Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About

[Yehuda]

Ghana targets 5 million passengers yearly with AfDB-funded international airport expansion project

Project to boost regional integration, says Adesina

04/08/2017

The construction of a new terminal at Ghana’s flagship airport – Kotoka International Airport – is expected to make the country a destination of choice with a yearly target of 5 million passengers.

The project, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) with a $120-million facility, will improve air transport in the country. It is also expected to contribute towards boosting the country’s economy, reduce the cost of doing business, and improve competitiveness.

“This terminal is being built for a successful economic future. Its large capacity is a confident statement of intent,” said AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina during a tour of the project in Accra on August 3. “President Akufo-Addo told me that Ghana is back on the African map as a political and economic force, and I think that an airport terminal facility next year that can handle 5 million passengers per year will be proof positive of that.”

“This will help the economy and society of Ghana considerably through enhanced regional integration and employment. This is also a tangible implementation of the Bank’s High 5s strategy in Ghana. I understand that the construction process is right on time and the quality of the infrastructure is excellent. I want to commend all the staff who have been working on this.”

Adesina was on a three-day visit to Ghana, August 1-3, to strengthen cooperation with the country.

The project is scheduled to be ready in 270 days (April 2018).

Ghana’s Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, described the project as strategic to Ghana’s economic transformation agenda.

“I would like to thank the President of the AfDB for coming for this State visit. It has been very good for us. We talked a lot about aviation, agriculture, energy and industry. With the type of performance he is seeing here, we are sure to get more funding from the Bank,” he said.

The country’s aviation sector has emerged as a crucial driving force behind global socio-economic development and even more crucial for emerging economies in Africa. Ghana’s aviation industry has witnessed a significant growth in the past decade due to the discovery of petroleum and gas reserves in the country, sustained domestic demand, and increase in the tourism sector.

Ghana has one international airport – Kotoka International Airport (KIA) – and four domestic airports. Between 2007 and 2014, the number of carriers operation at the Kotoka International Airport, Ghana’s flagship airport, increased from 15 to 42. In general, the capacity in Ghana’s airports cannot cater for the expected demand growth of air traffic, hence the need for significant investment in the country’s airport facilities.

Minister of Aviation Cecilia Abena Dapaah commended AfDB for providing funding for the project and expressed the hope that the project would cater for the expected demand growth of air traffic.

“This is about my 5th visit to the site and we are happy that we are on schedule. Next year, God willing, we will open this edifice as the biggest infrastructure in this company, and we hope to get more passengers to pass through it. This is in line with the vision of the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, to make Ghana the hub of the West African region and a destination of choice. This is the main vision that we have for this project. It is going to create a lot of businesses. This government is poised to employ a lot of people in the aviation,” said Dapaah.

Ghana targets 5 million passengers yearly with AfDB-funded international airport expansion project

 

[Poitier]

World ASIA
'China has conquered Kenya': Inside Beijing's new strategy to win African hearts and minds
In Kenya, memories of election horrors set an ominous tone for Tuesday's vote »

Gitonga was elated. His new digital TV package gave him better reception than he’d once thought possible in Kajiado, a small town on the savannah where Masai tribesmen wander past rickety storefronts and goats cluster in the shade.

“I didn't know about China before,” he said. “I can say it's good. They have changed this country in a big way, very fast.”

David Mugita is StarTimes' sole salesman in Kajiado, Kenya. StarTimes, a privately owned, Beijing-based media and telecommunications firm, has been sweeping across Africa since 2002. (Immanuel Muasya / For The Times)
Although StarTimes — a privately owned, Beijing-based media and telecommunications firm — is virtually unknown in the West, it has been sweeping across Africa since 2002, overhauling the continent’s broadcast infrastructure and beaming Chinese content into millions of homes. It has subsidiaries in 30 African countries, including such war-torn states as the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

"Our aim is to enable every African household to afford digital TV, watch good digital TV and enjoy the digital life,” StarTimes Vice Chairman Guo Ziqi told China’s official New China News Agency in December.

But there’s a catch. StarTimes has substantial backing from the Chinese state — and an explicit political mandate.

China’s relationship with Africa — for decades defined by resource-for-infrastructure deals — is evolving, as Africa becomes wealthier and China’s foreign policy objectives grow more ambitious.

