- 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

There is no doubt that during the more than 150 years that it has existed,photography has changed the way we relate to the world around us. In a way, in the words of Susan Sontag, has altered the notion "of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe" (On Photography, 1971, p.3). Regarding the African continent, photography has also played a role. The "construction" of the African continent during the nineteenth and twentieth century by racist and colonial discourses has been based not only on words, spoken or written, but also and perhaps more powerfully, on images. Sontag notes "there is something predatory in the act of taking a picture. To photograph people is to violate, by seeing them as they never see themselves... ; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed" (On Photography, 1971, p .14). The profound relationship between the construction of an European imaginary of colonised Africa and photography has been explored numerous times. One of the most interesting examples may be the book " Images and empires: visuality in colonial and postcolonial Africa ", edited by Paul S. Landau and Deborah D. Kaspin. In the Spanish context, this kind of colonial imagery is vividly portrayed in the book of Pere Ortín and Vic Pereira "Mbini: Hunters of images in colonial Guinea .

But while the Europeans used the "colonising camera" to create an image of Africa that corresponded to his racist discourse that justified colonial occupation, the camera was used during all this time for Africans to create their own discourses. Already during the nineteenth century African individuals and families posed in studio photography sessions that became a way to portray and create an alternative image to that suggested by Europeans. During the twentieth century, with cheaper and more easily available cameras, this construction of an alternative discourse began to democratise, being accessible to more people. With the advent of independence, many photographers became true chroniclers of the optimism and hope of these countries. Some of these chroniclers would become two of the best known African photographers: Malick Sidibé and Seidou Keita , both from Mali.

Merengue dancer, 1964, © Malick Sidibé. Photo courtesy Fifty One Fine Art Photography

Via LensCulture

Girls on Bike © Seydou Keita (via BBC Photography )

Today, fifty years after the independence of most of African countries, there are many photographers on the continent, each with different interests, languages and styles. Many blogs often comment on the work of these artists and journalists that convey different images of the continent. For example, Twiga recently pointed out a number of South African photographer (including the photographer Nontsikelelo Veleko, whose exhibition "Welcome to Paradise" can be seen in Casa África in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria until 19 February).

Other blogs like Africa is a Country , and A Bombastic Element , periodically make entries on the photography and photographers of the continent such as the Ghanaian Nana Kofi Acqua , or the South African Steve Bloom .

Despite these variety of images and photographers, the representation of the continent continues to be often manipulated by different discourses: in this case the images of primitive peoples used to justify colonial occupation have given way to images of poverty, wars, famines and disasters that support an image of Africa as a place with no present and no future. To counter this, various initiatives have emerged that seek to offer another image of the continent. An example of this is Joan Bardeletti's project "Middle Classes in Africa" (via Africa is a Country ), which seeks to portray the African middle classes, and has started in Kenya and Ivory Coast. The choice of this population group is due both to the fact that it is growing rapidly, as to the fact that it has traditionally been seen as a symbol of Western development absent on the continent.

Kady Camara in his internet cafe and photocopying in Abidjan (Photo Middle Classes in Africa )

Another such project is "Africa Knows" , a Kenyan initiative that seeks to tell another story about Africa, through photojournalism and creative writing and using social networks and new technologies. In addition, photos of AfricaKnows can be bought online in various formats to support the project.

Been Together for Too Long (Photo: Joshua Wanyama)

In the latest issue of Pambazuka news, Vijay Prashad writes of some worrying developments taking place in Mali, and which appear to have gone unnoticed by the mainstream media. Prashad exposes the support received by the Malian government, led by its President Amadou Toumani Touré, from US intelligence and military sources in order to halt the perceived progress of the terrorist group “Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM). Not only has the State Department contributed $5 million to the military budget of Mali (of a total of $70 million), but 300 Special Forces advisers have carried out training exercises with the Malian army. Furthermore, all these activities are integrated within the newly established AFRICOM, a US military command set up especially for the continent. A highly controversial project which according to its critics aims to increase US military presence in Africa under the pretext of “fighting terrorism”, but behind which lies the real interest - control over energetic and natural resources of the continent - especially the oil reserves in the Gulf of Guinea. This strengthening of the Malian military, Prashad warns, may lead, in the national and regional context of tensions and struggle for resources, to a military clampdown of civil and democratic liberties from the central government, similar to that witnessed in Guinea in late September.

US Special Forces member inspects Malian soldiers' weapons (foto US army)

Several reflections follow from this. Firstly, it is clear that the “war on terror” perspective which the last US administration adopted for most of its foreign policy commitments can, at best, lead to mistaken analyses, and at worse serve as a cover up for other interests. Here for example, AIQM does not appear as a threat to the Malian state because of its radical Islamic orientation. Rather, the Al-Qaeda association is simply “a propaganda coup”; as Prashad writes: AQIM is “a small shop with a large sign”, whose activities are almost entirely criminal, including the smuggling of drugs and weapons, and the kidnapping of Western tourists and diplomats in the country. This does not mean that AIQM is not a threat, but rather than it cannot be presented as group where Islamic convictions are the most important element.

Secondly, and derived from this, in order to solve the problems faced by the Malian state, it is necessary to promote both economic development and a fairer distribution of the recourses economic growth may generate. It is the existing inequality which explains the continued conflict between the Malian state and the 'Tuareg rebels', which dates back to independence in 1962, and which became more violent in 1990, forcing the state into a negotiated settlement, seeing that a military solution was not possible. Thus the unequal centre/periphery distribution appears here, as in most of the states in the Sahel marked by arid climate as the key dynamic. A dynamic that has also characterised the Sudan/Darfur conflict, as we have seen before.

Finally, it appears necessary to highlight the growing importance which the Sahelian region is acquiring in global affairs. Not only as one of the regions where the effects of global warming are being most felt and are having a direct impact on political developments. The Sahel has already become central in the migration pocesses which take subSaharan migrants to Europe, and where European states are setting up their first “barriers” to contain these processes. Also, recent news stories point out how, the Sahara desert may become central in the search for energy sources that may provide an alternative to fossil fuels. Thus, it has become known Desertec, a consortium made up of 12 European business plans to set up in the Sahara desert the largest solar powered electricity plant in the world, equivalent to 100 nucreal power stations, and connect it with Southern Europe. If this becomes a reality, North Africa would become the most important enery source for Europe thus increasing the geostrategic value of the area, already high due to the rich reserves of oil, gas and uranium present in the region.

Foto Desertec Foundation

It is thus likely that as the Sahel becomes a more important region, the eternal dilemma of security vs. democracy may acquire new dimensions in the region, and may involve new and powerful players, something which may not necessarily lead to a direct benefit for the population in these countries.