"I dated a cult guy".

In Farafina Books Uche Okonkwo writes about Nigeria's cult menace :

Uche Okonkwo courtesy of Farafina

They all liked to call themselves bad guys, but she knew Toju; he wasn’t one of those bad ones. He only talked tough and acted like them when he was with them, so he could fit in. With her he was gentle and sweet and sensitive, just the way she liked her men. He had only joined Triple X for protection; he didn’t want anyone to ride on him. And he wasn’t even that active sef. He just coasted along; present enough in their midst to be seen, absent enough to be forgotten. She didn’t bother to ask how come, then, he was the Capo’s right hand man...[continue reading]

President Jonathan as a Feudal Pawn

From Salisu Suleiman:

Are there any connections with the fact that the more feudal a system, the poorer and less educated the majority of people within those systems usually are? Consider this – two of the most feudal institutions in Nigeria – the Sokoto Sultanate and the Borno Emirate have significantly lower western literacy levels than is common. But these examples apart, President Goodluck Jonathan, in his attempt to win the April 2011 elections has inadvertently waddled into a decades old social and political struggle for the soul of the North...[continue reading]

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Chokepoint Project

From the P2P Foundation:

WHEN the Egyptian authorities realised protesters were using the internet to organise themselves in January, they came up with a simple solution: in an instant they disconnected the nation, cutting off anti-government dissidents from an invaluable resource. The outage inspired James Burke and Chris Pinchen – both members of the P2P Foundation - to begin work on the ChokePoint Project. The idea is to compile a real-time interactive map of the entire internet and identify potential choke points – the physical and virtual locations where internet access could be easily compromised – and who has the power to strangle them.

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Grassroots Economic Organizing

Bottom-up models for Business building in GEO:

The Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives' development effort began in the 1990s and has started five new bakery cooperatives creating around 100 new democratic jobs. The businesses have generally been successful financially after a short startup period and two of them are now over ten years old, with very low worker turnover, high quality reputation, and close community connections. The development method emphasizes attaining a baseline of business success as a foundation from which other social goals may be pursued. Inspirations for the model came from two sources: the Mondragon cooperatives, which gained financial security from their networked business development and continued technical assistance, and the American franchise system, which benefits from a wide market presence and shared administrative support. Because the workers in the stores govern the central administration, the analogy of an "upside-down franchise" has sometimes been used.

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Memoirs of a Dervish

In Think Africa Tom Little reviews Memoirs of a Dervish:

Robert Irwin begins his recently published Memoirs of a Dervish with the words, “It was in my first year at Oxford that I decided that I wanted to become a Muslim saint”. His entertaining and enlightening memoir recounts his travels in post-independence Algeria, his involvement in Islamic mystical orders there and the various “ludicrous and half-witted aspects of the hippy sixties” he encounters during his time as a student in Oxford and London...[continue reading]

Nigeria and Austrian Lace

The Style House Files on an interesting fashion and trade relationship:

Frank Osodi

The beginnings of Austrian lace exports to Nigeria can be traced all the way back to the 1960′s. Trade has been documented even prior to these dates through intermediaries, but it was during this time that the first Austrian lace pioneers sought personal contact with textile traders along Kosoko Street on Lagos Island. Withstanding political and historical ups and downs throughout the decades (such as the oil boom in the 70′s, the nationalization and various import bans on textiles in 1976 as well as 2005, the last one of which was lifted in 2010), the relationship has now grown to be much more than just trade. Nigerian traders soon started counter-visits to Austria, resulting in mutually trusting relationships, some of which have been continuing for over 40 years.

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Dysfunctional Policies and Food Production

Mariamé Touré Ouattara writing in Open Democracy:

There is little common ground between the realities faced by the population of Burkina Faso and international requirements and the shortfall in grain production and worsening of hunger in the past years can largely be attributed to this fact. It is not that farmers are unable to produce a sufficient quantity of food, it is that they find themselves in a political system that will not allow them to fulfill their potential. Not consulted in policy debates and uninvited to discussions, they feel excluded from the system when in reality they are key actors. What is more, farmers do not always understand how policy demands play out in these domains. Yet these are the people who suffer the effects of policy choices. In my view, the problem really lies here at the level of policy.

