In many ways, this has been Nigeria's week. Mostly as a result of the news that Goodluck Jonathan disolved the cabinet on Wednesday. I blogged about it then (read it here), and since there have been more signs that it may be positive news - for example the response from the markets. The news have generated plent of comments, for today's editorial on The Guardian to the unavoidable and unnecessary advice given by Col. Muammar al Gaddafi: "split Nigeria in two" (so much for his vision of a United States of Africa!) - which has been responded by Nigeria recalling its ambassador to Libya.
For some background information of Nigeria's current predicament you can read this Global Voices' article on the Enough is Enough movement - and their protest on Tuesday; and this Sahel Blog entry on a conference on Nigeria and Islamic Extremism.
Zuma's been to Zimbebwe this week, where he's engaged in talkes with both ZANU-PF and MDC officials and tried to resolve the stalemate paralysing the country's government. Although Zuma called for a free and fair election, he knows this is not likely to happen- and that any alection may lead to further violence if ZANU's grip on security forces continues. The most positive outcome of the talks than is that Zuma has met not only top-officials, but he's made his round of conversations wider - including even Roy Bennet, the MD member standing trial accused of "terrorism". Furthermore, all parties in government agreed to solve outstanding issues and reprting back to Zuma before the end of the month.
- The Pan African Media Conference has taken place in Nairobi yesterday and today. There has been a brilliant coverage by Tweeps. If you want to have a look ot what's been said follow the #AfMediaConf topic.
- World Bank sees Africa economies rebounding in 2010 (via Loomnie)
- Does the ongoing debate about American military support for Somalia’s government signal a small but significant step toward non-interventionism among US elites? asks Sahel Blog
- Congo Siasa reminds us that "these are important days in the future of the Congo.Two important decisions are being taken by the international community: debt relief and the future of the peacekeeping mission."
- Fela! comes closer - I can only share NaijaBlog's enthusiasm.
- Spanish blog "Héroes de Ébano" shares this classic and touching video:
News just broke that the Nigerian cabinet has been dissolved. I first heard about on Twitter. This is an excerpt from the BBC piece from about one and a half hours ago:
Nigeria's acting President Goodluck Jonathan has dissolved the country's cabinet, government sources say...The cabinet was picked by Mr Yar'Adua and correspondents say Mr Jonathan is now trying to stamp his own authority...
Mansur Liman of BBC Hausa says there had been rumours of the dissolution for some time and Mr Jonathan had already changed several senior personnel.
But our correspondent says this is the biggest move Mr Jonathan has made since becoming acting president and he is clearly plotting a new course for the government.
Nigerian acting president Goodluck Jonathan
This comes at a critical time, and the question is: are these news positive or negative? Will things get better after this, with Jonathan strenthening his control of the government? Or is this a further sign that Nigeria is slipping futher out of control? It is obviously way too early to say, and I, furthermore, have no detailed knowledge of Nigerian politics. Nevertheless these are some things to bear in mind:
1) Yesterday, a protest march and demonstration took place in Abuja yesterday. This is part of the text calling for action (at Naijablog):
Young People Power!
March 16 is the date that young Nigerians will march in Abuja to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Time: 11am
Venue: National Assembly, Abuja (We gather at Eagle Square at 11am PROMPT)
Demands:
1) President Yar’Adua should resume, resign or be removed
2) The promise of 6000megawatts must be fulfilled
3) The 5-month fuel crisis needs to end now
This was organised by the group Enough is Enough Nigeria . A group of young people organised to protest for the current political crisisin the country, and organised via Facebook and other new media like Twitter. The move by Jonathan is in a way, a step in the direction demanded by this group, closin the door of the Yar'Adua administration.
2) As well as the political crisis, violence has affected the country recently in terrible ways: first, it was the violence on the town of Jos, which left hundreds of deaths. Violence between Christian and Muslims communities erupted first in January, and re-appeared again this month. As well as the inter-communial tensions this violence has highlighted the corruption of the police and the passivity of the military. See here the Human Rights Watch Report.On the Niger Delta, amnesty talks were disrupted yesterday by the explosion of two car-bombs outside a government building. The actions were claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), who sought to "announce our continued presence".
3) All this has lead to fears, voiced yesterday by writer Wole Soyinka in converstion with UK newspaper "The Independent", that:
"Nigeria is close to breaking up and its leadership has descended into a "theatre of the absurd"...The veteran writer and civil rights activist told The Independent that his home country was now a "failed state" where ordinary people's "anger has peaked", with potentially lethal consequences. "Nigeria is looking at its last chance in the next year...
"If nothing changes, I cannot guarantee what recourse the people will take," the writer said. "The level of anger has peaked. I don't rule out Nigeria breaking up. That's what can happen to a failed state."
