The Challenge for Africa (38 page)

First of all, thanks must go to Mia MacDonald of Brighter Green and Martin Rowe of Lantern Books for their dedication, intelligence, skill, and hard work in the development and execution of
The Challenge for Africa
. I want to express my appreciation to my editor, Erroll McDonald, for his great interest in, and enthusiasm for, this book and for bringing it into the world. I would also like to thank Sangamithra Iyer for providing research assistance, and Serge Bounda for his considerable expertise on the Congo Basin ecosystem.

I also acknowledge all those in my constituency of Tetu who worked so hard to make the Constituency Development Fund and other projects a success; the staff and members of the Green Belt Movement and Green Belt Movement International, who continue to strive to fulfill our mission; and our friends and supporters in Kenya and around the world, too numerous to mention here, but who provide me with continual inspiration and encouragement.

As always I would not have been able to complete this book without the unswerving support of my children—Waweru, Wanjira, and Muta. They are both Africa's and my future.

The Challenge for Africa
is a call for genuine leadership that puts peoples' welfare first, places the environment at the center of development, and maintains a vision of the future founded on justice and sustainability. To that extent, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the millions of people who
have labored without recognition for the future of the African continent—including all who have stood up for freedom and demanded accountability, responsibility, and respect from those who have claimed to be their leaders. We may never know their names, but the freedom and dignity they strove for must never be forgotten.

1
  Arthur Bright, “South Africa's Anti-Immigrant Violence Spreads to Cape Town,”
Christian Science Monitor
, May 23, 2008.

2
  “Poverty Rates in Sub-Saharan Africa Steadily Declining Over Last Ten Years: Report,” Ethiopian News Agency, August 28, 2008.

3
  “The State of Africa's Children, 2008,” UNICEF, May 28, 2008.

4
  Cathy Maj tenyi, “Women Have Strong Voice in Rwandan Parliament,” Voice of America, July 16, 2007.

1
  See Pakenham,
The Scramble for Africa
.

2
  See Hochschild,
King Leopold's Ghost
.

3
  “Zambia: Rise of African Nationalism (1945-1964),” EISA,
www.eisa.org.za
.

4
  See Meredith,
The Fate of Africa
, p. 176.

5
  For the history of Africa in precolonial times, see Wikipedia entries for “Ashanti,” “Benin,” “Dahomey,” “Great Zimbabwe,” “Kongo,” “Mali,” “Songhai,” “Sankore,” “Zulu” (accessed on September 2, 2008).

1
  See Meredith,
The Fate of Africa
, p. 142.

2
  Elsa Artadi and Xavier Sala-i-Martin, “The Economic Tragedy of the XXth Century: Growth in Africa,” NBER Working Paper #9865, July 2003.

3
  Table 6:1, “Africa's Growth Tragedy: An Institutional Perspective,”
Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform
, World Bank, 2005 p. 275.

4
  See, for instance, “Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo,” BBC News, April 30, 2008.

5
  See Stiglitz,
Making Globalization Work
, p. 11.

6
  See “War Against Women: The Use of Rape as a Weapon in Congo's Civil War,” CBS News, January 13, 2008; and “IRC Study Shows
Congo's Neglected Crisis Leaves 5.4 Million Dead,” International Rescue Committee, January 22, 2008,
www.theirc.org
.

7
  See Theo Mushi, “IMF Optimistic About Africa Development Prospects,” IPP Media, February 19, 2008.

8
  Martin Ravallion and Shaohua Chen, “The Developing World Is Poorer Than We Thought but No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty,” World Bank, August 26, 2008.

9
  “Sub-Saharan Africa Spring 2008 Regional Economic Outlook: Growth Expected to Remain Robust but Global Developments Cloud Prospects,” International Monetary Fund press release, April 12, 2008.

10
  
Economic Report on Africa
, 2008, Economic Commission on Africa, p. 62.

11
  See AVERT,
www.avert.org/aidsbotswana.htm
(accessed on September 2, 2008).

12
  UN Human Development Report 2007 /2008, pp. 229-30.

13
  “Reducing the Global Incidence of Civil War: A Discussion of the Available Policy Instruments,” Inwent—Capacity Building International, Germany, October 8, 2004,
www.inwent.org/ef-texte/military/collier.htm
(accessed September 2, 2008).

1
  The session is viewable at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8CF4Eo XjD0
.

2
  See Larry Elliott, “Elephant in the Room Can't Leave It All Up to Sharon,”
The Guardian
, January 31, 2005. The initial amount pledged was thought to be $1 million.

3
  Mark Sundberg and Alan Gelb, “Making Aid Work,”
Finance
&
Development
, International Monetary Fund, December 2006, vol. 43, no. 4.