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Peter Oloya-Sculptor

In Freedom to Create:

Ugandan sculptor Peter Oloya uses sculpture as a form of therapy to overcome a profound, personal trauma. When he was a child, he witnessed the deaths of friends and family who were victims of the bloody insurgency waged by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Peter's work draws on traditional African visual art to depict the savage reality of war...[continue reading]

'Home' by Nneka

Watch NNEKA 's new single "home"video directed by andy amadi okoroafor.

Senegal's Musical Activists

The NYTimes on Senegal's activist rappers:

Senegalese rappers and other members of Y'En A Marre  Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Pres

In Senegal, the political mainstream appears stagnant and the musicians anything but, which explains why laid-back musicians with stage names like Fou Malade (“Crazy Sick Guy”) and Thiat (“Junior”) are leading a vigorous demonstration movement against the country’s octogenarian president, who does not want to leave office.
The usual regional trappings of power — a $27 million monumental statue overlooking the capital, a new presidential plane, tinkering with the country’s Constitution — have not gone down well in a poor but proud West African country used to something better. They have led to a season of revolt, on the North African model, in this coastal country, a former French colony.

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How Africa Lost Libya

Knox Chitiyo writing in the Guardian:

The revolution has moved Libya into the democratic wave of the Arab spring. There will be continued interactions between Libya and Africa; but culturally, ideologically and financially, Libya has moved towards a greater identification with its north African, Middle Eastern and south Mediterranean neighbours. Libya is embracing its Arab heritage.
In a way this should be no surprise: Gaddafi's embrace of pan-Africanism, while popular south of the Sahara, had little backing from Libyans. But the question of support for Libya's revolution has divided sub-Saharan Africa.... The momentous changes of the Arab spring herald the emergence of a new African dynamic. Pan-Africanist ideals of solidarity and African empowerment continue to resonate; but we may also be moving towards a "post-Africanism" – an Africa which sees itself as part of an interlinked global community. In some ways, we are moving towards an Africa without borders – a globalised Africa. Thus Africa should not wallow in Afro-pessimism about "losing Libya". We never "had" Libya. The new Libya, warts and all, is an opportunity for Africa, not a threat to be punished. Africa should engage with the new Libya and, in so doing, with itself.

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Wide Open Walls

In Design Indaba:

courtesy of Design Indaba

Wide Open Walls is an initiative of Lawrence Williams, one of the owners of the Makasatu conservation project at Mandina in The Gambia. A keen artist, Williams has been working with local artists on a creative project called Bushdwellers. Envisioning the project to work as an art installation, while also promoting the region as a tourist destination, Williams was keen to expand the project by collaborating with other creatives. Recently Wide Open Walls and Write on Africa with Ricky Lee Gordon, joined creative forces to encourage inspiration and urban rejuvenation through special event and art initiatives in public spaces. The aim of the project was to “inspire ourselves to inspires others to inspire change”...[continue reading]

Rocky Dawuni-Singer Songwriter

CNN profiles Rocky Dawuni:

...based in Los Angeles, Dawuni has recorded five albums and performed alongside global stars such as Stevie Wonder on some of the world's biggest stages. Crafting songs through education Rocky Dawuni still grounded in Ghana But perhaps his most impressive feat so far has been the creation of the Independence Splash festival in Ghana, an annual event that attracts thousands of music lovers and also raises awareness for a series of social causes, including provision of clean water and education for girls

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Make The Revolution - Anil Dash

Today World Maker Faire, New York City opens, in just over two weeks Maker Faire Africa will debut in Cairo Egypt. A year ago Anil Dash wrote a timely and relevant piece about the 'Maker Movement' and its revolutionary attributes:

Image of Alex Odundo's Sisal Decoriticator at Maker Faire Africa 2010

Today, Dale Dougherty and the dozens of others who have led Maker Faire, and the culture of "making", are in front of a movement of millions who are proactive about challenging the constrictions that law and corporations are trying to place on how they communicate, create and live. The lesson that simply making things is a radical political act has enormous precedence in political history; I learned it well as a child when my own family's conversation after a screening of Gandhi turned to the salt protests in India, which were first catalyzed in my family's home state of Orissa, and found out that my great-grandfather had walked alongside Gandhi and others in the salt marches that followed. Today's American Tea Partiers see even the original "tea party" largely as a metaphor, but the salt marches were a declaration of self-determination as expressed through manufacturing that took the symbolism of the Boston Tea Party and made it part of everyday life.
To his last day, my great-grandfather wore khadi, the handspun clothing that didn't just represent independence from the British Raj in an abstract way, but made defiance of onerous British regulation as plain as the clothes on one's back. At Maker Faire this weekend, there were numerous examples of clothing that were made to defy laws about everything from spectrum to encryption law. It would have been only an afternoon's work to construct a t-shirt that broadcast CSS-descrambling code over unauthorized spectrum in defiance of the DMCA.
And if we put the making movement in the context of other social and political movements, it's had amazing success. In city after city, year after year, tens of thousands of people pay money to show up and learn about taking control of their media, learning, consumption and communications. In contrast to groups like the Tea Party, the crowd at Maker Faire is diverse, includes children and adults of all ages, and never finds itself in conflict with other groups based on identity or politics. More importantly, the jobs that many of us have in 2030 will be determined by young people who attended a Maker Faire, in industries that they've created. There is no other political movement in America today with a credible claim at creating the jobs of the future.

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Hacking & Culture with FAT Lab

In PBS:

As we become more and more engaged with the internet in every aspect of our lives, powerful questions have arisen regarding the ownership of digital media and information, the relationship between corporations, governments, and individuals online, the power of pop culture influence, and the dissolving border between the digital and physical worlds. Taking these issues head-on is The Free Art & Technology (F.A.T.) Lab. An international group of 21 artists, hackers, thinkers, designers, developers, and entrepreneurs, F.A.T. Lab employs art, activism, pop culture, and a wealth of knowledge about how the internet works to create projects that challenge people and institutions to think a little deeper about this new world we all live in.

The Nigerian Civil War Photography of Hakan Gottberg

In Seal67:

This note is essentially a condensation of an email received from Hakan Gottberger a Swedish photographer, who had spent 6 months in Biafra between 1968-1969 - not as a photographer, but as a volunteer with the Red Cross. He was however able to document some of the work of the Red Cross in Biafra and by his own account spent time behond the lines in such theatres as Item, Olona and eventually at Uli, where he participated in the night movements of relief materials into Biafra- hazardous work as we now know. I was introduced to Hakan by an old-school mate and friend- Ebele Obumselu, also a Historian in his own right.

Hakan set up a photographic museum chronicling his works in general and the images he captured during the Biafran war. His mission and the motivation of Ebele Obumselu and myself in publicising this obeing not to inflame sentiment and arouse emotions, but to give spotlight to an incredible body of work that has not achieved wide exposure and has not been published in any of the popular photographic works of the Nigerian Civil War we are familiar with. These photographs are the creation and private property of Hakan Gottberger done with his own hand and skill and whatever your position on either side of the divide, they should be appreciated for what they are, another original chronicle of a watershed in Nigerian History.

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Streetbook- Hacking the Arab Spring.

In Technology Review:

Demonstrators in Tunis, Tunisia, on January 20, 2011 courtesy of Tech Review

...something deeper and more universal has been achieved: voice. New ties are being made both virtually and on the street. Social and mainstream media have connected people to each other and to the world. The youth of an entire region are speaking out with whatever tools they have, from social media to feet on the ground. The buds of the Arab Spring are young and still in need of nurturing, but George Washington's observation may still hold true: "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."

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South Africa and Ghaddafi

James Kirchick in The Atlantic

Qaddafi's connections to the African National Congress, South Africa's long-dominant ruling party, go back decades, when he supported its struggle against apartheid. No less a figure than Nelson Mandela has been the Libyan dictator's most respectable booster. In 1990, fresh out of prison, Mandela paid one of his first visits to Libya, where he was the inaugural recipient of the oddly named "Al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights." In 1997, Mandela paid Qaddafi back in kind, awarding him South Africa's prestigious Order of Good Hope. "Those who feel we should have no relations with Qaddafi have no morals," Mandela declared. "Those who feel irritated by our friendship with President Qaddafi can go jump in the pool."
The roots of the ANC's comradeship with Qaddafi are not just ideological, but pecuniary as well. When Mandela's ex-wife Winnie was on trial for the assault and kidnapping of suspected South African government informants (one of whom was killed by her bodyguards), Qaddafi helped pay for her legal defense. The final report of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission later found Winnie "politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights." Qaddafi is also rumored to have given $2 million to Zuma to pay legal fees incurred during his 2006 rape trial.

