Gain influence to deny Western Sahara nationhood and keep it under Morocco.
Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About
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Gain influence to deny Western Sahara nationhood and keep it under Morocco.
Berniewood Hogan
IT'S BERNIE SANDERS WITH A STEEL CHAIR!
Senegalese wrestle with ethnicity while reaching for dreams of success
September 29, 2016 9.27am SAST
Bombardier (right), the reigning champion and ‘King of the Arenas’, prepares to defend his crown against the popular young challenger Modou Lô. Mark Hann/ Global Sport
On my mother’s side I’m Diola. That’s why I’m a good wrestler. Well, actually my family is Socé from Sédhiou, in Casamance. Before my next fight, I want to go to Casamance to solicit prayers from the marabouts there.
It came as something of a surprise to me when Omar, an aspiring Senegalese wrestler whom I had come to know during my fieldwork, revealed to me his Casamançais ancestry. Of course, there was nothing really surprising about the fact itself.
Dakar’s ever-expanding suburban areas are populated by people who have moved to the capital from all over Senegal as part of an ongoing rural exodus since the mid-20th century. There are Diola and Mandinka from Casamance, Peulh from the Senegal river valley, Sereer from the Saloum delta, and Wolof from the country’s interior, to name just some of the groups that make up Dakar’s complex ethnic landscape. What was surprising to me was that Omar himself brought up the topic.
Among young Dakarois, ethnicity often appears to be a somewhat vague category that they rarely mention. It is less central to urban identity than, say, religious affiliation or place of residence. In other words, the district in which one lives today is more significant than the village where one’s parents or grandparents were born.
Observers have suggested that urbanisation in this west African country has been accompanied by processes of de-ethnicisation and Wolofisation. Urbanites adopt “Dakar Wolof” – a French influenced Wolof dialect – as their lingua franca and develop urban ways of life that blur boundaries of ethnic differentiation.
For young men like Omar and his friends, these urban ways of life are a source of pride and a key part of their identity. Being from the “ghetto” – as they often refer to their neighbourhood on the fringes of Dakar’s sprawling commuter zone – gives them a sense of toughness, urban knowledge and a style that eludes their rural cousins.
In such representations, the city is portrayed as a site of modernity and progress, a gateway to the world – albeit one where morality is at risk. Conversely, village life is considered backward and underdeveloped, while simultaneously venerated as the site of “pure” language, “pure” culture – and also “pure” wrestling.
A truly national sport?
Wrestling is popularly presented as Senegal’s national sport and is considered to be a shared heritage of Senegambian peoples. Yet, today it comes in a variety of forms. These include Olympic wrestling, numerous styles of “traditional” wrestling, and the commercially popular “lutte avec frappe”, loosely translated as “wrestling with punches”. It is a hybrid sport that combines elements of traditional wrestling with bare knuckle boxing.
It is this discipline that has succeeded in capturing the attention of the Senegalese public. This style provides young men like Omar and his teammates with dreams of lucrative careers. It is this dream of wealth and success that drives the wrestling boom in Dakar.
When the first wrestling associations, known as écuries, were established in Dakar, ethnicity and geographical provenance were the main organisational principle: écurie Sereer, écurie Diola, écurie Halpulaar, écurie Baol and écurie Walo each brought together wrestlers of a specific ethnic group or historical region. Only the écuries of Pikine and Fass defied this logic in grouping together athletes from a specific area of Dakar.
Today, however, this form of organisation dominates and the associations are generally multi-ethnic. At the same time, other ethnically specific elements of wrestling – notably the bakk or self-praise singing – have been gradually erased from the sport. Contemporary wrestling in Senegal is now a professionalised commercial sport dependent on individual stars who are widely seen as aspirational celebrities.
The famous wrestler Mohammed “Tyson” Ndao did much to popularise the image of the wrestler as an entrepreneurial self-made man. Fashioning his image on that of his boxing namesake, he engaged heavily in marketing and commercial activities. He promoted himself as an icon of youthful rebellion.
Wrestling’s commercial explosion
Wrestling’s development from a village pastime to an urban and entrepreneurial pursuit has led to a commercial explosion of the sport since the 1990s. Still, ethnicity has not completely disappeared. In fact, it persists in a number of particular ways. It surfaces in discourses of physical qualities associated with wrestlers of specific groups. Political and economic alliances are forged along ethnic lines between wrestlers and their patrons.