Beijing has invested billions of dollars into “soft power” campaigns aimed at convincing the world that China is a cultural and political success story. Yet beyond China’s borders, its heavily censored state media broadcasts go mostly unwatched; its newspapers go unread; and outsiders often continue to associate China with pollution, opacity and repression.

StarTimes' cheapest package, called “Novo,” costs about $4 per month. Novo features a mix of Kenyan and Chinese channels. Access to other international channels, such as Al Jazeera, France 24 and BBC, costs more than most Kenyans can afford. (Immanuel Muasya / For The Times)
StarTimes signals a change in tack, one that highlights the depth and complexity of Beijing’s efforts to win hearts and minds — with much of that effort now being directed at Africa, one of the world’s great emerging media markets.

As a digital infrastructure provider, StarTimes is helping African states transition from analog television — a technology akin to FM radio, rife with snow, static and dropped signals — to digital, which ensures high-quality image and sound. As a pay-TV company, it is stacking its networks with pro-China broadcasts.

As both, it is materially improving the lives of countless Africans, then making China’s role in those improvements impossible to ignore.

“There’s a huge ideological element” to StarTimes’ African operations, said Dani Madrid-Morales, a doctoral fellow at the City University of Hong Kong who has researched the company. “It’s a huge effort to get Africans to understand China. Even the selection of TV shows is very carefully done. It’s very specific shows that showcase an urban China, a growing China, a noncontroversial view of China.”

Pang Xinxing, StarTimes’ chief executive, who could not be reached for comment, has told Chinese state media that he expanded to Africa to counter “exaggerated and biased reports” about China in the Western media.

“There’s a mindfulness among China’s leadership that China doesn’t get fair treatment overseas, and something needs to be done about it,” Madrid-Morales said.

StarTimes established its Kenyan subsidiary in 2012; now, it has 1.4 million subscribers, accounting for nearly half of Kenya’s pay-TV subscriptions. Its cheapest package, called “Novo,” costs about $4 per month. Novo features a mix of Kenyan and Chinese channels, including several belonging to the Chinesestate-run broadcaster, the China Global Television Network, or CGTN.

Access to other international channels, such as Al Jazeera, France 24 and BBC — which are more inclined to portray China in a negative light — costs more than most Kenyans can afford.

In December 2016, StarTimes launched a “pilot program” in Kajiado “as part of its long-term agenda” to bring digital television to rural Kenyans, according to the state-run China Daily. The company gave free StarTimes set-top boxes and subscriptions to 120 households. Sun Zhijun, a Chinese vice minister overseeing propaganda and media censorship, traveled to Kajiado for the inaugural celebration.

By January, StarTimes was everywhere in town — bright orange StarTimes advertisements glowed on schoolhouse walls, and StarTimes satellite dishes sprouted like carnations from corrugated sheet-metal roofs.

The Kajiado project “is being subsidized by the Chinese government,” Mark Lisboa, StarTimes Kenya’s vice president of marketing, acknowledged, without giving an amount.

The company “embarked on a massive sales drive” following Kenya’s switch to digital TV infrastructure in 2014, he said; it now employs 1,100 people, most of them Kenyan. He added that StarTimes will begin building an Africa headquarters, a dubbing center and production facilities within the year.

China says it built a railway in Africa out of altruism, but it's more strategic than that »

“This is just the beginning, I’ll put it that way,” he said.

China’s footprint across Kenya spreads far beyond access to the airwaves. As in the rest of Africa, China has been investing heavily in infrastructure. But as China’s impact deepens, Kenyans have often reacted with suspicion. They blame China for stealing local jobs. They fear that China — Kenya’s largest creditor — is saddling the country with unmanageable debt, and that Chinese infrastructure projects are endangering the country’s pristine national parks, some of the world’s most biodiverse.

In late May, a Kenyan delegation signed a $2-billion deal with a Chinese firm for a 1,050-megawatt coal-fired power plant about 13 miles north of Lamu Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the oldest Swahili settlement in East Africa. Critics say the project could pollute the air, damage fishing grounds and push hundreds of residents off their land. Locals were outraged that the Chinese company, China Power Global, would import 40% of workers on the project from China.

Lamu residents have staged silent protests, marching through the town bearing anti-coal placards, and though the Kenya National Environment Management Authority signed off on the project last year, the plant’s fate remains undecided.

