activities under the umbrella of several limited liability companies each headed by a seasoned managing director. Some of these investment and industrial activities are already well defined; others will be selected by consensus based on opportunities in the market place. Specific activities that have been selected and defined include:
UNRED Investment and Acquisition Company:
About 20 to 25 per cent of the N14 billion total capital raised by UNRED shall be allocated to sensible and carefully thought out investments and acquisitions. The managing director of UNRED Investment and Acquisition Company shall operate under the guidance of UNRED Investments Committee to span the national and International Investments market to select prime and profitable capital growth opportunities. This shall be characterized by a good mix of aggressive short-term, high yield capital growth opportunities, and long term stable prime instruments, designed to yield and secure a minimum of 60% annually as a mixed portfolio..."

Makaa: Fighting Angola's Corruption

Founded by Rafael Marques de Morais Makaa is:

"...dedicated to the struggle against corruption in Angola. It deals with the dynamics of Angolan political economy, paying particular attention to the way in which top state officials mix up their public duties with their private interests, to socio-economic exclusion, and to the abuse of human rights by business interests..."

Listen to Devin Stewart interviewing Rafael Marques here
via Africa Works

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"Innovation at the Coal Face"

Image via CrunchBase

Sean Park on where innovation is coming from:

I have written often (for example here and here) on the subject of how more and more of the most interesting and disruptive innovations and business models of the 21st century and of the sixth paradigm will emerge from the “edges” of the global economy. Newly empowered by the continuing advances in information and communications technologies, and building off the powerful emergent platforms of the sixth paradigm (mobile, cloud, etc.), entrepreneurs in places like India and Africa will design and popularize some of the most potent business models going forward.

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Applauding the Shadow City Dwellers of 'Welcome to Lagos'

In Postconsumption Niti Bhan commends the "business flair of Nigeria's slum dwellers"highlighted in 'Welcome to Lagos':

In three programmes, series producer Will Anderson assembles a number of hugely likeable, articulate and witty people who live on garbage heaps, in beachside shanty towns and slums on stilts in the city's lagoon. Their tales build an intimate portrait of a city brimming with entrepreneurial flair, resilience, tough-mindedness and hope. This is not the apocalyptic urban vision with which Lagos has become synonymous and about which development experts sweat as the population of 16m climbs steadily towards a forecast 25m.Instead, it is a hymn to humanity and to the capacity of Africans to find means and motive to survive in even the most adverse conditions.

More here
Photo courtesy of the BBC

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Leading in Reconciliation?

Barnaby Phillips writing in Al Jazeera:

Poor leadership in Africa has resulted in wars, poverty and famines. Africa’s past certainly exerts a malign influence; the colonial legacy is one of arbitrary borders, ethnic divisions and lack of education.But what Africa seems uniquely good at is forgiveness and reconciliation. When it comes to moving on from bouts of terrible bloodshed and conflict, and not allowing bitter memories to derail the struggle for progress, Africa has much to teach other continents...In fact, such is Africa's skill in reconciliation that it's even produced a model, since copied, with varying degrees of success, around the world...[continue reading]

Understanding Clusters

Steve Daniels writing in the Postconsumption:

All throughout the developing world one can find geospatial clusters of informal enterprises that have grown either through an organic capital accumulation process or a government allocation of land. In Kenya, a number of such clusters exist: Gikomba, Kamukunji, Kariobangi, Ziwani, Kibuye, and Quarry Road to name just a few. These clusters start out as grouping of either producers or traders and will likely end up as a mix of manufacturing and market activities. Clustering is what allows informal microenterprises to produce efficiently--they rely on a well-developed ecosystem of producers, suppliers, machinists, and traders to provide services, each with minimal operating costs. Linkages among enterprises can be horizontal (labor pooling, sharing machines, etc.) or vertical (relationships with suppliers and traders, associations, etc.).

More here

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The 'Olokun head' was 'made in' Africa after all

In the Independent:

Ever since a pure copper sculpture was found buried in a palm grove near the Nigerian city of Ife, experts from the West have argued that the artefact was a fake that was too sophisticated to have been created by African hands...At the time of discovery, the head was considered too great a masterpiece to have been created by indigenous African artists – a reflection of prevailing attitudes of the early 20th century. Some Europeans even theorised that the work was a remnant from the lost city of Atlantis. A spokeswoman for the British Museum said when the head travelled to the West, it caused a huge stir because "it flew in the face of Western perceptions" (of African heritage and cultural achievements).It is now accepted by the curatorial community that the advanced artistic techniques used to create the sculpture were "more advanced than those of Renaissance Italy, and comparable to those of [the artist] Donatello".

More here

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The Delusion of being Independent

Hama Tuma in Pambazuka

A national flag, a black oppressor in a Mercedes Benz and a Rolls Royce, palaces and corrupt and hedonistic existence for the few and Africans were expected to hail this as freedom and salvation. Those who said the emperor was actually naked and that colonialism has continued in a new garb (with the old stink in place) were quickly silenced. Belgian and CIA agents collaborated to have Patrice Lumumba murdered. Freedom fighters Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie and later on Mondlane, Machel and Cabral were gotten rid off in one way or another. Pan-Africanists with a strong anti imperialist stance were made victims of foreign-engineered coups, as in Ghana and Nkrumah. Colonialism never left but wore a new mask; Africa was doomed as the traitors had a field day, selling the whole continent without any scruples or qualms.

More Here
Photo courtesy of Ghennet Girma

Industrial Clusters re-visited

Chris Blattman points us to new research on shoemaking industrial clusters in Ethiopia:

A major finding is that the growth ofthis industry was driven initially by the massive entry of new enterprises established by former employees of the existing shoe factories but more recently by the growth in enterprise sizes due to improvements in the quality of products, marketing, and management.Such improvements were first made by highly educated entrepreneurs and subsequently followed by other enterprises. While the followers have grown in size, the leading enterprises have grown faster.Such a development pattern appears similar to the experience of successful cluster-based industrial development in China,Taiwan, and Japan.

So what’s the secret to African industrial development? He asks

An industry ceases to grow when the profitability of producing low-quality products falls as their market supply increases relative to marke tdemand. This is typically the case if the increase in market supply is not accompanied by improvements in product quality. By contrast, those clusters where product quality was successfully improved have continued to grow

Financing SME's contd.

More on the finance for the 'missing middle' in This is Africa:

While small enterprises are the lifeblood of African economies, they often struggle for financing. but are things changing?...reforms to the business environment in several countries, particularly Rwanda, and a degree of coalescence by international development financiers and investors around an understanding of the social and economic importance of SME development mean that increasing amounts of time and money are being spent on understanding and addressing the needs of this complex market segment. Together these businesses are more often than not the principal employer in any given country. They compose anywhere from 60 to 80 percent of most African economies, with the variance generally more a matter of definition than of structure. Furthermore, owner-entrepreneurs drive the creation of a middle class, a crucial factor in countries’ movement out of poverty and in their development as markets for international investment...

More here

Nollywood's Film Industry Second only to Bollywood in Scale

Spiegal Online on Nollywood:

At least 900 films will be produced in Nigeria this year, twice as many as in Hollywood. Nollywood is a $200-million (€148-million) business in a country where 70 percent of the population still lives on less than $1 a day, where residents can consider themselves lucky if the power is on for two hours a day, and where raw sewage runs through open canals along the streets. It is a country known throughout the world for corruption, Internet fraud, prostitution and oil, but certainly not for its film culture...[continue reading]

photo courtesy of Spiegal

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