‘Faux lions’, traditional figures at major events in Senegal, provide pre-fight entertainment. Mark Hann/Global Sport
Ethnicity features in narratives of pre-destination, in which wrestlers of specific ethnic backgrounds – especially Diola and Sereer – claim that wrestling is “in their blood”. Ethnically specific clothing, objects or cultural performances are displayed at fights. Magico-religious powers are also associated with wrestlers of certain ethnicities – again, especially Diola and Sereer.
Established star wrestlers regularly evoke their ethnic provenance in the buildup to big fights. As in any other sport, young hopefuls are quick to copy their idols. Omar’s (technically incorrect) insistence on his Diola heritage was just one of several examples I came across during my fieldwork of young wrestlers referring to ethnicity to strengthen their claims of athletic prowess.
Another young wrestler, Modou, would regularly tell me that his Sereer heritage meant wrestling was an ancestral calling. He said he was unable to follow another path in life. Ama, an aspiring wrestler from the city of Pikine, visited his mother’s Sereer village for the first time after starting to train for a career in the arena. He told me that he has sought out the services of Sereer marabouts and diviners ever since, reconnecting with his grandparents’ belief system.
There is a shared motif in these stories. Young men who do not seem to have grown up with a clearly defined ethnic identity return to paradigms of ethnic difference to strengthen their identities as wrestlers. In the context of urbanisation and Wolofisation in Dakar, this seems almost paradoxical. In the context of a professionalising sport and an increasingly globalised society, even more so.
This return to ethnicity disrupts commonly held assumptions about rural and urban relations. It also calls into question the nature of Senegal’s modernities. In addition, it poses a challenge to Senegalese nationalism: Does the presence of an ethnic discourse within the sporting arena threaten the notion of the multi-ethnic nation state?
It is impossible to adequately address these questions without further enquiry into the state of ethnic relations and discourses in society at large. This, particularly in politics where accusations of ethnic favouritism are never far away.
At the very least, one might conclude from these observations that sport can intervene in social dynamics in surprising ways. The re-ethnicisation of wrestling leads us to reconsider what we mean when we speak of a national sport and a traditional sport - and by extension, the very categories of tradition and nationhood.
Mark Hann is part of GLOBALSPORT research team. GLOBALSPORT (@GlobalSportUVA) is a multi-sited comparative ethnographic project. GLOBALSPORT is funded by the European Research Council and based at the University of Amsterdam.
Senegalese wrestle with ethnicity while reaching for dreams of success
thernbroom
Superstar
that's the motherland Very smart strategy by the Japanese and Africans should take advantage...
Africa: How Can Japan Change Second-Hand Vehicles Into 'High Quality' Assistance to Africa?
Japan has recently propagandized everywhere to construct "high-quality" infrastructure in Africa. Sensible persons know that Japan lags behind China in the aspect of quantity to support Africa's development, that's why it uses "quality" to hint and casts slander on the "not so high quality" Chinese projects in Africa.
Japan is one of the most developed countries in the world. No one denied its high-quality goods and projects. But unfortunately, Japan's "high quality" projects have been so hard to see in the underdeveloped areas such as Africa. Indeed, Japan owns "Shinkansen" known as "the Bullet Train", but is there any railway in Africa aided by Japan? Japan can produce a variety of top-level and high-quality vehicles, but African people can only see a large number of second-hand and overtime vehicles dumped full of their streets. Anyone nowaday standing on the streets in African countries can easily see those overtime Japanese vehicles belching out black smoke and create air pollution, and smell pungent fumes emitted from the poor vehicles.
In fact, Japan's flaunting "high quality" goods and projects often means high prices and input, which also places high demands on subsequent maintenance costs and technology. This extremely outpaces the current level of development in Africa and is far beyond the capabilities of African states and people. What Africa needs urgently is cost-effective infrastructure such as roads, railways, power and water supply, telecommunications, ports, and airports which meet the reality and demand of the continent. Empty talks of "high-quality" to African countries could not address any problems of Africa's self-sustainable development .
Some people don't understand why China is so popular among African governments and people. Whoever just sets foot on Africa, he may know why and how China contributed to Africa by himself. Till now, China has constructed more than 5600 km of railway, more than 5000 km of highway, 17 aviation facilities, 68 power plants, and more than 200 schools in Africa through its assistance to and financial support for Africa. Due to the arrival of Chinese companies of Huawei and ZTE, more than 500 million people in Africa could use mobile phones and keep up with the Internet Age.