To get a sense of what’s at stake for China in Kenya, visit Nairobi National Park, a pristine nature preserve in the capital city’s shadow, where zebras graze against a backdrop of skyscrapers.

China provided most of the funding, in loans and investment, for a $3.8-billion railway joining Nairobi and the Kenyan port city Mombasa, 380 miles away — part of which will cut through the park. The line opened in June; its high concrete pillars rise like a mirage from the dry, yellow savannah.

The new train will travel at an average of 74 mph, cutting transportation time between the two cities from about 10 hours to five; it will transport 22 million tons of cargo per year. Ultimately, it could anchor a Chinese-backed rail network stretching into South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, where transportation networks are now rudimentary, consisting mainly of dilapidated roads and remote airstrips. Improved access to ports could improve trade and open markets.

But critics in Kenya say the railway is overpriced, costing a fifth of the national budget, and could put Kenya in debt for generations — 90% of the project was funded through loans from the Export-Import Bank of China, often known simply as China ExIm Bank.

Some of the deliberations with government officials over the project happened behind closed doors, drawing accusations of corruption — though no one has offered much beyond suspicion.

“In my opinion, the [rail] project is one of the biggest scandals ever witnessed in Kenya,” Kenyan politician Joshua Odongo Onono wrote in a commentary last year. “May God have mercy on us.”

Environmentalists have raised a loud alarm about the rail line’s effect on wildlife. The flurry of initial construction is thought to have led to the deaths of 10 elephants. Several lions escaped from the park — one of which died — and some have blamed that, too, on the construction activity, though that’s less clear.

The Chinese-funded railway in Kenya from Nairobi to Mombasa cuts through part of the Nairobi National Park. (Noah Fowler / For the Times)
Protesters gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi, chanting, “ExIm China, respect our laws!”

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Paula Kahumbu, the Nairobi-based CEO of the conservationist organization WildlifeDirect. “We’re concerned that if they can get away with this in the capital city, God knows what could happen elsewhere.”

The controversies were barely reported by Chinese news outlets in Kenya.

Those reports have tended to focus on the rail line’s efficiency, economic benefits and ambition. “The line is expected to speed up the transformation of the Eastern African region as a whole,” reported CGTN in September.

Kevin Otiende, a former employee in CGTN’s Nairobi bureau, said that its Kenyan journalists had little say over what ultimately went on air. “I felt personally, there was no freedom of expression,” he said. “Everything had to be nice. And anything that was not perceived to be correct was immediately killed.”

Chinese business advocates paint Beijing’s media investments as a win-win for Chinese investors and African consumers — and an important prerequisite to China’s ongoing ambitions on the continent.

Huang Hongxiang, the Nairobi-based founder of China House Kenya, which provides consulting services to Chinese companies in the country, said that if China does not take steps to improve its image in Africa, “there will be conflicts sooner or later resulting from misunderstandings.”

“Why would China want to do the railway? Of course it's because it's beneficial to China’s economy and Chinese companies, and to China-Africa relations,” he said. “Between China and Africa you have a lot of material exchange — the railway, and so on. But people-to-people exchange really isn't enough.”

How much impact China is achieving through its media investments remains unclear. Experts questioned whether Kenya’s StarTimes subscribers, while benefiting from StarTimes’ signal quality, were actually watching Chinese shows.
Linus Kaikai, chairman of the Kenya Editors Guild and a manager at the Nairobi-based National Media Group, said Kenyan audiences have been shifting away from foreign content for years, as local shows grow more popular. To most Kenyans, he added, Chinese culture carries little cachet.

“Kenyans have been separating and placing — if I can put it this way — a Chinese wall between infrastructure and culture,” he said. “Kenyans don’t see [China] as a model in the space of democratic or political processes. But they see it as a very, very good model when it comes to economic growth.”

David Mwangi, owner of a small shop in Kajiado, said he has learned to appreciate Chinese news reports. “BBC is shallow. But [CGTN] has more, a lot of African stuff,” he said. “I thought China was a small country, but now I know it's a big country with a lot of technology and infrastructure.

“China is improving a lot,” he continued, glancing at his television. He paused, briefly.

“China has conquered Kenya,” he said.