4
  “Global Fund Money Will Make Mosquito Nets Widely Available in Tanzania,” Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria press release, December 2, 2002.

5
  “Malaria—Facts & Figures,” 2004, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; see also “The Impact of Malaria, a Leading Cause of Death Worldwide,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
www.cdc.gov/malaria/impact/index.htm
(accessed September 2008).

6
  “Malaria: The Impact of Malaria, a Leading Cause of Death Worldwide,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
www.cdc.gov/malaria/impact/index.htm
(accessed September 2008).

7
  See Easterly,
The White Man's Burden
, pp. 4-5.

8  “AIDS Epidemic Update 2007,” Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization, 2007.

9
  James Whitworth, “Malaria and HIV,” HIV inSITE Knowledge Base Chapter, May 2006,
hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite?page=kb-05-04-04#S2X
(accessed September 2008).

10
  See Sachs,
The End of Poverty
, pp. 227-38; and
www.millenniumpromise.org
.

11
  “The Magnificent Seven,”
Economist
, April 27, 2006.

12
  Eliza Barclay, “How a Kenyan Village Tripled Its Corn Harvest,”
Christian Science Monitor
, June 17, 2008.

13
  See “Tackling the Silent Killer: The Case for Sanitation,” Water Aid, July 2008; and Gumisai Mutume, “Rough Road to Sustainable Development,”
Africa Renewal
18:2(July 2004).

14
  All data in this paragraph is from “Regional Economic Outlook: SubSaharan Africa, April 08,” International Monetary Fund; G-8 Aid: DATA [Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa], June 2008.

1
  Lydia Polgreen, “Angolans Come Home to ‘Negative Peace,’”
New York Times
, July 30, 2003; and “Angola: Towards Peace and Democracy (2002-2007),” EISA,
www.eisa.org.za/WEP/angoverview10.htm
(accessed September 2008).

2
  United Nations Economic Report on Africa, 2008, p. 49.

3
  Sharon LaFraniere, “As Angola Rebuilds, Most Find Their Poverty Persists,”
New York Times
, October 14, 2007.

4
  UN Human Development Report 2007 /2008.

5
  “Angola: Thousands Forcibly Evicted in Postwar Boom,” Human Rights Watch, May 17, 2007.

6
  See Richard Black, “Africa Fish Fall Blamed on Japan,” BBC News, June 24, 2008.

7
  UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, “And Then There Were No Fish,” November 21, 2007.

8
  “The Crisis of Marine Plunder in Africa,”
ISS Today
, October 2, 2007,
www.iss.co.za
.

9
  “Africa Moves to Stop Fish Theft,” BBC News, July 2, 2008.

10
  “Crisis in African Fish Supplies Looms, Experts Warn Africa Leaders,” World Fish Center, August 21, 2005.

11
  “Fisheries Link to Bushmeat Trade,” BBC News, November 12, 2004.

12
  Lydia Polgreen, “Once a Bright Point, Senegal Teeters Toward a Crisis,”
New York Times
, June 18, 2008.

13
  Hilaire Avril, “Overfishing Linked to Food Crisis, Migration,” Inter Press Service, August 11, 2008.

14  Paul Fauvet, “Fisheries Ministry Has Just One Patrol Boat,” Agencia de Informação de Mocambique, May 31, 2008.

15
  “Poverty, Search for Status Driving Migration to Europe,” UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, July 4, 2007.

16
  See “And Then There Were No Fish” and Sharon LaFraniere, “Europe Takes Africa's Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow,”
New York Times
, January 14, 2008.

17
  “Why Drop the Debt?” Jubilee USA Network,
www.jubileeusa.org/truth-about-debt/why-drop-the-debt.html
(accessed September 2008).

18
  See “The Dirty Dozen,” Trace Aid,
http://traceaid.com/media/looting_indexi.pdf;
and
http://traceaid.com/pages/media/briefs/pre-2004-briefs-archive.php
(accessed September 2008).

19
  See Jubilee Debt Campaign,
www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Malawi+348i.twl
(accessed September 2008), and “Unfinished Business: Ten Years of Dropping the Debt,” Jubilee Debt Campaign, May 2008.

20
  
Global Environment Outlook
(GEO) 4, p. 200.

21
  United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2008, p. 6.

22
  Figure and Johnson-Sirleaf quotation from “Africa Action Stands with African Voices on Debt Cancellation,” Africa Action, July 12, 2007,
www.africaaction.org
.

23
  Sam Olukoya, “Nigeria Makes Progress on Stolen Cash,” BBC News, July 2, 2008.

24
  Data on commodities from Cheru,
African Renaissance
, particularly pp. n–13 and 129-33; and Ayittey,
Africa Unchained
.