In addition to the advantage of the quantity of its infrastructure projects in Africa, China also has amazing "China Speed" and "Chinese Standards," not to mention the "high quality" which Japan boasts but cannot provide. The Abuja-Kaduna railway in Nigeria and the Benguela railway in Angola financed and constructed by China have been put into service. The railway from Mombasa to Nairobi in Kenya is under fast construction and will be put into service next year, making Kenya the gateway for the development of the region. These railways adopting Chinese standards, equipment, and technology are currently the best cost-effective railways with the highest standards and best quality on the African continent, and with their updated ecological feature. For example, giraffes and any wild animals in Kenya can pass through Mombasa-Nairobi Railway without stooping and lowering the heads.
African countries eagerly expect the international community to take tangible actions to support its development, rather than giving empty talks and promises or building castles in the sky. Looking at those second-hand vehicle belching out black smoke on the streets in Africa, Japan should indeed honor its commitments to helping African countries build more "high-quality" projects and stop dumping its overtime vehicles.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201610100956.html
Africa: How Can Japan Change Second-Hand Vehicles Into 'High Quality' Assistance to Africa?
Japan has recently propagandized everywhere to construct "high-quality" infrastructure in Africa. Sensible persons know that Japan lags behind China in the aspect of quantity to support Africa's development, that's why it uses "quality" to hint and casts slander on the "not so high quality" Chinese projects in Africa.
Japan is one of the most developed countries in the world. No one denied its high-quality goods and projects. But unfortunately, Japan's "high quality" projects have been so hard to see in the underdeveloped areas such as Africa. Indeed, Japan owns "Shinkansen" known as "the Bullet Train", but is there any railway in Africa aided by Japan? Japan can produce a variety of top-level and high-quality vehicles, but African people can only see a large number of second-hand and overtime vehicles dumped full of their streets. Anyone nowaday standing on the streets in African countries can easily see those overtime Japanese vehicles belching out black smoke and create air pollution, and smell pungent fumes emitted from the poor vehicles.
In fact, Japan's flaunting "high quality" goods and projects often means high prices and input, which also places high demands on subsequent maintenance costs and technology. This extremely outpaces the current level of development in Africa and is far beyond the capabilities of African states and people. What Africa needs urgently is cost-effective infrastructure such as roads, railways, power and water supply, telecommunications, ports, and airports which meet the reality and demand of the continent. Empty talks of "high-quality" to African countries could not address any problems of Africa's self-sustainable development .
Some people don't understand why China is so popular among African governments and people. Whoever just sets foot on Africa, he may know why and how China contributed to Africa by himself. Till now, China has constructed more than 5600 km of railway, more than 5000 km of highway, 17 aviation facilities, 68 power plants, and more than 200 schools in Africa through its assistance to and financial support for Africa. Due to the arrival of Chinese companies of Huawei and ZTE, more than 500 million people in Africa could use mobile phones and keep up with the Internet Age.
In addition to the advantage of the quantity of its infrastructure projects in Africa, China also has amazing "China Speed" and "Chinese Standards," not to mention the "high quality" which Japan boasts but cannot provide. The Abuja-Kaduna railway in Nigeria and the Benguela railway in Angola financed and constructed by China have been put into service. The railway from Mombasa to Nairobi in Kenya is under fast construction and will be put into service next year, making Kenya the gateway for the development of the region. These railways adopting Chinese standards, equipment, and technology are currently the best cost-effective railways with the highest standards and best quality on the African continent, and with their updated ecological feature. For example, giraffes and any wild animals in Kenya can pass through Mombasa-Nairobi Railway without stooping and lowering the heads.
African countries eagerly expect the international community to take tangible actions to support its development, rather than giving empty talks and promises or building castles in the sky. Looking at those second-hand vehicle belching out black smoke on the streets in Africa, Japan should indeed honor its commitments to helping African countries build more "high-quality" projects and stop dumping its overtime vehicles.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201610100956.html
Youth-led solutions for SA energy challenges
21 Oct
Pretoria – An innovative device by a young woman from the Eastern Cape is proving to be a winner in the country’s efforts to save energy.