This is the second in a series of reports on a massive program of Chinese investment that is reshaping Africa. Times staff writer Jonathan Kaiman and visual journalist Noah Fowler traveled to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Ghana with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. More online, including 360-degree videos, at latimes.com/chinainafrica


jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com


For more news from Asia, follow @JRKaiman on Twitter

'China has conquered Kenya': Inside Beijing's new strategy to win African hearts and minds

 

[Yehuda]

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe plans $1 billion Robert Mugabe university

AUGUST 9, 2017 / 11:37 AM

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's cash-strapped government plans to build a $1 billion university named after 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe, the higher education minister said on Wednesday, a move that was quickly cricitised by the opposition as a waste of resources.

Jonathan Moyo, Higher and Tertiary Education Minister, said the Robert Gabriel Mugabe University would focus on science and technology and have an institute focusing on research and "transformative and revolutionary leadership."

"Cabinet has approved a grant of $800 million towards the construction of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe University and a grant of $200 million towards the University Endowment Fund for research and innovation," Moyo said.

Mugabe and his wife Grace are the founding trustees of the university that would be built outside the capital Harare.

While Mugabe's rule was promising at independence in 1980, the ageing leader has been accused of wrecking the economy of the former breadbasket of the region through populist policies such as the seizure of white-owned farms.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), criticising the plan, said Mugabe's government should instead improve existing underfunded universities around the country.

Students at state run universities and colleges struggle with lack of accommodation and crumbling infrastructure, while the government does not offer grants to help the universities.

With formal unemployment above 90 percent, most graduates are forced to take informal jobs, mostly hawking goods on the streets or seeking employment in neighbouring countries, to pay for their studies.

"This is populism that defies logic. It is meant to stroke Mugabe's ego because we know this government is broke," Obert Gutu, MDC spokesman said.

Zimbabwe struggles to pay its workers and spends more than 90 percent of the national budget on salaries, leaving very little for roads, hospitals and education.

Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia and Richard Balmforth

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe plans $1 billion Robert Mugabe university

 

[Red Shield]

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe plans $1 billion Robert Mugabe university

AUGUST 9, 2017 / 11:37 AM

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's cash-strapped government plans to build a $1 billion university named after 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe, the higher education minister said on Wednesday, a move that was quickly cricitised by the opposition as a waste of resources.

Jonathan Moyo, Higher and Tertiary Education Minister, said the Robert Gabriel Mugabe University would focus on science and technology and have an institute focusing on research and "transformative and revolutionary leadership."

"Cabinet has approved a grant of $800 million towards the construction of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe University and a grant of $200 million towards the University Endowment Fund for research and innovation," Moyo said.

Mugabe and his wife Grace are the founding trustees of the university that would be built outside the capital Harare.

While Mugabe's rule was promising at independence in 1980, the ageing leader has been accused of wrecking the economy of the former breadbasket of the region through populist policies such as the seizure of white-owned farms.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), criticising the plan, said Mugabe's government should instead improve existing underfunded universities around the country.

Students at state run universities and colleges struggle with lack of accommodation and crumbling infrastructure, while the government does not offer grants to help the universities.

With formal unemployment above 90 percent, most graduates are forced to take informal jobs, mostly hawking goods on the streets or seeking employment in neighbouring countries, to pay for their studies.

"This is populism that defies logic. It is meant to stroke Mugabe's ego because we know this government is broke," Obert Gutu, MDC spokesman said.

Zimbabwe struggles to pay its workers and spends more than 90 percent of the national budget on salaries, leaving very little for roads, hospitals and education.

Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia and Richard Balmforth

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe plans $1 billion Robert Mugabe university

 

[Yehuda]

Africa’s airports are busier than ever before

Simon Allison |15 Aug 2017 | 11:04

In the first seven months of this year, total international arrivals to the continent grew by 14% over the same period in 2016.

A surge in air traffic is keeping Africa’s airports busier than ever, according to new data. In the first seven months of this year, total international arrivals to the continent grew by 14% over the same period in 2016.

This strong growth was largely driven by a 13.2% increase in travel from Europe, which makes up nearly half the market and a 12.6% boost in intra-African travel, which is just over a quarter of the market.

The data was published by ForwardKeys, a London-based travel analysis firm.