Wole Soyinka speaking at a rally in Nigeria
4) These has also led to heightened international preocupation for the future of the country, following the Niger Delta violence, the Christmas bombing incident, and the placing of the country on list of terror-watch. As blogged here before:
This growing concern has even led an "intelligence oficial in AFRICOM" to affirm "that Northern Nigeria could become like Western Pakistan" (AC 53,3), which in my mind leads to the follow-up question: Could Nigeria be the next Pakistan?...given the growing strategic weight of Nigeria on both the energetic and counterterrorism fields, could this country - like Pakistan - become a (borrowing a fashionable economic term): a country "too-big-to-fail", which will require closer attention, and intervention from the US?
Despite the justified concerns showed by Wole Soyinka, I believe today's move by Goodluck Jonathan is not a further sign of Nigeria's collapse, but a step on the right direction. Judging by the comments left on the online newspaper 234next.com, most readers believe that the disoultion of the cabinet suggests that Jonathan is ready to make some difficult decisions and take control of the country. I hope this is not too late, and wish Nigerian people the best in these exciting times.
During the past days, a number of different news and blog posts led me to think hard about e-waste, how it is generated, treated and dumped around the world, and how this relates not only to environmental issues, but algo to the global economy. First, it was this post at Subsaharska, in which Miquel argued that e-waste
"is a big problem and it's only going to get bigger. It's one of the things that makes me truly cringe about the information age in that the leftover components are all getting dumped in countries such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa. People have few ways to fight back other than to deal with what is dumped upon their shores. And when they do fight back, suddenly, they're called pirates...For anyone who thinks that they need the latest iPod/iPhone, or laptop marvel, they should come and stay for awhile in rural areas in Africa where the trash is burned daily and you're breathing in an ungodly amount of things you'd rather not know about (mainly damnable petrochemicals.) For me, in a few months, I won't breath this anymore, but for the people here, it's constantly in the air and it's only growing more. Think the next time you buy an electronics item, stop and think if you really and truly need it."
Not only e-waste, but numerous other types of waste (often of the most dangerous ones - such as nuclear waste, toxic substances, deathly chemicals...) end up being dumped on the poorest areas of the globe. In some cases, this is done with the encouragement of the country's government, who expects to benefit from their "comparative advantage" in the global economy by providing the services at a very low cost - needsless to say the real costs being born by the workers on these areas, who work in awful conditions and without the necessary safety requirements. One of the industries where this is most visible (and horribly spectacular) is the ship-breaking on Indian and Bangldeshi beaches (See this blog entry and this El Pais article (Spanish) .
Photo from the El Pais article
In other cases, toxical waste is disposed in more shady deals, sometimes completely illegally ones. For example, the N'drangheta (Calabrian version of the Sicilian mafia) has recently been found to have made a big business by getting rid of nuclear way in "un-ortodox" ways, such as sinking boats on the Mediterranean sea, or shipping the waste to Somalia, where it was buried after bribing local politicians. Also it was recently revealed that, the British company Trafigura, was found guilty of dumping
"400 tonnes of toxic waste from the cargo vessel Probo Koala...at the West African port of Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast. The waste was loaded on to trucks and dumped around the city.Over the following weeks, thousands of residents found themselves choking and coughing, some vomiting. At least 10 are said to have died and many still bare the scars". Trafigura finally agreed to a $45m (£30m) payout as compensation, which those affected began receiving earlier this month. I blogged about this at the time (here, in Spanish), and you can read the full story here.
Growing amounts of e-waste are fast becoming ones of the most pressing and dangerous type of waste; often this is just dumped on the landfills of the poores countries. For example, see this series of photographs by Andrew McConnell on the Agbogbloshie suburb in Ghana's capital, Accra, which has become a dumping ground for hundreds of tons of e-waste from Europe and the US (via Subsaharska too). As McConnel notes, this waste often enters these countries thanks to unscrupulous trades who label the goods as second-hand goods, or charity donations. This opens another aspect of the debate: the import of used and second-hand goods into African countries. Recently, it was reported, here, that Uganda was
"reconsidering its ban on the importation of used electronics following complaints from traders and other stakeholders over the indiscriminate nature of the policy...(Prefering instead) a more targeted approach to the implementation of the ban to focus on technology that is harmful to the environment instead of uniform application to all secondhand goods".This was a similar story as the one coming from Pakistan, a country where e-waste is a serious threas, and whose country is considering a ban on the import of used computers. You can read here a nice article debating how, as well as disadvantages, importing second-hand computers can make these more affordable and therefore available to more people. My opinion here is that prevention is better than cure, and if importing used computers is going to becoming a back-door for dumping of e-waste, then a ban should be adopted.