Called the Hot Spot, the device can be retrofitted over any standard geyser element to push hot water from the bottom to the top of the geyser using thermosiphon. This provides 50 litres of hot water within 30 minutes at 50°C for use by all households and small commercial users.
Over 6 million geysers consume about 40% of the power on South Africa's electricity grid at an average heating time of up to three hours per month. To date, alternatives coming to the market have proved to be very costly.
The Hot Spot is developed by Amahlathi Eco-Tech (AET), a start-up business led by 34-year-old Sandiswa Qayi, a young black woman in the Eastern Cape.
This innovation has earned the company the Most Promising Youth-led Business Award in this year’s Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for SMEs in South Africa (GCIP-SA). The awards were held in Pretoria on Thursday, 21 October.
The GCIP-SA, implemented by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is part of a global initiative that aims to identify and support SMEs and start-ups that provide clean technology solutions focusing on energy efficiency, green buildings, renewable energy, waste beneficiation and water efficiency.
Since 2012, AET has been conducting research, paying particular attention to how to conserve, reuse and develop alternative African solutions to water heating, considering Africa’s climate and socio-economic environment.
Qayi, who has more than five years executive and project management experience in the manufacturing and economic development field, said: “GCIP has taught me the value of thorough understanding and development of a business model through validation. This has enabled AET to develop a sound and bankable business plan.”
In a keynote address at the awards, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said the GCIP was showcasing South Africa as an innovative nation.
“Innovation adds momentum to the structural economic change that is needed for economic growth, job creation and an improved quality of life for us all.”
The Minister commended the programme for creating a platform for linking South African entrepreneurs with investors, business and commercial partners, potentially resulting in the commercialisation of new products and services, and ultimately job creation.
While South Africa had not done enough to tackle environmental problems like climate change, the Minister said the country had projects in place to meet energy demands in a sustainable way through solar power, electric vehicles and energy storage.
“South Africa's endowment with world-class solar and wind resources, combined with recent strong cost decreases for solar and wind technologies, makes renewable power generation now a cost-competitive new-build option in the country, and will be one building block in South Africa's move towards a more diversified energy mix,” said Minister Pandor.
Last week, a new study revealed that new power from solar PV and wind today is at least 40% cheaper than that from new baseload coal today.
The Minister said this implied that the bulk of South Africa’s future energy requirements could be met from wind and solar. This research will play a part in drafting the delayed IRP.
Ecological company takes overall award
This year’s overall GCIP-SA winner is Baoberry, a multi-award winning company specialising in ecological engineering and services. The company is led by Yolandi Schoeman, who has over 10 years’ experience in environmental, waste and water management and ecological engineering.
Baoberry has developed aWetbox, a cost-effective integrated grey water treatment and rainwater harvesting “wetland in a box”, contributing to water optimisation, availability and re-use.
Baoberry also walked away with the Most Promising Woman-led Business special category award.
Runner-up Pamela Alborough’s company, SanAqua HCA, has developed an electronic water treatment component capable of improving treatment of small to large quantities of water, from 1kl/hr up to very large plants.
Thevia, led by actuarial scientist Martin Ackermann, manufactures roof tiles made from 99% waste materials. The tiles weigh a quarter of traditional concrete tiles, but are twice as strong and not brittle. Compared to typical concrete tiles, the price and benefits of Thevia’s tiles provide an 8% –15% cost saving on total roof installation. – SAnews.gov.za
Youth-led solutions for SA energy challenges
21 Oct
Pretoria – An innovative device by a young woman from the Eastern Cape is proving to be a winner in the country’s efforts to save energy.
Called the Hot Spot, the device can be retrofitted over any standard geyser element to push hot water from the bottom to the top of the geyser using thermosiphon. This provides 50 litres of hot water within 30 minutes at 50°C for use by all households and small commercial users.
Over 6 million geysers consume about 40% of the power on South Africa's electricity grid at an average heating time of up to three hours per month. To date, alternatives coming to the market have proved to be very costly.
The Hot Spot is developed by Amahlathi Eco-Tech (AET), a start-up business led by 34-year-old Sandiswa Qayi, a young black woman in the Eastern Cape.
This innovation has earned the company the Most Promising Youth-led Business Award in this year’s Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for SMEs in South Africa (GCIP-SA). The awards were held in Pretoria on Thursday, 21 October.
