Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About
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How Nigeria’s pride, National Theatre, was sold off to UAE company as Shopping Mall
Barely one year after Nigerians stopped him from turning the National Theatre into a hotel, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Edem Duke, secretly jetted off the country to the United Arab Emirates, UAE, where he traded off the nation’s cultural pride to Mulk Holding, a diversified UAE-based conglomerate with interests in retail sector and other businesses.
According to Nigeria Political Economist, the secret deal which was successfully shielded from the Nigerian media, in spite of a subsisting concessioning arrangement with the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, was signed and sealed in December , 2014 between a delegation led by Duke, the General Manager of the National Theatre, Kabiru Yar’Adua and representatives of Mulk Holding, said to be ploughing the sum of $40 million (about N7.5 billion) counterpart fund into the project.
According to GulfAfrica Review, in its December 10, 2014 edition, Sharjah’s Mulk Holdings, a diversified UAE-based business conglomerate, “has announced its entry into the retail sector in West Africa through a $40m joint venture to develop Nigeria’s National Arts Theatre in Lagos into a duty-free shopping centre in partnership with the Suzanne Group.
“The interior of the National Theatre will be redesigned and renovated into a modern duty-free and retail shopping mall. The project will convert approximately 30,000m2 of the existing space in two 15,000m2 phases,” said Kabir Yaradua, CEO of the National theatre.
The report continues: “The National Theatre has been the hub of cultural activities in Nigeria since 1976, and this will kick-start a master re-development programme for this area.”
The report quoted Ambassador of Nigeria to the UAE, His Excellency Bashir Yuguda, as saying: “The National Theatre has been the hub of cultural activities in Nigeria since its establishment in 1976, and this development will compliment and kick-start a master re-development programme designed for this area.”
The National Arts Theatre was originally built for the Festival of Arts and Culture in 1977, and later underwent a controversial privatisation after 2001 under President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Fresh plans further anticipate leasing the land around the theatre in a 30-year concession.
Minister of Tourism, HE Edem Duke, noted: “As part of the continuous drive to promote culture and tourism, the federal government is making necessary arrangements to transform the land into a modern mixed-use commercial and business hub of global standards.”
Arif Hafiz, Managing Director of Suzanne Group, praised the “milestone contract” Mulk Holdings as “one of the major global business groups in the UAE”, while Shaji Ul Mulk, chairman, Mulk Holdings, elaborating on the details of the project, noted that is expected to be completed in 2016.
“Mulk Holdings is adopting aggressive strategies to expand its core business, involving serious investment into existing businesses and diversification into sustainable industries,” Ul Mulk added.
According to a report by audit firm Ernst&Young, Africa’s retail and consumer sector received about 17% of all foreign direct investment that came into the continent in 2013.
Mulk Holdings and its joint venture partners own and manage a group of 20 companies with a sector focus on construction and fit-out manufacturing, as well as diversified business interests in trading, commodities, real estate and energy, spread across 48 countries.
Based in Dubai, the Suzanne Group caters to duty free shopping outlets in international airports and seaports, and is a registered supplier of services to the offices of the United Nations.
Though the theatre had been a victim of public sector incompetence, its final descent into the ignoble hall of shame of failed public institutions started in 2001 when the Obasanjo civilian government served notice of its intent to privatize the monument.
Converting a public institution into a successful private enterprise has never captured the fancy of Nigerians. Many of such previous attempts at privatization of public institutions have failed and the case of the National Theatre was not different.
Between 2001 and now, the theatre has remained a mere ball for government ping-ponging. It is yet to be sold or concessioned, worst still the federal government which is the original owner of the facility is behaving as though it is the least of its worries: unserious.
A staff of the theatre told our correspondent that the employees are more confused than anybody. ”We don’t know our fate. Today we hear they want to privatize it and build a 5-star hotel here, tomorrow we hear a different story. This is confusing and it is affecting our morale and commitment because nobody, not even our senior staff can say categorically that this is the true situation of things.
“We believe the management of the theatre is doing this deliberately to give the impression that the theatre cannot function effectively if left in the hand of government. We believe it is a cheap way to arm-twist government to sell the national pride. But some of us have travelled far and wide and we have seen equivalent institutions in other countries being managed by the public sector and they are efficient”.