Photo Andrew McConnell
Furthermore, as this BBC "Have Your Say" debate suggests, there are indeed arguments for banning not only electronics but also other type of second-hand and charity goods (such as clothes) which harm local production. Again, here I support the protection of local industries, and a ban od second-hand cloths will be a positive development - although unfortunately here not sufficient for saving local textile industries, whose biggest competitor is cheap Chinese products (and as you can imagine, African countries would not risk losing Chinese investments and support by rising their import duties on Chinese goods...). I think perhaps the answer for textile producers and designers in Africa is to turn their already beautiful, good quality pieces into fashionable products which can can be sold (and priced) as luxury items - something for which they need only a good branding and marketing campaign...
An example of luxury goods made using the appeal of African textiles, done however by an Italian company, Moroso (More at Nosideup)
I think both e-waste and the textile industry's precarious situation are simply different faces of the key debate - the global economy and Africa's integration into it. The general debate on import bans and on the textile industry, is part of a larger and a well-known outcome of the development and globalisation debates (dating back at least to the 1960s and some African countries' attempts at import substitution industrialization (ISI)) E-waste is perhaps, a more clear product of globalisation, and how Africa is integrated into the global economy at present. Globalisation has facilitated the flow of information, goods and capital (much more than people, who remain still tied to their countries, especially if you come for a poor country), resulting often in positive outcomes. Most often however, the results have been largely negative - not only growing disparity between rich and poor, but also the appearance of gray zones. On the words of the anthropologist Carolyn R. Nordstrom, the global economy has meant increasing flows, but also increasing "fractures". These fractures can be physical spaces - such as war-zones and "failed states" like Somalia - but also all kinds of activities, from clearly illegal ones - terrorism, kidnappings and drug trading - to the gray activities of multinational corporations - pharmaceuticals, arms and oil producers of course, but also companies responsible for what Nordstrom labels "blood-tomatoes" (grown in war zones), the mobile phone industry's thirst for coltan (which as Mike in Mo'dernity, Mo'problem notes, cannot be stopped simply by consumer-power), and many others.
And it is not only in producing goods that the "fractures" of the global economy become relevant, but also - as e-waste shows - in the disposal of it. On this there is, as Miquel says, a certain degree to which individuals can contribute, by not going for the latest technology craze without thinking the implications through. Ultimately however, the inmoral and illegal disposal of dangerous waste is result of the "fractures" on the global economy, much like the competition faced by the African textile industry is a result of its "flows". In order for these problems - symptoms - to be solved, their root cause - the uneven global economy - must be addressed; if not, all we'll do, will be mere gap-filling.
As noted last week, Zuma's visit to the UK gave plenty of things for the media to talk about: from his sex habits, marriage arrangements and the British's empire mentality. But there was much more. Zuma used his visit to ask Gordon Brown to support the lifting of Zimbabwe sanctions; this is, the "travel bans and asset freezes imposed by the EU and the US on Robert Mugabe and his allies" and still in place, and which serve, he argued, "only to divide the already fragile power-sharing government in Zimbabwe". This generated an interesting debate on The Guardian, regarding the usefulness of sanctions in the Zimbabwean case. Thus, last Wednesday Blessing Miles-Tendi wrote an article titled "Zuma's right on Zimbabwe", in which he supported the lifting of sanctions and argued that these "are not only internally divisive but iniquitous and obstructive to democracy". You can read the full article here.
South African president Jacob Zuma. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP (via The Guardian)
This article prompted Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch, to response, witing a letter in which he argued: “Blessing-Miles Tendi blames the EU targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his cronies for the failure of last year's power-sharing deal to bring about the hoped-for political transformation in Zimbabwe. That is absurd. The evidence that Zanu-PF continues to violate the agreement is overwhelming. In the past year MDC activists have been killed and abducted. Legislators and journalists have been arrested on spurious charges. Repressive media laws remain in place. Illegal invasions of commercial farms continue. Zanu-PF continues to use its control of the army, police and security sector to persecute its opponents. Just this week journalist Andrison Shadreck Manyere was arrested for filming political detainees outside a courthouse and union leader Gertrude Hambira fled the country fearing for her life after her offices were ransacked by police. Easing EU sanctions now will simply reinforce the repression in Zimbabwe.”