The GCIP-SA, implemented by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is part of a global initiative that aims to identify and support SMEs and start-ups that provide clean technology solutions focusing on energy efficiency, green buildings, renewable energy, waste beneficiation and water efficiency.
Since 2012, AET has been conducting research, paying particular attention to how to conserve, reuse and develop alternative African solutions to water heating, considering Africa’s climate and socio-economic environment.
Qayi, who has more than five years executive and project management experience in the manufacturing and economic development field, said: “GCIP has taught me the value of thorough understanding and development of a business model through validation. This has enabled AET to develop a sound and bankable business plan.”
In a keynote address at the awards, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said the GCIP was showcasing South Africa as an innovative nation.
“Innovation adds momentum to the structural economic change that is needed for economic growth, job creation and an improved quality of life for us all.”
The Minister commended the programme for creating a platform for linking South African entrepreneurs with investors, business and commercial partners, potentially resulting in the commercialisation of new products and services, and ultimately job creation.
While South Africa had not done enough to tackle environmental problems like climate change, the Minister said the country had projects in place to meet energy demands in a sustainable way through solar power, electric vehicles and energy storage.
“South Africa's endowment with world-class solar and wind resources, combined with recent strong cost decreases for solar and wind technologies, makes renewable power generation now a cost-competitive new-build option in the country, and will be one building block in South Africa's move towards a more diversified energy mix,” said Minister Pandor.
Last week, a new study revealed that new power from solar PV and wind today is at least 40% cheaper than that from new baseload coal today.
The Minister said this implied that the bulk of South Africa’s future energy requirements could be met from wind and solar. This research will play a part in drafting the delayed IRP.
Ecological company takes overall award
This year’s overall GCIP-SA winner is Baoberry, a multi-award winning company specialising in ecological engineering and services. The company is led by Yolandi Schoeman, who has over 10 years’ experience in environmental, waste and water management and ecological engineering.
Baoberry has developed aWetbox, a cost-effective integrated grey water treatment and rainwater harvesting “wetland in a box”, contributing to water optimisation, availability and re-use.
Baoberry also walked away with the Most Promising Woman-led Business special category award.
Runner-up Pamela Alborough’s company, SanAqua HCA, has developed an electronic water treatment component capable of improving treatment of small to large quantities of water, from 1kl/hr up to very large plants.
Thevia, led by actuarial scientist Martin Ackermann, manufactures roof tiles made from 99% waste materials. The tiles weigh a quarter of traditional concrete tiles, but are twice as strong and not brittle. Compared to typical concrete tiles, the price and benefits of Thevia’s tiles provide an 8% –15% cost saving on total roof installation. – SAnews.gov.za
Youth-led solutions for SA energy challenges
The Odum of Ala Igbo
Hail Biafra!
i was on Naija Twitter and thought "the coli gon love this
"Good shyt. 
Bridging the gap between African farmers and the Bay Area coffee industry
The youngest son of American legend and baseball great Jackie Robinson, David Robinson, ended up seeking a life far removed from his Connecticut childhood.
For the past 25 years, Robinson, now 64 years old, has been a coffee farmer in Tanzania.
There, he has raised eight of his 10 children and helped organize a cooperative named Sweet Unity Farms. While he returns to the United States regularly as a board member of the Jackie Robinson Foundation and to conduct coffee business, he is now bringing his American and Tanzanian identities full circle. In a new partnership between Sweet Unity Farms and Oakland’s Red Bay Coffee, he hopes to bridge the gap between African coffee farmers and American coffee drinkers.
IMAGE 1 OF 3
David Robinson, Sweet Unity Farms founder, looks over freshly roasted coffee during a test roast at Red Bay Coffee in Oakland.
Red Bay Coffee — a roaster headquartered in Oakland’s Fruitvale district — just released a specially branded single-origin coffee from Sweet Unity Farms in Tanzania’s Mbeya Region. In addition to providing marketing for the cooperative, Red Bay will share profits on the coffee, an arrangement that allows the 200 Sweet Unity farming families to get paid twice: first when they sell their green (unroasted) coffee beans to Red Bay, and then as a portion of profits on the roasted coffee.
Robinson recently spent several days at Red Bay learning how to roast coffee, with the goal of lessening the distance he and fellow farmers have to the final product. Robinson will pass along what he learns about quality standards to his fellow farmers in Africa, partly in the form of video he’ll present at an upcoming annual meeting.