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Quick Hits

From BetumiBlog a Cookbook Project Update
Could Sudan disintegrate?
Books rebel leaders should read
Ghanaian citizens develop ‘social pact’ on oil wealth

"American is Old Hat"

Chris Harrison in Design Indaba:

On “Afripolitanism”:

As I understand it, Afripolitanism was first defined in an artistic context. This in itself is refreshing. A key tenet of Afripolitanism is a refusal to identify with any kind of victim culture. Regardless of the iniquities still blighting our continent. So I see a clear fit with young attitudes. With the millions of young Africans who are not prepared to excuse tardy development by making irrelevant historical references. With young people prepared to take responsibility for failure as well as credit for success. As such, Afripolitanism seems to me more commendable and more altruistic than “African Renaissance”.

Africans as Global Trendsetters?:

As I mentioned earlier, I see American cultural influence on the wane. No doubt the spread of Islam is having an effect. But I sense that this is more an issue of “old hat” than “new prophet”. Many Africans have “done” the American thing. We’d prefer something more original now. I wonder whether the realisation that Barack Obama was human, and more than occupied with domestic issues in his home country, has contributed to this? Young Africans can indeed influence the world. And are harnessing the power of the ’net to do just that. Recently I asked one of our Y&R Companies in the US to take a peek at brand reputation online in Africa. VML have a fantastic tool called “Seer” that enables them to monitor and model web conversations for clients. Let me tell you that the impact of the top 30 bloggers in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa was significant. Not least in the volume of their streamed content to formal and social sites.

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Africa through African Eyes-And Five Books

In The Browser George Ayittey on problem solving from within:

How do you tackle Africa’s problems?

Ayittey: To move Africa forwards requires a new paradigm. At the centre of this model must be the African people and how they view and analyse their own situation and problems. Ultimately, it is they who must save their own continent, not Westerners or Easterners. The West sees Africa’s problems differently from how Africans themselves see them. It was for this reason that I coined the expression “African solutions for African problems” in 1994, after Somalia imploded in 1991 and the international rescue mission led by the US failed. “African solutions” does not mean solutions crafted by an African. Rather, it means solutions anchored in or in consonance with Africa’s heritage.

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Repression in Angola

Global Voices reports:

On Saturday, September 3, 2011 a group of around 200 young people assembled in Luanda, Angola to protest lack of freedom and the 32-year reign of President José Eduardo dos Santos. According to witnesses, the protest ended with police beating a number of protesters.A video call to protest, uploaded on September 1, featured bold, personalized calls to protest by a number of the protest's organizers, many of whom are hiphop artists. The tagline of the video “32 anos é muito” means simply “32 years is a lot.”...[continue reading]

Learning from the informal sector to meet Housing Needs

In REculture:

courtesy of REculture

The informal construction sector has been the only industry capable of providing affordable housing solutions for the urban poor in developing countries. While South African housing policies rely on the formal construction sector for attaining the ambitious targets of subsidized housing delivery, township keep growing with the support of informal process. The strategies and outputs of both sectors are dramatically different; while the formal industry relies on standardization , repetition, and the use of new materials and a single technology, the informal sector takes full advantage of variety, multiplicity, recycling and combination of technologies. Surprisingly, this does not prevent the informal sector from looking for specialization and innovation...[continue reading]

"Small Fates"

In the New Yorker:

When Teju Cole began work on his current project, a non-fiction narrative of Lagos, Nigeria, his African hometown and one of the largest and fastest growing cities in the world, he encountered a problem. He wanted to move beyond statistics to the experience of the individual Lagosian. But how to capture, in any meaningful way, the variety and abundance of life in the city? He began reading the daily newspapers (eleven in all), and found himself drawn to the small items—petty crimes, metro reports. Here, he thought, was Lagos in the raw. He determined to make use of the stuff, though he realized that it wouldn't quite fit the book.