Continuing the debate, yesterday Miles-Tandi responded, with what I consider to be and extremely insightful criticism of the limitations of how human rights discourse is applied in political crisis, and especially, regarding Zimbabwe. Here are some excerpts:“Porteous either failed to comprehend my article or he is in the habit of making kneejerk responses, because nowhere do I make the assertion that sanctions are the sole reason for the failure of the "power-sharing deal to bring about the hoped-for political transformation"… My argument is that sanctions must be lifted in order to rob Zanu PF of a key propaganda and negotiating plank, which it has used to weaken internal opposition and as a pretext for the non-implementation of democratic reforms… However, the most disconcerting aspect of Porteous's response is not its misrepresentation of my views but that it shows how, for four reasons, the human rights movement remains intellectually ill-equipped to deal with Zanu PF…
First, Porteous… does not stop to ask whether targeted sanctions have had any effect in deterring Zanu PF's human rights violations. Sanctions have been in place since 2002, but Robert Mugabe still stole the 2002 and 2008 presidential elections. Sanctions did not dissuade the Zanu PF government from violently seizing white-owned commercial farms... carrying out Operation Murambatsvina…Journalists, the opposition and civil society have faced untold repression under the EU sanctions' watch…
Second, Porteous' insistence on the maintenance of sanctions that clearly do not have the desired effect reflects how the human rights movement lacks ingenuity in confronting Zanu PF's human rights violations...For a decade, we have isolated the Zanu PF government, attacked its excesses and applied targeted sanctions. Zanu PF has only become more belligerent and its human rights abuses have worsened…
Third, the human rights movement has struggled to deal with the problem that the very same actors, such as the EU, that it has urged to maintain sanctions on Zimbabwe do not apply the same human rights standards everywhere and are themselves gross human rights violators. This is a very important shortcoming because external attempts at protecting the human rights of a given populace are undermined if they are accompanied by selectivity and hypocrisy. ...
Fourth, the human rights movement has not fully appreciated the sophisticated nature of Mugabe and Zanu PF. Zanu PF has invested sustained intellectual labour in attacking the idea of human rights…The human rights movement in Zimbabwe and internationally has failed to articulate a compelling defence of the validity of human rights in the country. As a result, intellectual space has been ceded to Zanu PF's public intellectuals.
In my opinion this constitues an excellent summary of the shorcomings of the current approach to the Zimbabwean crisis - shortcoming that only reinforce Mugabe's position. This situation in Zimbabwe continued to be tense, with a fragile national unity government, harrasment of activists and politicians, and continued power-abuses from ZANU-PF. But sanctions, in place since 2002 do not appear to have made the situation better, rather the opposite, as Miles-Tandi argues, giving ideological ammunition to Mugabe's camp. What Human Rights activist sometimes forget - something that directly results from the very nature of the Human Rights discourse - is that politics is often a messy affais, that calls for compromises, and that in order to exert any change you need to have leverage of some sort. Undoubtedly, complying with the international Human Rights framework gives you a certain degree of leverage, and wins you international support from Western powers. But in many cases - such as Zimbabwe - this is not enough because on the national sphere this discourse is confronted and over-powered by Mugabe's interested use of anti-imperialist rhetoric.
A more fruitful approach then will be, as Miles-Tandi suggests and I agree, to adopt a more flexible political position - instead of a manichean "you-either-fully-comply-with-human-rights-requirements-or you-will-be-considered-a-pariah" approach, which highlights the double standards existing in the international sphere (see Afghanistan). Following this, the international community's best chance may be to rely on Zuma to act as intermediate in making ZANU-PF comply with the powersharing agreement. Understandably, there is a reticiency to do this, given the failure of Mbeki's "constructive engagement" policy. Nevertheless, there appears to be a certain, albeit slight, change in South Africa's foreign policy towards Zimbabwe as this SAIIA article notes:"Zimbabwe remains South Africa’s most immediate foreign policy challenge. Zuma’s more cordial relations with Morgan Tsvangirai, his tougher stance at the November 2009 Maputo SADC Summit and his replacement of Mbeki as mediator by Charles Nqakula, Mac Maharaj and Lindiwe Zulu later that month heralds, for some, a definite break with the past, although it is early days."
Photograph: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty Images (via The Guardian)
Furthermore, as the "Blue Lines" section signals in the latest Africa-Confidential (here, no suscription required), Zuma's team "has made some headway in negotiations on political and security issues" and "is searching for leverage with Mugabe, suggesting that sanctions could be quickly reimposed if pledges are not kept" (a much more interesting dynamic than keeping the sanctions). Sanctions on Zimbabwe, this article continues, are in fact "under review: its voting rights at the IMF have been restored. The IMF and the World Bank are working on a plan to tackle its arrears and speed up disbursement for the short term recovery programme – despite the United States’ and Britain’s veto on loans. That too may change after some diplomatic clodhopping. Last year, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that it was up to the MDC to decide when sanctions were lifted. Since then, Premier Morgan Tsvangirai has written to EU leaders calling for a general review of sanctions and Finance Minister Tendai Biti has asked the EU to lift sanctions on eight specific companies; it quickly complied. However, the last set of sanctions – the targeting of ZANU-PF officials and their business friends – is likely to stand for many months yet."
It is therefore clear that the stand-off in Zimbabwe has been paralysing for the country's situation, and that a new something needs to be done. And that the sanctions, in place since 2002 have not worked. It does not therefore seem such a crazy idea then, to give it a go at trying new ideas, like lifting the sanctions...