Political Economist investigation showed that the theatre has become a victim of power play orchestrated by the Tourism Minister, Edem Duke, in concert with the General Manager of the Theatre, Mallam Kabiru Yar’Adua both of whom, stakeholders allege, are intent on disposing of the national monument for peanuts. The Theatre, they argue, was set up by a decree just like the National Troupe and other parastatals of the Ministry of Tourism and they see no reason why it should be sold off on the whims of a minister and a manager. They cited the case of the United States where certain monuments are still held in custody of government.
For instance, the United States government enacted a law in 1846 to support and preserve the Smithsonian Institution and its 19 museums across the country. In UK, the Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company are publicly funded theatre outlets and they are still relevant till this day. The case of the National Theatre cannot be an exception, they warned.
The National Theatre has been a victim of government policy flip-flop. The BPE commenced the concession transaction of the National Theatre in 2001 following the conclusion of World Bank-financed diagnostic study and Transaction Advisory service in line with international best practices. The first concession transaction in 2001 led to the pre-qualification of the following prospective concessionaires:
1. Jadeas Trust Consortium, and
2. Lloyd Anderson Investment Limited.
In January 2003, the pre-qualified concessionaires conducted data room and physical due diligence. The transaction was stalled, however, owing to the inability of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to provide relevant documents such as Power of Attorney as well as building and floor plans of the National Theatre.
The BPE did another concession transaction of National Theatre in 2006. Eight Consortia responded when the Bureau advertised for Expressions of Interest. This led to the financial bid opening on May 17, 2007 where Infrastructica Consortium emerged as the Preferred Bidder with a bid price of ₦35, 560, 000,000 and Jadeas Trust Limited as the Reserved Bidder with an offer of ₦28, 902,948,593.23.
Following the approval of the results of the financial bid by the NCP, an offer letter was sent to the Preferred Bidder on May 18, 2007 and a timetable to complete the concession agreement by May 28, 2007 was drawn. Unfortunately, the Preferred Bidder, Infrastructica Consortium, failed to meet the terms of the offer, leading to the termination of the offer. The Reserved Bidder, Jadeas Trust, was thereafter invited for negotiation to pay for the enterprise.
However, the process to conclude the transaction with Jadeas Trust was stalled.
The NCP at its first meeting on January 22, 2013 approved the resumption of the concession transaction by the BPE with a view to bringing it to conclusion. The BPE has consequently invited the reserve bidder, Jadeas Trust Consortium with the offer of N28,902,948,593.23 to present a revised technical and financial proposal. The N28.9 billion bid offer, which is not yet concluded as it will form part of the renegotiation with Jedeas Trust, comprises both Entry fee and yearly lease fees to be paid over a 35-year period. This is different from the investment capital to be based on approved Post Concession Business Development Plan from which the Concessionaire is to recoup its investment and return the enterprise to the Government after 35 years in the event that the concession is not renewed.
The NCP, in line with its practice to carry along ministries whose enterprises are being privatized/concession, also approved that the BPE should invite the Honourable Minister of Tourism & Culture to participate in the NCP’s technical sub-committee that will evaluate the proposal of Jadeas Trust.
Jadeas Trust Consortium has submitted a revised Technical and Financial proposal to BPE. In accordance with NCP’s decision, the BPE has written the Ministry and the Management of National Theatre to send two nominees each to join the evaluation committee that will assess Jadeas Trust Consortium’s Technical and Financial proposal.
The BPE is awaiting the response of both the Ministry and Management of National Theatre for the evaluation of the Technical and Financial proposal to begin in earnest.
The result of the evaluation team will be presented to, first the Technical Committee of NCP for consideration before the Technical Committee presents its recommendations to the NCP for approval or further directive.
At the Federal Executive Council’s meeting (FEC) held on Wednesday June 26, 2013 an Inter-ministerial Cabinet Committee was set up to consider the parallel concession transactions being carried out by the BPE and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation.
With the new development being spearheaded secretly by the minister, it is not clear what has become of the earlier concessioning arrangement and the status of Jadeas Trust.
Culled from: politicaleconomistng.com
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Egypt proves best destination for stock market investors
Andrew Bolger©AFP
Egypt was 2014’s best destination for stock market investors, producing a total return including dividends and share price rises of more than 30 per cent in a year in which the US led equity rallies in developed economies.
In spite of the Egyptian army coup, which toppled the democratically elected government of the Muslim Brotherhood 18 months ago, the MSCI index for Egypt has almost doubled since mid-2013.