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Africa's Burma Boys

Al Jazeera reports:

They are amongst the forgotten heroes of the Second World War; some 100,000 African soldiers, taken from the British colonies to fight against the Japanese in the jungles of Burma (now Myanmar).Al Jazeera correspondent Barnaby Phillips has long been interested in their story and, in this film, went in search of a unique, first-hand account of what it was like to be a 'Burma Boy'."These men and their story is so forgotten. People don't know the very brave things [these men did] and the very difficult circumstances they fought under some 60 or 70 years ago," he explains...[continue reading]

Strengthening Industrial Clusters

A recent World Bank report 'Industrial Clusters and Micro and Small Enterprises in Africa: From Survival to Growth' states that:

Existing studies on natural industrial clusters in Africa have found that the lack of managerial skills among entrepreneurs running micro and small enterprises is a major constraint for innovation and growth in the clusters. As a part of this study, pilot managerial skills training programs were conducted in two industrial clusters on an experimental basis, where a group of randomly selected entrepreneurs within the clusters were given three-week long crash course of based management such as bookkeeping, marketing, business planning, and production management. The impact evaluation of the experiments showed significant positive impacts of the training programs on value added and gross profits of enterprises.

Continuing:

Raising the current survival-type industrial clusters, which have been formed as a coping mechanism to weak investment climate, into more dynamic innovating clusters will be an important avenue for fostering growth of micro and small enterprises in Africa. While national efforts to improve investment climate and investments in human capital are undoubtedly important, there could be more targeted policies to be formulated, in complementing general policies, to support growth of micro and small domestic enterprises using existing industrial clusters as a natural springboard for their growth. In that context, the study discusses the merit of cluster-based managerial human capital development to build steps toward more innovation-oriented clusters, the importance of sound spatial planning policy, particularly at the local level in the context of urban planning, the need to expand market access and economic linkages for industrial clusters including regional integration and linkages with large enterprises

via TCI

A Low Key Approach Nigerian Militants?

The NYtimes reports:

Amid increasing evidence that the Nigerian government’s heavy-handed strategy for containing a radical Islamist sect has failed, some Western officials are urging a new and less militarized approach...The suicide bombing of the United Nations headquarters here on Friday, which killed 23 people, has added urgency to their appeal, demonstrating that the sect, Boko Haram, has expanded its scope well beyond domestic targets. Far from being crushed by Nigerian firepower, Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for the attack, appears to be confirming the worst fears of Western analysts and diplomats — that repression is hastening its transformation into a menacing transnational force, with possible links to Al Qaeda’s North African affiliates...[continue reading]

Quick Hits

How's an informal business to grow without government/banking support?
Why wait for only politicians to oust foreign tyrants?
How Economic neglect and corruption fuel Nigerian insurgencies
How Sustainable Is Liberia's Recovery?

Bribespot | The App

Bribespot is an app that allows you to see how much corruption is going on around. Using your smartphone (or a website) you can report locations where bribes are requested/paid, indicate the size of a bribe and area of government affected by it.By accumulating data from thousands of anonymous users, we turn isolated users into powerful movement against corrupt individuals and institutions. Choose one of the three ways to use Bribespot:

• Mobile app for Android 

• Mobile app for iPhone (coming soon)

-website

African Eats in Paris

In France:

Goutte D’Or Market: Photo by Findustrip

Eating the World started as an idea in a Senegalese restaurant in Paris, and with a glimmer of a trip to France next year on the horizon, we are already in pre-pre-planning mode. So in prep for that we have compiled some links that may prove helpful. African restaurants in Paris tend to be Northern and Western Africa – corresponding with the francophone regions of the continent. A large hub of the African population is the Goutte d’Or (Drop of Gold), located in the 18th arrondissement, along with Montmartre. For the flâneurs among us, we found an interesting self-guided walking tour of the Goutte d’Or on the Anglophone Parisian Site Parisvoice...[continue reading]