Today, March 8th, as you probably know, is International Women's Day . It is a day to remember both the importance of women in all spheres of society and life, and the unequal situation in which many women worldwide findthemselves; and also to demand an improvement of this situation . Women suffer not only the general problems of society (those that affect men too), but those specific to women - health and sexuality issues, submission to patriarchy, gender violence, lack of recognition of their work - both related to the work done for the maintenance of the family and home, as to the professional sphere - reflected in a lower pay to that of men -, an unequal representation in public institutions, and so on.
As it might be expected, in many parts of Africa where the quality of life and the situation of a large proportion of the population leaves much to be desired, this is even more uneven and often these deficiencies endanger the lives of many women and girls. I have here neither the space nor the knowledge to give an overview here of this situation, or to comment about it. But you can see the latest United Nations report on "Progress of the world's women, 2008/2009 ", which provides detailed information about this.
I can note on this post however, that although in many African countries - and other less developed countries - the status of women is very precarious, we should not feel that here in Europe everything is on the right path. Some African countries in fact may serve as an example to us, for example the well-known case of Rwanda, the country with the lagest percentage of women parliamentarians worldwide - 56%. And where, at present, political tensions see a woman, Victoire Ingabire, as directly criticising some of the shortcomings of Kagame's government. This is clearly, not the only case, for there are many African women in many fields, that have emerged as symbols of the overcoming barriers and have become true role role-models for African women - and for those in the rest of the world.
Of all these, I will highlight just one, not because her story is more exemplary than all the oters, but because this woman currently holds one of the most important and symbolic positions in the world of politics and international relations - a world dominated by men, and my professional bias ;). I am talking about the vice-secretary of the United Nations, the Tanzanian Asha-Rose Migiro , who has been in office since February 2007. A lawyer and univerity professor, educated in Germany and Tanzania, Asha-Rose Migiro was previously Minister of Community Development, Gender and Children's Affairs (2000-2006) and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (2006-2007) (here you can see her biography). Since her appointment Dr. Migiro has worked to improve the situation of women, for instance by focusing efforts on campaigns against violence against women. Precisely in a recent intervention , Dr Migiro said that “Violence is the most blatant manifestation of discrimination against women, but it is not the only one. Injustice and inequality persist in developing and developed countries and in all regions.” . She also stated that "while we have seen advances in the past 15 years, we have not seen enough... More and more people now understand that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is not just a goal in itself, but a key to sustainable development, economic growth, and peace and security".
Vice-secretary of the United Nations, Asha-Rose Migiro
- BarCamp Abidjan has just begun!! And it will be on, until Sunday. You can follow live updates on Twitter from @africamps, or through the tag #bcbabi. Looking forward to all the sessions and talks!!
- Regarding African politics this week, well, no one can doubt the man's entertainment value. This week Zuma visited the UK, where he accused the British media of seeing Africans as "barbaric". Not only Zuma's personal life, but also his attitude, declarations, and the state of South African politics led to plenty of comments on the media - from the ridiculous (the Daily Mail column that rightly ofended Zuma), to this article by Mark Gevisser and even today's editorial on The Guardian (partly siding with Zuma in criticising the media's "undertone of imperial snobbishness" and a "British national weakness for thinking of foreign leaders in the most simplistic, comic-book terms".
- Togolese elections yesterday, apperaed to have gone smoothly. For all the information tune to the African Elections Togo site - here
- After China and India, attention now turns to new "emergent" powers in Africa - Iran (and Israel). See this article on the Economist and this one by the Deutsche-Welle.
- This week's issue of Pambazuka News carries plenty of interesting articles, on various topics such as Zimbabwe's unity government's staggering from pillar to post, (incidentally, we have also recently learnt that external support for the regime is in decline, after China affirmed it does not consider Zimbabwe a "friend"); US interference in Nigeria's constitutional crisis; how Abahlali baseMjondolo is gathering strengthafter the Kennedy Road evictions and a Campaign for democracy in Swaziland.
- Global Voices carries this week two interesting articles on the topic - first is a mention to this very interesting article on Afromusing from early February (which I read at the time but forgot to share), and also this piece by Rebekah Heacock on whether "Is ICT all it's cracked up to be?". She discusses how, in Sudan for example, some ICT4D (ICT for development) initiatives that are all the hype at the moment, have failed to produce results. A test to see how far citizen involvement on politics can go, she argues, will be the forthcoming Sudanese elections. And just to prove the point of ICT4D being fashionable, the World bank has launched "a new online game, Evoke, to channel gamer obsession and time (3 billion hours per week) into solving Africa's problems" (via Bombastic Element)
- Away from politics, A Bombastic Element has an entry on the latest news and initiatives around Bushpunk (definition here), and on the recently concluded Design Indaba.