Total returns based on MSCI indices were calculated in dollar terms, so the recent collapse of the rouble aggravated the woeful state of the Russian market, where investors suffered a “negative return” — or loss — of minus 42.3 per cent.
The best performing large developed market was the US, where the total return reached 14.5 per cent on signs of a broadening and accelerating economic recovery, said Nick Nelson, equity strategist at UBS. In contrast, “Europe underperformed — in part because of a renewed slowdown in the economy, even in Germany, but also because of the failure to deliver significant earnings growth for the fourth year in a row.”
The core European countries of Germany and France saw losses equivalent to 9.3 per cent and 9.1 per cent respectively after taking into account dividends and price movements.
After the army’s ousting of the country’s first elected leader, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, its former chief has inherited a divided country
European countries’ poor equity performances also reflected the dollar’s strength against the euro and sterling. The UK market made a return of minus 5.8 per cent — better than Italy’s minus 8.5 per cent, but not as good as Spain’s minus 3.8 per cent.
Portugal was the worst performing European country, with total returns of minus 37.2 per cent. In Greece, however, despite turmoil in its government bond market over renewed fears that it could exit the eurozone, shares fared relatively well — with a zero total return.
Austrian shares suffered a negative return of 29 per cent, due mainly to the exposure of the country’s banking sector the Ukraine and other parts of eastern Europe. There was also a return of minus 26.9 per cent to investors in Hungary, which has suffered economic fallout from the Ukrainian conflict.
Andrew Bolger©AFP
Egypt was 2014’s best destination for stock market investors, producing a total return including dividends and share price rises of more than 30 per cent in a year in which the US led equity rallies in developed economies.
In spite of the Egyptian army coup, which toppled the democratically elected government of the Muslim Brotherhood 18 months ago, the MSCI index for Egypt has almost doubled since mid-2013.
Total returns based on MSCI indices were calculated in dollar terms, so the recent collapse of the rouble aggravated the woeful state of the Russian market, where investors suffered a “negative return” — or loss — of minus 42.3 per cent.
The best performing large developed market was the US, where the total return reached 14.5 per cent on signs of a broadening and accelerating economic recovery, said Nick Nelson, equity strategist at UBS. In contrast, “Europe underperformed — in part because of a renewed slowdown in the economy, even in Germany, but also because of the failure to deliver significant earnings growth for the fourth year in a row.”
The core European countries of Germany and France saw losses equivalent to 9.3 per cent and 9.1 per cent respectively after taking into account dividends and price movements.
After the army’s ousting of the country’s first elected leader, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, its former chief has inherited a divided country
European countries’ poor equity performances also reflected the dollar’s strength against the euro and sterling. The UK market made a return of minus 5.8 per cent — better than Italy’s minus 8.5 per cent, but not as good as Spain’s minus 3.8 per cent.
Portugal was the worst performing European country, with total returns of minus 37.2 per cent. In Greece, however, despite turmoil in its government bond market over renewed fears that it could exit the eurozone, shares fared relatively well — with a zero total return.
Austrian shares suffered a negative return of 29 per cent, due mainly to the exposure of the country’s banking sector the Ukraine and other parts of eastern Europe. There was also a return of minus 26.9 per cent to investors in Hungary, which has suffered economic fallout from the Ukrainian conflict.
View Slide Show7 Photographs
CreditJ.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere, Courtesy of Gallery Fifty One
Hairstyles That Ascend,
and Aspire, in Nigeria
By Whitney Richardson Jan. 2, 2015 Jan. 2, 2015 Comment
- tall house literally sprang up. Spiraling close to two feet in the air, the style — Onile Gogoro in Yoruba — was sported by women across Lagos, like a crown that symbolized the aspirations of a new and striving nation.
Through the following decade, hundreds of other braided styles could be discovered throughout the country, each carrying a distinct meaning. Elite families even had exclusive rights to particular styles, with mothers passing down the intricate details of their secret patterns to their daughters.
The Nigerian photographer J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere sought to preserve these traditions by creating a visual time capsule of close to 1,000 portraits of different looks — including braids, twists, plaits and buns. Before he died this year at the age of 83, Mr. Ojeikere spent more than three decades traveling across Nigeria to complete his most-recognized portrait series, “Hairstyles.”
In his book, “J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs,” each black-and-white portrait is accompanied by a name to represent the style. “Coiling Penny, Penny” is designed in small sections, looped and decorated with small golden bells. In “Pineapple,” he captures a close-up of the back of a woman’s head. Tiny twists sprout from neatly designed rows on her scalp, closely resembling pineapple skin.