“We’d love to get more money in the pocket of the farmers,” says Keba Konte, who founded Red Bay in 2013. “And there’s a really clear path to do that, which is to increase the quality, and increase the price they get.”
This is not the first time Sweet Unity has had a profit-sharing relationship with an American company, but the new partnership is about something more. As Red Bay Coffee is headed up by one of the few African American roasters in U.S. specialty coffee, it represents a new model in an industry that is not known for its diversity.
“Mr. Robinson and I are both African Americans working on opposite ends of an industry with clear racial barriers to entry,” Konte says.
It’s part of the long-term vision of Robinson, who traveled to eastern Africa during his high school and college years and returned to Tanzania for good in 1983. He had a clear goal: to be a catalyst between Tanzania’s producers — the country has almost half a million coffee farming families — and what he calls “the consumer community” of his home country.
If the farmers can increase that percentage, they’ll earn about 30 percent more. After expenses, they take home 70 to 90 cents a pound on green coffee; with profit-sharing they earn an extra 20 to 30 cents.
“We’re getting to the point where it can be developmental, not just subsistence,” Robinson says.
Development so far has meant there are now two secondary schools in the community where there used to be none. Robinson, who is involved in getting books donated for the cooperative’s schools, says educating the next generation is key.
After all, if it weren’t for his own 12-year-old son, Robinson would still be drinking Africafe, Tanzania’s answer to Nescafe. The boy recently bought a coffee pot for the family with his own money.
“You grow coffee,” he told his father. “You gotta drink our own coffee.”
Bridging the gap between African farmers and the Bay Area coffee industry
The youngest son of American legend and baseball great Jackie Robinson, David Robinson, ended up seeking a life far removed from his Connecticut childhood.
For the past 25 years, Robinson, now 64 years old, has been a coffee farmer in Tanzania.
There, he has raised eight of his 10 children and helped organize a cooperative named Sweet Unity Farms. While he returns to the United States regularly as a board member of the Jackie Robinson Foundation and to conduct coffee business, he is now bringing his American and Tanzanian identities full circle. In a new partnership between Sweet Unity Farms and Oakland’s Red Bay Coffee, he hopes to bridge the gap between African coffee farmers and American coffee drinkers.
IMAGE 1 OF 3
David Robinson, Sweet Unity Farms founder, looks over freshly roasted coffee during a test roast at Red Bay Coffee in Oakland.
Red Bay Coffee — a roaster headquartered in Oakland’s Fruitvale district — just released a specially branded single-origin coffee from Sweet Unity Farms in Tanzania’s Mbeya Region. In addition to providing marketing for the cooperative, Red Bay will share profits on the coffee, an arrangement that allows the 200 Sweet Unity farming families to get paid twice: first when they sell their green (unroasted) coffee beans to Red Bay, and then as a portion of profits on the roasted coffee.
Robinson recently spent several days at Red Bay learning how to roast coffee, with the goal of lessening the distance he and fellow farmers have to the final product. Robinson will pass along what he learns about quality standards to his fellow farmers in Africa, partly in the form of video he’ll present at an upcoming annual meeting.
“We’d love to get more money in the pocket of the farmers,” says Keba Konte, who founded Red Bay in 2013. “And there’s a really clear path to do that, which is to increase the quality, and increase the price they get.”
This is not the first time Sweet Unity has had a profit-sharing relationship with an American company, but the new partnership is about something more. As Red Bay Coffee is headed up by one of the few African American roasters in U.S. specialty coffee, it represents a new model in an industry that is not known for its diversity.
“Mr. Robinson and I are both African Americans working on opposite ends of an industry with clear racial barriers to entry,” Konte says.
It’s part of the long-term vision of Robinson, who traveled to eastern Africa during his high school and college years and returned to Tanzania for good in 1983. He had a clear goal: to be a catalyst between Tanzania’s producers — the country has almost half a million coffee farming families — and what he calls “the consumer community” of his home country.
If the farmers can increase that percentage, they’ll earn about 30 percent more. After expenses, they take home 70 to 90 cents a pound on green coffee; with profit-sharing they earn an extra 20 to 30 cents.
“We’re getting to the point where it can be developmental, not just subsistence,” Robinson says.
Development so far has meant there are now two secondary schools in the community where there used to be none. Robinson, who is involved in getting books donated for the cooperative’s schools, says educating the next generation is key.