- And Africa Is A Country shares his enthusiasm for the forthcoming Pop Africana Magazine.
Click on the picture to see the magazine's site
As those of you who regularly read this blog will know, I tend to blog mostly about African politics and current affairs, and less often about related issues such as inmigration, racism and discourses and perspectives about Africa - although I have done sometimes. And I will do today. The topic furthermore, is not in the news, but I just stopped to to think about it recently, and I think it is worth sharing it. I am talking about Conguitos. To those not familiar with Spain, and more specifically Spanish sweets, this will sound totally foreign. But all those of you who come from, or have visited Spain will know what I am talking about.
Conguitos are the Spanish version of M&Ms - that is chocolate-covered peanut snack. What is there to blog about you may ask? What is there to blog about furthermore, on a blog that deals with African politics? Well, as you have probably seen, the name Conguito bears an important resemblance to the name Congo - hinting at where the inspiration for the sweets came from. But the most revealing fact is the picture drawn at the front of each packet - the trademark of Conguitos - and one that every Spanish kid will immediately recognise it. Although the picture has evolved through the years, the character originally depicted was, undoubtedly, that of a black person, and judging by the name, probably a Congolese. These are some of the logos Conguitos has had over time:
Note how the spear is gone!
White chocolate (albino?) version
These pictures clearly portray and image of Africa and Africans, which is not suitable for the present day. This is why a few years back, María Frías, a university professor at the University of A Coruña, who is a specialist in Afroamerican literature, called for the logo to be changed given the "racist message it conveys, insulting the thousands of African migrants living in Spain (...) and which serves only to promote and perpetuate the negative estereoptypes associated with African people". At the time of these criticisms, in 2003, the creator of the image said that if he was to draw it nowadays, it would obviously be different, and at the time Conguitos were first produced - in the early 1960s, the Congo had just become independent and was therefore fashionable, so they went for a more "exotic" look. I wasn't aware of this controversy - I was not in Spain at the time - and I don't know if these criticisms voiced by Professor Frías may have made the manufacturer change the logo - given that the current one does not have some of the features which made it so clearly stereotypical and racist (e.g. the thick red lips), and make it a more abstract (weird?) figure.
Current conguito logo
In any case I just thought it would be interesting to share these thoughts for I think reveal something about Spanish attitude to Africa and Africans. What I found most interesting about all this, is that most people in Spain do not even stop for a second to think about the message Conguitos gives. It is just there, it has always been, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is only when someone tries to tell to people from other places (generally from countries more concerned with political correction, and where issues of racism have been there for longer) that one realises how awkward, out of date, and even plain racist these image are (this is what happen to my girlfriend when she tried to tell her British friends that these sweets were still on sale, not some Golliwog-like curiosity). Or, even more poignantly - as a friend told me, he experienced with two black friends came to visit him - when two black people enter a shop and ask for a packet of Conguitos. It is then,and only then, that the shop-keeper becomes aware of how inadequate the image on the packet is!
And, for your "entertainment"/ for its documentary value. I will leave you with a commercial for Conguitos - not a current one, but aired on the 70s, 80s? - which leaves no doubt regarding where Conguitos got their inspiration from.
Hype is beginning to build around the forthcoming exhibition "Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa", which opens at the British Museum next Thursday, March 4th. Naijablog for example, points out the excellent review of the show by The Guardian's Jonathan Jones You can also see a picture gallery of some of the scultures on display. Jeremy nevertheless feels it is problematic (I agree) to label Ife a "lost civilisation": "What exactly is lost about Ife?The town is still there, the palace of the Ooni is still there, the Orunmila staff is still there. The only sense in which Ife is lost is that the city was at its cultural zenith many centuries ago. But would we describe Rome or Athens (for instance) in the same way? Its hardly Machu Picchu."
Not a lost civilisation, but one that appears to be largely (almost completely?) unknown in Europe, even among those acquainted with art history. For this reason, I feel that the visibility which this exhibition can give to the artistic tradition of Ife - it is the first time some of these pieces are shown outside Nigeria - can only be a good thing.
And I have to say the exhibition is really worth it, and some of the exhibits trully impressive. I can say this because this exhibition - co-organised by the Spanish Fundación Marcelino Botín and the New York Museum for African Art, with the support, of course, of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (to which the pieces belong) - has already been on show in Spain - for once before the UK and the US.!! It was first in the Fundación Marcelino Botín in Santander during the summer, and then, from September to December in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, where I saw it.