Three South African airports - Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban - are among Africa’s top 10 busiest airports, but the really impressive growth came in North Africa, especially in Tunisia (up 33.5%) and Egypt (up 24.8%). This was spurred by a huge increase in tourism from China after both countries lifted visa restrictions on Chinese citizens.

The positive trend is set to continue: as of July 31, seat bookings for flights to Africa are up 16.8% from where they were on the same date in 2016.

Olivier Jager, the CEO of ForwardKeys, said: “The growth in air travel to Africa is impressive. However, it is notable that consumer demand and airline investment is greater in travel to African countries from outside the continent than it is between African countries.”

One airport with less impressive figures is Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International. During the next five months, capacity is expected to decline by 16% on domestic routes and 9% on international routes as a result of Arik Air’s funding issues.

Africa’s airports are busier than ever before

 

[Yehuda]

Ghana implements ban on import, sale of skin bleaching products

Ismail Akwei | 18/08 00:41

The Ghana Food and Drugs Authority has commenced the implementation of the ban on import and sale of skin bleaching products imposed in January this year.

The Acting Chief Executive of the Authority, Mimi Darko told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that they are cracking down on the products in the market.

She told the committee that the FDA has stopped registering products containing the bleaching chemical hydroquinone and has launched a sensitization programme against the sale of the product in the market.

“The bleaching agent in most bleaching creams is hydroquinone and the Ghana standard now is, there should be zero percent hydroquinone in bleaching creams,” she is quoted by local media.

“The FDA is working with cosmetic sellers to ensure that those creams are not available on the market. The lab is also testing to make sure that even if they try and hide it, we will find it in laboratory analysis,” she added.

The ban on skin bleaching creams followed that of neighbouring Ivory Coast – a major production point of bleaching creams – in 2015.

The Ivorian health ministry said at the time that the ban was due to fears of lasting damage to health.

Bleaching creams contain mercury and its derivatives, cortisone, vitamin A or more than two percent hydroquinone.

Hydroquinone is a lightening agent that is used to develop photographs.

Ghana implements ban on import, sale of skin bleaching products

 

[loyola llothta]

The whole carribean need get on that ban

 

[Frangala]

Outside of the argument of self esteem and psychological arguments, these products are really bad and cancerous to one's health.

 

[Kitsch]

 

[Poitier]

 

[Yehuda]

Who is Angola's next president, Joao Lourenco?

• Date 24.08.2017
• Author Antonio Cascais

After the departure of the seriously ill Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Joao Lourenco will become Angola's next president. Who is the man who ran on the ticket of the party heavyweight MPLA?

Joao Lourenco is considered to be a loyal party soldier - a man who has always been ready to take on greater responsibility in the governing People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). He served as governor in several provinces of Angola, and between 1992 and 1997 he was responsible for propaganda in the MPLA's Politburo. Later, he served as the party's secretary-general for several years.

Read more: Angola chooses successor to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos

Lourenco was recently the country's defense minister before becoming the ruling party's flag-bearer in the August 23 parliamentary election to replace long-term President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. "He is continuing to take on responsibility now," state-run newspaper Jornal de Angola wrote, praising him. However, Lourenco's ambition almost cost him his career in the past.

In 2003, he fell into a trap: He put himself forward as a possible successor in the country's highest political office as dos Santos began openly thinking about stepping down. However, at that time, dos Santos did not really want to abdicate. Instead, he wanted to find out whether there were opponents with ambitions of power within the MPLA.

Dos Santos is accused of leading one of Africa's most corrupt regimes

The background: Jonas Savimbi, leader of the former liberation movement UNITA, had just fallen in battle. The MPLA celebrated its victory over the rebels and dos Santos was publicly playing with the idea of standing down because his most important promise as head of state had been fulfilled. Joao Lourenco's push to the front was badly timed and he fell into disfavor for several years.

The resilient politician

It took 10 years for Lourenco to recover from this faux pas. In December 2016, he reached his goal. Following a proposal by party chairman dos Santos, the central committee of the ruling party decided to place Lourenco as No. 1 on its ticket for the August 2017 poll, thus making him the party's presidential candidate.