25
  “World Economic and Financial Surveys: Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2007,” International Monetary Fund.

26
  Economic Report on Africa, 2008. See Fig. 1.1, p. 22.

27
  Economic Report on Africa, 2007, p. 22.

28
  Ibid., p. 127.

29
  “Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2008,” International Monetary Fund, p. 3.

30
  Collier,
The Bottom Billion
, p. 39.

31
  Ibid., pp. 140-46.

32
  “Norway: An Oil Nation,” see the government of Norway's website at
www.norway.org.uk/policy/trade/oil/oil.htm
(accessed September 2008).

33
  UN Human Development Report 2007/2008, p. 229.

34
  “Norway: Economy,” Wikipedia.

35
  Darren Foster, “Nigeria: The Corruption of Oil,”
Frontline
, May 1, 2007.

36
  “Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks Prepare for Growth of Tele communications in Africa at CTO Roundtable,” Corporate Social
Responsibility Newswire, May 29, 2007,
www.csrwire.com/News/8692.html
(accessed September 2008).

37
  “Regional Economic Outlook, Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2008,” International Monetary Fund.

38
  “On the Frontier of Finance,”
Economist
, November 15, 2007.

39
  See Collier,
The Bottom Billion
.

40
  See Cheru,
African Renaissance
, p. 127. For an article on NEPAD's achievements and challenges, most notably the call for strong leadership, see Wiseman Nkuhlu, “NEPAD: A Look at Seven Years of Achievement—and the Challenges on the Way Forward,” January 23, 2008,
www.africafiles.org/article.asp?id=17138
(accessed September 2008).

41
  CIA Factbook: European Union, see
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html
(accessed September 2008).

42
  Thomas J. Christensen and James Swan, “China in Africa: Implications for U.S. Policy,” U.S. Department of State, June 5, 2008,
www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2008/06/105556.htm
(accessed September 2008); see also Alden,
China in Africa
, pp. 12, 18, and 22.

43
  See Alden,
China in Africa;
see also the thoughtful essay by George Esunge Fominyen, “China in Africa: Invasion or the New Face of Globalisation?”
www.gefominyen.com/2008/06/china-in-africa.html
(accessed September 2008).

44
  Joseph Kahn, “China Courts Africa, Angling for Strategic Gains,”
New York Times
, November 3, 2006.

45
  Howard W. French, “Behind the Reluctance of China and Africa to Criticize Mugabe,”
International Herald Tribune
, July 3, 2008.

46
  Matt Schroeder and Guy Lamb, “The Illicit Arms Trade in Africa: A Global Enterprise,”
African Analyst
, #1, Third Quarter 2006, pp. 69-78.

47
  Richard Grimmett, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1998-2005,” Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, October 23, 2006.

48
  “Did ‘Ship of Shame’ Complete Mission?,” Yahoo News, May 8, 2008.

49
  Christof Maletsky, “‘Ship of Shame’ Cargo Delivered to Country,”
The Namibian
, May 20, 2008.

1
  “Prize Offered to All Africa's Leaders,” BBC News, October 26, 2006.

2
  “Chissano: Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership Acceptance Speech,” November 26, 2007,
www.polity.org.za/article.php?a_id=122204
(accessed September 2008).

3  Cited in Sarah Childress, “In Africa, Democracy Gains Against Turmoil,”
Wall Street Journal
, June 19, 2008.

4
  Ayittey,
Africa Unchained
, pp. 389-91.

5
  See the website for the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Market Women's Fund at
http://smwf.org
.

1
  Ben Onyasimi, “Govt Sets New Conditions for CDF Teams,”
Kenya Times
, August 13, 2008.

2
  “Integrating Tree Cash Crops in Agricultural Production Systems, Kenya,” by Mr. Y. Sato, managing director, Kenya Nut Company, and Mr. J. H. G. Waithaka, consultant, Eureka Agritech Limited, World Bank Group.

1
  See Jeffrey Gettlemen, “Official Sees Kenyan Ethnic Cleansing,”
New York Times
, January 31, 2008; and Simiyu Barasa, “Kenya's War of Words,
New York Times
, February 12, 2008.

2
  See, for instance, Najum Mushtaq, “Kenya: Writing for Peace,” Inter Press Service, August 5, 2008; “A List of Bloggers Covering the Kenyan Elections and Its Aftermath,” January 2, 2008,
http://whiteafrican.com/2008/01/02/a-list-of-bloggers-covering-the-kenyan-elections-and-its-aftermath/
; Generation Kenya,
http://generation kenya.co.ke/main/
; and Peace in Kenya,
www.peaceinkenya.net/
(accessed September 2008).