After all, if it weren’t for his own 12-year-old son, Robinson would still be drinking Africafe, Tanzania’s answer to Nescafe. The boy recently bought a coffee pot for the family with his own money.
“You grow coffee,” he told his father. “You gotta drink our own coffee.”
Ethiopian Oil Company Mulls China Poly Equity Deal on Gas Finds
William Davison wdavison10
October 21, 2016 — 9:25 AM BRST
Ethiopian Mineral, Petroleum and Biofuel Corp. is discussing a partnership with a unit of China Poly Group, the first of a series of deals with foreign investors it’s planning to exploit natural-resource deposits in the country.
State-owned EMPBC, established earlier this year, plans to take minority stakes in extractive operations as one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies strives to become globally competitive in the resource industry, Chief Executive Officer Mulugeta Seid said. Poly-GCL Petroleum Group, part owned by China Poly, plans to spend $4 billion developing gas deposits in the east of the country, according to the company.
“We’ll invite international companies to work with us,” Mulugeta said in an interview Oct. 19 in Addis Ababa, the capital. “We will be the commercial partner of the international companies on behalf of the government.”
Ethiopia exported $2.6 billion of minerals during a five-year growth plan that ended July 7, less than the $2.8 billion targeted in the final year of the program, as global commodity prices plunged. Tullow Oil Plc suspended exploration in the south in 2014, while Israel Chemicals Ltd. exited a $1-billion potash project this month, blaming a dispute with Ethiopia’s tax authority. The government wants to increase foreign-exchange earnings from sales of minerals, oil and gas to $2 billion a year by 2020 from $344 million last year.
Poly-GCL is developing the Calub and Hilala gas fields, which may contain 4.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the government. The concessions in Ethiopia’s Somali region were previously operated by Petronas Bhd of Malaysia and then PetroTrans, a Hong Kong-based company that lost an international arbitration case in January over the cancellation of its licenses. After the agreements were revoked in 2012, the government established the Petroleum Development Enterprise, which has been incorporated into EMPBC.
The corporation has 4 billion birr ($180 million) of cash and assets, with authorization to increase that amount to 15 billion birr. It will pursue a carried interest of as much as 15 percent in projects, which will be paid for from revenue, Mulugeta said. The corporation is targeting sales of $500 million a year by 2025.
Planned investments include industrial-mineral and biofuels processing, a tantalum mine and building a drilling rig, as it aims to rival entities like Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Mulugeta said.
Calls to the mobile phones of three China Poly representatives in Ethiopia weren’t answered or didn’t connect when Bloomberg sought comment.
Ethiopian Oil Company Mulls China Poly Equity Deal on Gas Finds
William Davison wdavison10
October 21, 2016 — 9:25 AM BRST
Ethiopian Mineral, Petroleum and Biofuel Corp. is discussing a partnership with a unit of China Poly Group, the first of a series of deals with foreign investors it’s planning to exploit natural-resource deposits in the country.
State-owned EMPBC, established earlier this year, plans to take minority stakes in extractive operations as one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies strives to become globally competitive in the resource industry, Chief Executive Officer Mulugeta Seid said. Poly-GCL Petroleum Group, part owned by China Poly, plans to spend $4 billion developing gas deposits in the east of the country, according to the company.
“We’ll invite international companies to work with us,” Mulugeta said in an interview Oct. 19 in Addis Ababa, the capital. “We will be the commercial partner of the international companies on behalf of the government.”
Ethiopia exported $2.6 billion of minerals during a five-year growth plan that ended July 7, less than the $2.8 billion targeted in the final year of the program, as global commodity prices plunged. Tullow Oil Plc suspended exploration in the south in 2014, while Israel Chemicals Ltd. exited a $1-billion potash project this month, blaming a dispute with Ethiopia’s tax authority. The government wants to increase foreign-exchange earnings from sales of minerals, oil and gas to $2 billion a year by 2020 from $344 million last year.
Poly-GCL is developing the Calub and Hilala gas fields, which may contain 4.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the government. The concessions in Ethiopia’s Somali region were previously operated by Petronas Bhd of Malaysia and then PetroTrans, a Hong Kong-based company that lost an international arbitration case in January over the cancellation of its licenses. After the agreements were revoked in 2012, the government established the Petroleum Development Enterprise, which has been incorporated into EMPBC.