Brass head with crown, Wunmonije Compound, Ife (early 14th century) Photograph: PR
The show in Spain - and in the US, but not in the UK - was called "Dinastía y divinidad: arte IFE en la antigua Nigeria"/ "Dinasty y divinity: IFE art in ancient Nigeria", contained terracota sculpures, both figurative (humans and animals) and symbolic (post to signal shrines), and also metal pieces. These last ones were no doubt the most impressive. Among them, the ones that left a stronger imprint on my memory were the beatutifully sculpted copper aloy heads - many of which showed extremely delicate vertical lines - and which were prepared to "wear" crowns and/or other head dresses; the copper masks, including the famous Obalufon mask - reputedly, the only African mask obtained through the lost wak method; and, perhaps the most interesting one for me, the Tada Figure, a copper alloy, hollow cast, half-lifesize sculpture depicting a seating man.
Curators install a copper seated figure from the late 13th to early 14th century. Photograph: David Levene
For those having the opportunity, I really encourage you to visit the show, for the sculptures are stunning. Also, and I have mentioned before, these type of shows can help making African artistic traditions more known, and eventually traditions that will be admired and appreciated on its own terms, recognising their own history and influences, but not being immediately compared to European and non-African traditions, as a way of recognising their value. An example of the present situation is this review in a Spanish newspaper titled "The real Greeks of Black African art", and in which the author traces the parallelism between Ife sculture and that of the "Middle East and Greece, whose models could perfectly reach the deepest and most remote heart of Africa". While what the author wants to convey is a positive message about the artistic value of the sculptures and their conformity to "classic" representations of beauty, and while he also acknowledges the existence of autochtonous influences such as the Nok tradition, the constant comparison results inadequate. Or can we imagine a review of classic Greek sculptures titled "The real Egyptians of European art", given that Egypt influenced Ancient Greece much more than it is usually acknowledged?
Cultures and artists all around the world have always been influenced both by previous local traditions, as well as those coming from other places; and the "the deepest and most remote heart of Africa" as this author calls it, is no exception to this. Only once this is recognised will African art - and by extension all things African - cease to be an "outsider" to the art (and world) history, a place with no history and where all (good) things have either an external origin (just as these sculptures were frst atributed to no other than the lost civilisation of the Atlantis!) or need to be associated with European and non-African influences in order to be awarded a value. Until we reach this point, at least in the case of the Ife art from the 12th to the 14th century, it appears that much archeological, historical and artistic work is still needed in order for this art to be fully comprehended.
For the time being however, one can only contemplate in admiration these extremely beautiful pieces. And in the case of the Spanish audience, be happy that for once, we have been able to admire this before anyone else (although, Spain is still Spain, and thus, when I went to buy the catalogue of the exhibition, I was told there were none on sale - they had sold out - and that in order to get them I had to phone! (not even a website) the Fundación Botin. Now, compare this with the more developed marketing strategy at the British Museum - where the catalogues have been on sale even before the exhibition opens!)
PS On the topic of African art and Spain, just yesterday, I discovered the Fundación Alberto Jiménez - Arellano Alonso, which is based in Valladolid, and apparently has the largest collection in Europe of African terracota sculpture! They're also presenting the refurbishment of the whole collection, so will have to go and see it!!
- A few months back, I wrote about the two Norwegians sentenced to death on DRC (here - in Spanish though). I found the case to be extremely interesting and that it said a lot about the different discourses present in the relationship between Europe and Africa. At the time, I reflected on what this sentence told us about the Congolese. Now however, and thanks to this Bomastic Element entry, I have been able to get to know the Norwegian perspective on all this. I have read the full Anthropology Today article (thanks Hans ;) and I have to say it's well worth it. I found it particularly interesting - aside of learning the revealing fact that these two men founded the "Expatriate Club Stanleyville Prision", at the Kisangani central prison - how the perception of Africa in a country like Norway, remains much more sterotypical and prejudiced than in other countries where, historically the presence of Africa has been greater, even if simply because of the maintaining of African colonies.
- The three Spanish NGO members kidnapped in Mali, are expected to be freed tomorrow, according to a Mali government member. Sources claim this has been possible thanks to the payment of a $5 million ransom.
- This New York Times's article records this week's Sarkozy's visit to Rwanda and his recognition of "grave errors" during the 1994 genocide; which has been one on the main talking points on the blog/twittersphere. Also on Rwandan affairs, This is Africa reflects on "The Curious Case of Victorie Ingabire".
- Another talking point has been this Newsweek article on "How Africa is becoming the New Asia". Particularly interesting is that they point out that Africa's recent economic growth "is driven not by the sale of raw materials, like oil or diamonds, but by a burgeoning domestic market...The rapidly emerging African middle class could number as many as 300 million, out of a total population of 1 billion". What this article does not directly touch, is the political consequences of this growing middle class. Any political science student knows of the equation between a larger middle class and a growing democratisation. So, it will be interesting to know how this middle class growth plays out, especially on the current international context, where the simple models of liberal democracy are losing their shine. Will a new (Chinese?) model of non-democratic, but economically prosperous society become dominant? Or will the democracy potentially demanded by the middle class in Africa adopt a new, organic form?