In the last election in 2012, the all-powerful governing party polled over 70 percent of the votes. And this time, too, everything had pointed to a victory - despite great dissatisfaction among Angolans and despite a severe economic and financial crisis. The fact is, the MPLA controls the money and the media, and dominates everything during election campaigns. The five opposition parties are poorly organized, have little money to finance the election campaign, and do not manage to get their messages to the people.

Old promise in new packaging

"We are the guarantors of development and progress, we create new jobs, and we improve the health and school systems" - these are Joao Lourenco's campaign messages, and they could be seen and heard by Angolans on all broadcasting channels.

The party produced radio and TV programs and printed newspapers and pamphlets. It organized election campaigns in all provinces, handed out T-shirts, beer and other gifts.

Angola produces and exports more petroleum than any other African country

MPLA rallies are always well attended. If necessary, the ruling party transports its supporters long distances so they can attend. The rather pale Lourenco was turned into a superstar.

"Lourenco's task is to ensure continuity," said Angolan blogger and human rights activist Rafael Marques, meaning continuity in the way the police, the military and the intelligence service are run.

A new law passed in the last parliamentary session ensures that personnel decisions by the outgoing president are out of bounds for the new president. The law was passed by a large majority. The two major opposition parties, UNITA and CASA-CE, voted against it. But the two parties combined make up only 40 of a total of 220 lawmakers.

Many Angolans are wondering whether this law does not place too many limits on the new president's ability to act. Will Lourenco, who is a general himself, fully submit to the decisions of his predecessor, as the new law dictates? Or will he want to make his own personnel decisions?

The fight against corruption

During the run-up to the elections, the opposition accused the MPLA and its candidate Lourenco of being incompetent and corrupt. Lourenco went on the offensive, repeatedly denouncing his political opponents as "crooks" and announcing a major fight against corruption in Angola. The country needs transparency and stability, he said, adding that the only way to promote the new objectives of the MPLA government is to diversify the Angolan economy and attract foreign investors.

Human rights activist Rafael Marques doubts whether Lourenco will really tackle corruption. He believes dos Santos chose him as his successor precisely because of this reason. "The [former] president has always opted for a corrupt person; he always protects the corrupt," said Marques.

Between 1961 and 1975, the MPLA, UNITA, and FNLA fought over control of the country

The flagbearer of the largest opposition party UNITA, Vitorino Nhany, pointed to one of the many financial scandals of recent years: the bankruptcy of BESA Bank, the Angolan branch of the Portuguese Espírito Santo Bank. In this case, nearly 6 billion US dollars apparently disappeared. "Lourenco describes us, the opposition, as crooks, but we ask him why he got 30 million dollars from the Espírito Santo Bank? Who is the real crook?" Nhany said.

A life for the party

Joao Lourenco was born in 1954 in the port town of Lobito. He was 21 years old when the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. He joined the Marxist MPLA, one of three liberation movements that seized power in the capital, Luanda, and waged a bloody war against the rebel movements UNITA and FNLA.

Lourenco comes from a modest background: his father is a medical worker, his mother a seamstress. The MPLA's war against the rebels became young Lourenco's first professional area of work.

In the north of the country, on the border with Congo, Lourenco earned his first spurs as a soldier. He took part in several military exercises and training courses run by Cuban advisors. Of all liberation movements, the MPLA was the best-organized with international connections, especially with Cuba and the Soviet Union, but also with other eastern bloc countries in Europe.

In 1978, Joao Lourenco traveled to the Soviet Union, where he completed a history course for party cadres at the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin military academy. After his return to Angola, Lourenco quickly rose to the rank of general, consolidated his position in the party and founded a family. He married an MPLA leader, who later clinched a ministerial position as well as a post with the World Bank. His marriage with Ana Dias Lourenco produced six children, who are now also politically active - with the MPLA, of course.

Who is Angola's next president, Joao Lourenco?

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

 

[BigMan]

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/afri...english-will-bbc-pidgin-make-dem-hear-nigeria

Imagine a language without an alphabet, held together without grammar or spelling, which changes every day but is nonetheless spoken and understood by more than 75 million Nigerians.

THIS WEEK IN ASIA
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So how would a global mega-broadcaster like the BBC go about reaching this vast, young and un-tapped audience?

On Monday the British media giant will launch an online portal that will be entirely in Pidgin and feature text news, features and podcasts.