“To watch a ‘hair artist’ going through his precise gestures, like an artist making a sculpture, is fascinating,” Mr. Ojeikere once said. “Hairstyles are an art form.”
Mr. Ojeikere grew up in a small Nigerian village and bought his first camera at the age of 20. His persistence writing letters to the Ministry of Information requesting anything in their photographic department paid off with his getting a job as a darkroom assistant when he was 24.
A few years later, he joined the Nigerian Arts Council, where he was motivated to create his hair series as an independent project. During this time, he also took portraits of women wearing traditional head wraps, along with many unpublished photos of his country’s evolving landscape.
Photo
CreditJ.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere, Courtesy of Gallery Fifty OneMkpuk Eba.
As he slowly processed his film for “Hairstyles,” he began to realize that his collection was not only capturing the abstract beauty of hair, but that he was also creating an anthropological survey of this fleeting aspect of his culture.
“All these hairstyles are ephemeral,” he said. “I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them. I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge.”
Roger Szmulewicz, who worked closely with Mr. Ojeikere in the 1990s, said that viewers of his work abroad were both awed and confused by the styles. “People are quite impressed by the artistic and visual way,” said Mr. Szmulewicz, who owns and curates Fifty One, a gallery in Belgium. Then again, “people wonder why anyone would have such a hairdo,” he said. “It’s not something you do every week. It doesn’t look comfortable.”
Aside from the artistry of the hairstyles themselves, Mr. Szmulewicz said he believed that Mr. Ojeikere saw his work more artistically than even the most-recognized African photographers at the time — including Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keita, who both documented popular culture in 1960s Mali.
Whereas the work of Mr. Sidibé and Mr. Keita presented everyday life in their home country, Mr. Ojeikere’s portraits focused on the clean lines and shapes of the hairstyle — even while photographing women on the streets, at weddings and at parties.
“I think Ojeikere just thought that way,” Mr. Szmulewicz said. “He knew he was making a register of everything that was done in Nigeria. He knew it was important work.”
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CAPE TOWN SET TO HOST AFRICA’S FIRST BITCOIN CONFERENCE
John Weru Maina
Bitcoin Education, Bitcoin Events, News
1 Comment
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This April, the city of Cape Town, South Africaplays host to the first ever Bitcoin conference in Africa. The event is set to take place on the 16th and 17th April 2015 at the Atlantic Imbizo Conference and Function Studio, located at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront.
The Bitcoin Africa Conference will bring together merchants, investors, venture capitalists, startups and Bitcoin enthusiasts who are all looking to move Bitcoin forward in Africa. Bitcoin in Africa is at a decidedly infant stage. Subjects to be discussed include what bitcoin is, the blockchain, merchant adoption, and the financial, legal and regulatory implications for Bitcoin adoption in Africa.
Exciting Time for Bitcoin in Africa
Like everywhere else around the world, Bitcoin is an exciting development for the African continent. All over the continent, young Africans are busy in innovation labs developing apps that will begin to tackle some of Africa’s most pressing problems. At the same time, Africans no longer want to see the standard depictions of their continent as a place of misery, famine, war and deadly pestilences anymore. There is a feeling across that there is a need to change the prevailing narrative.
Though huge challenges remain all across the continent, there is nonetheless tremendous opportunity for investment. Governments that have in the past been better known for ineptitude are rolling red carpets for investors, sometimes figuratively and other times literally. Lots of Africans who have grown up in the diaspora particularly the West are now returning and hoping to contribute positively to the fortunes of their motherland.
Bitcoin in Africa: The Remittance Opportunity
Bitcoin promises huge potential specifically for this African diaspora. Each year, the sons and daughters of Africa send about US$ 40 billion homeward. Most of the money sent is meant for family and friends back home, and aid greatly in mitigating against poverty. African governments are alive to the potential of remittance money and are actively encouraging remittance for investment in a much more structured manner. It is in this area that Bitcoin can play a major role. The remittance market has been dominated by money transfer companies who have often been accused of charging high transaction fees especially in countries where they hold monopolies.
For example, in Nairobi, Kenya, the Bitcoin startup Bitpesa has been able to bring the best of both Bitcoin and M-PESA for the London-Nairobi transfer corridor and charge only 3% in transaction fees while at it. The company says that there is huge growth in many other transfer corridors and many other countries in East Africa. The continent needs more Bitpesas so as to fully bring Bitcoin into the mainstream of Africa’s economies.