The corporation has 4 billion birr ($180 million) of cash and assets, with authorization to increase that amount to 15 billion birr. It will pursue a carried interest of as much as 15 percent in projects, which will be paid for from revenue, Mulugeta said. The corporation is targeting sales of $500 million a year by 2025.
Planned investments include industrial-mineral and biofuels processing, a tantalum mine and building a drilling rig, as it aims to rival entities like Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Mulugeta said.
Calls to the mobile phones of three China Poly representatives in Ethiopia weren’t answered or didn’t connect when Bloomberg sought comment.
Ethiopian Oil Company Mulls China Poly Equity Deal on Gas Finds
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Senegal unveils one of sub-Saharan largest solar parks
Senegal put into service one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest solar energy projects Saturday as it pushes to become a regional player in renewables on a continent where the majority remain off-grid.
The 20-megawatt Senergy 2 project in Bokhol, close to the Mauritanian border, will serve 160,000 people with electricity, and will contribute to Senegal’s target of serving 20 percent of its energy needs with renewables by the end of 2017.
“Without energy there can be neither growth nor development,” said Senegalese President Macky Sall at the opening ceremony.
“With the Bokhol facility, we take a new step and Senegal enters wholeheartedly into a new, clean-energy era,” he told the audience in a country where 45 percent currently lack power at home.
The $28 million project was developed by French renewables firm GreenWish and backed by the Senegalese state, with financing through Britain and Norway via their joint development investment vehicle Green Africa Power.
It will prevent the emission of 23,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, according to GreenWish.
Two more upcoming solar projects will add another 50 MW of power to the Senegalese grid by the end of January alone, boosting a current capacity of 850 MW according to figures from national electricity firm Senelec.
The Bokhol project is dwarfed by the size of continental leaders Morocco and South Africa’s solar parks, however.
Senegal is pushing to become an example for renewables in west Africa, which lags behind other regions in its uptake of the technology.
“There was a real engagement on the part of the Senegalese government to develop renewable energy,” said Charlotte Aubin Kalaidjian, CEO of GreenWish, told AFP ahead of the ceremony.
“Senegal was really ahead of the game,” she added.
A tiny percentage of sub-Saharan Africa’s energy needs are currently served by solar energy despite abundant, year-round sunshine and unused land on much of the continent.
Around 600 million of sub-Saharan Africa’s billion-strong population lacks access to electricity.
Senegal unveils one of sub-Saharan largest solar parks
Senegal put into service one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest solar energy projects Saturday as it pushes to become a regional player in renewables on a continent where the majority remain off-grid.
The 20-megawatt Senergy 2 project in Bokhol, close to the Mauritanian border, will serve 160,000 people with electricity, and will contribute to Senegal’s target of serving 20 percent of its energy needs with renewables by the end of 2017.
“Without energy there can be neither growth nor development,” said Senegalese President Macky Sall at the opening ceremony.
“With the Bokhol facility, we take a new step and Senegal enters wholeheartedly into a new, clean-energy era,” he told the audience in a country where 45 percent currently lack power at home.
The $28 million project was developed by French renewables firm GreenWish and backed by the Senegalese state, with financing through Britain and Norway via their joint development investment vehicle Green Africa Power.
It will prevent the emission of 23,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, according to GreenWish.
Two more upcoming solar projects will add another 50 MW of power to the Senegalese grid by the end of January alone, boosting a current capacity of 850 MW according to figures from national electricity firm Senelec.
The Bokhol project is dwarfed by the size of continental leaders Morocco and South Africa’s solar parks, however.
Senegal is pushing to become an example for renewables in west Africa, which lags behind other regions in its uptake of the technology.
“There was a real engagement on the part of the Senegalese government to develop renewable energy,” said Charlotte Aubin Kalaidjian, CEO of GreenWish, told AFP ahead of the ceremony.
“Senegal was really ahead of the game,” she added.
A tiny percentage of sub-Saharan Africa’s energy needs are currently served by solar energy despite abundant, year-round sunshine and unused land on much of the continent.
Around 600 million of sub-Saharan Africa’s billion-strong population lacks access to electricity.
Senegal unveils one of sub-Saharan largest solar parks
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^^ Senegal is on a roll and everything else but if we relied on the goofy '5%' to enlighten us we'd never know anything about the booming development taking place there.