“It’s a challenging, exciting experiment,” said Bilkisu Labaran, the corporation’s editor-in-chief in Lagos, the commercial capital of the west African powerhouse.

Labaran and her 15-strong team, which includes web designers, journalists and social media experts, are seeking to transform Nigeria’s use of Pidgin, under the banner “make dem hear”.

“We want to be pioneers in what written Pidgin can be,” she said.

Nigeria's ailing president returns after three months in London for medical treatment

“There is no harmonisation - but that’s the opportunity to have the conversation. We expect debate with our readers on what Pidgin should be. It’s like entering an unknown world.”

The project marks a shift for Labaran for whom speaking Pidgin at home while still a child would have earned her a stern parental rebuke.

Previously, Pidgin was considered a language for the impoverished lower classes.

Pidgin takes inspiration from Portuguese, the first European language to reach Nigeria’s shores, English, the enduring colonial-era language, as well as Jamaican patois imported by former slaves returning to the continent.

The language has shifted and evolved uninterrupted since its inception.

Today it is spoken across Nigeria, where it traverses ethnicities and co-exists alongside some 500 other local languages, as well as in Cameroon, Sierra Leone and Ghana.

In all of these countries, Pidgin is becoming the lingua franca of cool.

First lady Grace Mugabe gets diplomatic immunity, returns to Zimbabwe after South African assault claim

An oral language, Pidgin has traditionally thrived on the country’s crowded radio waves, popularised by the music of the king of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti, and Davido, an American-Nigerian artist currently enjoying huge success.

When Wazobia FM, the first local Pidgin station, launched ten years ago, it was greeted with howls of derision by language puritans who predicted that the project would fail spectacularly.

How could a broadcaster discuss serious issues in street slang, the pedants asked.

The star host of the station’s breakfast show Mayowa Lambe said she “was struggling a bit at the beginning” to lose her English accent after years using the language.

BBC’s value under question as salaries disclosure reveals big earners and gender pay gap

“But the truth is, not everyone is educated in the country, and we have so many ethnic groups and so many languages. Everyone with a minimal level of education understands us, and can be informed,” she said.

“I love to listen to the news in Pidgin English - mainly because it makes it less tragic,” added Nigerian blogger Uduak Ubak.

“A good example is when the word ‘died’ is replaced with ‘delete’. When used in a sentence, we have something like ‘the man don delete’, meaning ‘the man has died’.”

And to commit a massacre is to “do-badness-to-people”.

The English word “kill is” reserved for a different context setting altogether.

In one of Lagos’ renowned mega clubs, a reveller might be heard to say “she dey kill me wit her mini-skirt o”, meaning they love the garment.

Wazobia FM, and many other stations like it, has meant a new level of recognition for Pidgin and its many speakers.

And for once it is the well-heeled, well-educated community scrambling to catch up.

“It’s a language that belongs to nobody at the same time as belonging to everybody,” said Bernard Caron, a linguist specialising in Nigeria at France’s CNRS research institute. “It’s also something that will unite the country, a way of reappropriating English while asserting its own identity.”

Labaran says she feels like she is delving into the history of the language since her studio began using the medium.

“It’s going to be a defining point for the language,” she said.

And for Nigeria’s relationship with its colonial past?

“I didn’t put it that way. But...” she smiled.

 

[Apollo Creed]

 

[Yehuda]

A brief guide to the Continental Free Trade Agreement

ASMITA PARSHOTAM | 28 Aug 2017

What is the Continental Free Trade Agreement?

The Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) is an Africa-wide free trade agreement (FTA) designed to boost intra-African trade and pave the way for the future establishment of a continental customs union. The CFTA builds on existing Tripartite FTA negotiations amongst three African regional economic communities (RECs): the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africsa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC), although it would like to incorporate all other African RECs too.

The decision to establish the CFTA was adopted as early as 2012 by the heads of state at the 18th ordinary session of the African Union (AU), and negotiations officially begun in June 2015. In bringing together all 54 African countries with a combined GDP of more than US$3,4 trillion, the CFTA is an ambitious project that will connect more than one billion people to a variety of cross-continental goods and services through enhanced trade facilitation and greater movement of people and investments.

Why do we need it?

The CFTA stems, in part, from the realisation that regional integration is stultified and not equitably pursued amongst all African regional economic communities (RECs), and that intra-African trade is at critically low levels compared to African trade with outside partners.