Bitcoin in Africa: The Opportunity for Agribusiness
The second area in which Bitcoin can be of use to the continent is in agriculture. On the continent, Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has stood out in his determination to make millionaires in Nigeria’s agricultural sector. He has instituted critical reforms, notably in the procurement of fertilizer, introducing a voucher system that has restored sanity in a sector known for lethargy and middlemen. Bitcoin’s blockchain technology would be of great use in Nigeria and elsewhere around the continent in creating a system that would reward participants either with bitcoins or some other cryptocurrency.
Lastly, Bitcoin would also be great for business on the continent. It would enable seamless trade across the continent. It is borderless and instant, and with the growing numbers of exchanges around Africa it will be possible change between Bitcoin and any local fiat currency easily. Indeed it is hoped that the upcoming Bitcoin Africa Conference will be able to explore these and other aspects to enable Africa and Africans participate more meaningfully in what promises to become the biggest financial innovation of the 21st century.
CAPE TOWN SET TO HOST AFRICA’S FIRST BITCOIN CONFERENCE
John Weru Maina
Bitcoin Education, Bitcoin Events, News
1 Comment
TweetLinkShareDigg PostStumbleuponWeiboG+Pinterest
This April, the city of Cape Town, South Africaplays host to the first ever Bitcoin conference in Africa. The event is set to take place on the 16th and 17th April 2015 at the Atlantic Imbizo Conference and Function Studio, located at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront.The Bitcoin Africa Conference will bring together merchants, investors, venture capitalists, startups and Bitcoin enthusiasts who are all looking to move Bitcoin forward in Africa. Bitcoin in Africa is at a decidedly infant stage. Subjects to be discussed include what bitcoin is, the blockchain, merchant adoption, and the financial, legal and regulatory implications for Bitcoin adoption in Africa.
Exciting Time for Bitcoin in Africa
Like everywhere else around the world, Bitcoin is an exciting development for the African continent. All over the continent, young Africans are busy in innovation labs developing apps that will begin to tackle some of Africa’s most pressing problems. At the same time, Africans no longer want to see the standard depictions of their continent as a place of misery, famine, war and deadly pestilences anymore. There is a feeling across that there is a need to change the prevailing narrative.
Though huge challenges remain all across the continent, there is nonetheless tremendous opportunity for investment. Governments that have in the past been better known for ineptitude are rolling red carpets for investors, sometimes figuratively and other times literally. Lots of Africans who have grown up in the diaspora particularly the West are now returning and hoping to contribute positively to the fortunes of their motherland.
Bitcoin in Africa: The Remittance Opportunity
Bitcoin promises huge potential specifically for this African diaspora. Each year, the sons and daughters of Africa send about US$ 40 billion homeward. Most of the money sent is meant for family and friends back home, and aid greatly in mitigating against poverty. African governments are alive to the potential of remittance money and are actively encouraging remittance for investment in a much more structured manner. It is in this area that Bitcoin can play a major role. The remittance market has been dominated by money transfer companies who have often been accused of charging high transaction fees especially in countries where they hold monopolies.
For example, in Nairobi, Kenya, the Bitcoin startup Bitpesa has been able to bring the best of both Bitcoin and M-PESA for the London-Nairobi transfer corridor and charge only 3% in transaction fees while at it. The company says that there is huge growth in many other transfer corridors and many other countries in East Africa. The continent needs more Bitpesas so as to fully bring Bitcoin into the mainstream of Africa’s economies.
Bitcoin in Africa: The Opportunity for Agribusiness
The second area in which Bitcoin can be of use to the continent is in agriculture. On the continent, Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has stood out in his determination to make millionaires in Nigeria’s agricultural sector. He has instituted critical reforms, notably in the procurement of fertilizer, introducing a voucher system that has restored sanity in a sector known for lethargy and middlemen. Bitcoin’s blockchain technology would be of great use in Nigeria and elsewhere around the continent in creating a system that would reward participants either with bitcoins or some other cryptocurrency.
Lastly, Bitcoin would also be great for business on the continent. It would enable seamless trade across the continent. It is borderless and instant, and with the growing numbers of exchanges around Africa it will be possible change between Bitcoin and any local fiat currency easily. Indeed it is hoped that the upcoming Bitcoin Africa Conference will be able to explore these and other aspects to enable Africa and Africans participate more meaningfully in what promises to become the biggest financial innovation of the 21st century.