- Sean Jacobs writes on Africa is a Country about the "conflict of interest" for David M. Crane, the former U.N. war crimes prosecutor for the Special Court in Sierra Leone, who three months ago offered legal services to Capt. Dadis Camara's junta in Guinea, including "a Power Point presentation on how to convert a repressive military force into a defender of the people that obeys the laws of armed conflict". The full story can be read at the Foreign Policy blog, here; and you can also see the Power Point presentation which indeed constitutes an "ultimate idiot's guide to being an African junta". However much Mr. Crane's company charged Camara for it, it appears to me as a rip-off!
- And finally, some music for a relaxed weekend. Ali Farka Toure's last ever recordings; in this occasion together with Toumani Diabaté. Incredibly beautiful music from two of Africa's greatest musicians.
Click here to listen to the album on Spotify
As I mentioned yesterday, last Saturday I had the opportunity to visit ARCO in Madrid. It was my first time there and the experience was quite overwhelming, not only because of the size of the exhibition - huge, impossible to see calmly on just one day - but for the fact that most of the show is organized by galleries and not by artist or theme, which makes you having to see the work of artists scattered in different places.
However, on the plus side, it needs to be noted that the African presence in ARCO was remarkable. In the most commercial part of the show for example, you could see the work both of African such as the Camerooniena Barthélémy Toguo , and of artists, such as the American photographer Phyllis Galembo , concerned with various aspects of African art and culture.
Barthélémy Toguo, 208 x 130 cm, 2005 (Photo ArtFacts )
Moreover, several Solo Projects (SP) within the fair, this is the gallery spaces devoted to one artist, were occupied by galleries and/or African artists. Here, for example, you could see the work of famous artists such as Romuald Hazoumé and his masks/portraits made of bottles of gasoline (here you can see an interview with the artist) or the great Chéri Samba .
Chéri Samba, Le partage du gros poisson, Acryl on Canvas 2001. 81 x 101 cm This painting was at ARCO - and I was tempted to ask about its price ;)
Also Casa Africa had facilitated the presence of two South African galleries, Afronova (Johannesburg) and Michael Stevenson ( Cape Town), who devoted their space Ghanaian artist Godfried Donkor and South African Nicholas Hlobo respectively.
Godfried Donkor, Browning madonna, Mixed media collage on paper, 2006
The most important representation of African artists, however, was within Arte inVisible (inVisible Art), organized by the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation and Development (AECID). This fifth edition of Arte inVisible, curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose , was vertebrated around the theme of the African city. The main part of Arte inVisible was undoubtedly the exhibition which showed the work of nine artists - Tiago Borges da Silva (Luanda, Angola, 1973); Ramon Esono (Nkoa-Nen Yebekuan, Mikomeseng Kie-Ntem, Equatorial Guinea, 1977); Donna Kukama (Mafikeng, South Africa, 1981), Maha Maamoun (Los Angeles, USA 1972), Michèle Magema (Kinshasa, DRC, 1977), Aïda Muluneh (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1974); Emeka Ogboh (Enugu, Nigeria, 1977), Michael Tsegaye (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1974); Billie Zangewa (Blantyre, Malawi, 1973) - all of whom reflected on the city, employing various techniques, from a video installation, the "soundscape", comics and photography. Here you can see the biography and work of individual artists. I had also the chance to chat with two of these artists (Billie and Ramon) and I hope to publish these interviews in the next issue of the journal Africaneando.
Michael Tsegaye, Untitled, Printing on paper
Besides the exhibition, Arte inVisible had created a documentation center where it was possible to consult various documents produced by groups, platforms and art centers that explore the need to connect art with life (and politics) in cities. The groups invited on this occasion were: L'Appartament 22 (Morocco); Kwani Trust (Kenya); ArtBakery (Cameroon), Center for Contemporary Art of East Africa (Kenya); DESTA For Africa (Ethiopia); Kër Thiossane (Senegal ) MUV'ART (Mozambique) and Kabako Studios (DRC). More information about these initiatives and links to their websites by clicking here.
The last part of the Arte inVisible program was its participation at the VIII International Forum of Contemporary Art Experts, and which, under the title "Cities we own, cities we belong to", various artists, writers, filmmakers shared their visions and ideas about the practices, spaces and artistic initiatives that are taking place in the continent (More here). On Saturday, for example, I attended lectures by Edgar Pieterse, and Fasil Giorghis, in addition to a very interesting round table attended by Jimmy Ngonga, Marion Louisgrand, Ntone Edjabe, Goddy Leye and Aïda Muluneh (pictured below, from left to right).
The visit to ARCO was a great opportunity to see first hand the work of these artists and listen to contemporary art experts to explain the new initiatives taking place in various parts of Africa and how they can change the relationship between people and cities in which they live.