The CFTA will address seven priority areas related to trade: policy, infrastructure, finance, information, market integration, boosting productivity and trade facilitation. For the CFTA to be successful there is great need to address a variety of inter-linked challenges, some of which are critical for enhanced intra-Africa trade: diversification of the export base, reducing reliance on raw commodities and enhancing regional integration that would facilitate greater movements of goods, services, people and investment.

Statistics show there is greater need to enhance intra-African trade because African export markets are already diversified and sophisticated – in comparison, greater intra-African trade will afford African countries with a broader market for their manufactured goods. For example, in 2015, African-manufactured goods accounted for 43% of intra-African exports, compared to 19% of exports to external markets.

Similarly, projections by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa shows that the CFTA has the potential to boost intra-African trade by 52% between 2010 and 2022, while trade in industrial goods will receive the largest boost, increasing by an additional 53% for the same period. Therefore, the CFTA’s role in improving intra-African trade levels will be important for enhanced continental growth, particularly as it will facilitate market access for COMESA, SADC and EAC countries to Central and Western African states.

The CFTA also has an Action Plan on Boosting Intra-African Trade (BIAT), which underscores a framework for regional development, with a particular focus on doubling intra-Africa trade flows between January 2012 and January 2022. The Action Plan is endorsed by the African Union, and implementation of its various programmes will work towards addressing the key constraints hindering intra-African trade, together with promoting sustainable economic development.

In order to achieve deepened African market integration the plan is divided into seven clusters related to trade: productive capacities, infrastructure, finance, market integration, and trade facilitation, information and policies.

Potential challenges

Regional integration and a continental FTA is an ambitious agenda. In order to be successful, there are a number of potential challenges that will have to be addressed. As it stands, the CFTA is designed to address specific bottlenecks that include streamlining countries’ regional memberships – for example, many countries are partied to more than one REC, which allows them to cherry-pick their commitments. Resolving overlapping memberships will go towards expediting regional and continental integration.

Similarly, in order for Africa to become a larger player in international trade, the CFTA will also have to improve the flow of goods and services, together with improving productivity levels, market access and incorporating marginalised members of society.

The CFTA’s success will also depend on how successfully RECs are able to streamline their respective FTAs to be aligned with a future CFTA. One of the essential goals for the CFTA will be to capitalise on previously failed opportunities at regional integration, trade facilitation and similar issues that have been plaguing the African continent at large by providing tangible progress on these fronts. Synergies between bilateral trade and regional trade agreements and the CFTA are essential if regional and continental integration is to have long-term impacts.

The CFTA also needs buy-in from all AU member states, including its smaller and less developed economies. Any implemented agreement has to take into account the needs of both its smaller members and its economic powerhouses: smaller countries need to feel ownership over the CFTA that reflects their interests.

Harmonisation, coordination and trade liberalisation can only work if the CFTA caters for the needs of all AU members and their differences. In order for the CFTA to have long-lasting impact, capacity building, understanding country-specific realities and implementing plans that encompass a wide array of viewpoints and levels of development and addresses a variety of challenges will be essential.

Lastly, although the CFTA represents a trade-driven agenda, there is a need to address current trends such as the fourth industrial revolution and the digital economy in ways that meaningfully contribute to Africa’s own continental growth. This will help ensure that the CFTA is current and able to address 21st century global developments and challenges.

The CFTA should also have a human-rights based agenda within the free movement of labour paradigm, labour laws and ensure the protection of migrant labourers, particularly in light of growing anti-migration sentiments at a global level.

State of play: where are we now?

As it stands, the CFTA negotiations are set to be finalised this year. At the second round of CTFA negotiations in May 2016, AU members approved procedural rules governing the CFTA negotiating institutions, while the third round of talks (held in October 2016) focused on the draft modalities for CFTA negotiations on trade in goods and services.

Since February 2017, meetings have commenced with the Technical Working Groupsto provide experts with an understanding/overview of the draft text that will be used in further negotiations.

As of March 2017, the CFTA negotiating forum has held five meetings towards finalising the various draft modalities for negotiations, and the end goal is to have the CFTA implemented in October 2017. An ambitious agenda indeed!

A brief guide to the Continental Free Trade Agreement