Premeditated
MANDE KANG
speaking of stocks and financial, Angola bout to construct there National Stock/Financial centerAfrica's stock markets in 2014: The hot, the so-so, the surprise, and the forgetables
01 JAN 2015 13:00LEE MWITI
Some bourses held their own admirably, others plunged, others rose--all in a year's trade.
Africa's star stock exchanges for 2014: There is always someone making money somewhere.
IT has been a tough year for African stock markets, most of which tend to be generally classified as “frontier” by global investor firms.
A sampling of eight stock exchange indices in Africa shows they lost 14.51% of their value over the last one year, even as MSCI data showed a 15.75% gain over the last three years.
The markets tracked by Morgan Stanley Capital International were Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
Indices have their weaknesses, but they do provide a general picture of market performance. We looked at the annual performance of the individual exchanges, biased, but not limited to, the more inclusive and weighted All Share Indices from the African Securities Exchanges Association to rank them into categories based on the numbers:
The Star Performers:
Kenya
The Nairobi Securities Exchange Ltd All Share Index traded at 162.2 points on December 24, just four shy of its year-high of 167.54 reached on December 8. It has been a steady climb in the right direction for the index, which started the year on 136.56 points.
The main ‘blue chip’ NSE 20 Share Index also hit a September high of 5406.39, with a stable currency and a shrinking current account deficit among the factors cited for the rally. But with a new capital gains tax coming into effect in the New Year, the honeymoon looks set to sour.
Uganda
Uganda’s All-Shares Index also had a good year, starting at 1520 points and closing the year above 1940 points in what was a steady climb. In 2010 the country’s bourse was the best performing in sub-Saharan Africa.
The country’s performance is more a reflection of investor confidence given a host of incentives. (Read: Where in Africa money hit sweet returns for 2014 - and where it’s likely to pay off big in 2015)
Malawi
Malawi had a memorable year, punctuated by a dramatic election and a face-off with all-important donors.
But surprisingly its All Share index defied currency volatility and investor uncertainty to head in only one direction—up—to trade at 14886 points, a three-year high— on December 24, having started the year at 12531 points.
Zambia’s All Share Index also had a good year, holding above 6000 points since April, having started the year at 5300 points. This is despite electoral and investor uncertainty, the latter over proposed mining policy changes.
Honourable mentions:
Botswana also from October saw its majority Domestic Company Index go above 9500 points and remain there, having started the year at 9064 points, while Egypt is also seeing a three year high for its EGX 30 Index, as it continues to place a premium on political stability. Tunisia has also had a good year.
The Never-Say Dies:
Mauritius
The SEMDEX all shares index had a yoyo year, starting the year at 2110.27 points, hitting a low of 20131.38 in May, touching a high of 2170.71 points in October (a three year high) before tapering down to 2072.94 on December 29.
The country’s markets exhibit a beta-relation to developed markets, while it also held a credible—as usual— election.
South Africa
South Africa’s business confidence was largely depressed in 2014, on the back of labour unrest and electoral jitters, but will be pretty pleased with the numbers given this background.
The FTSE/JSE: Africa All Share Index battled on strongly, starting the year at 46589 points, hitting a July—and three year— high of 52242 points and trading at 49478.3 on December 24.
It saw an 8% increase over the year as firms sought capital to fund regional expansion, while the all share index has retreated 5% since July, reflecting market volatility. SA companies also raised the most money on share sales since 2005—$13 billion or a 58% jump.
The Underwhelmers:
Ghana
Ghana had a particularly mediocre year, as its currency plunged—the worst performer in Africa— forcing it to seek financial help from the International Monetary Fund.
And with oil prices further plummeting it could have been forgiven for wondering whose goat it ate.
The troubles were reflected in its stock market—the Ghana Stock Exchange-Composite Index fell from a February 20 high of 2439.2 points—the highest in three years— to 2286.11 points on December 24 following a choppy last six months, but still better than the January 2 low of 2145. 2 points when a rally begun.
Morocco
The MADEX started the year at 7440.57 points, hit a high of 8499 points in October before embarking on a decline to touch 7972.12 on December 10, 7% down over the year. It has reached 8750 points in April 2012.
Rwanda
The fledgling five-company Rwanda Stock Exchange had a year to forget, starting the year at 232.2 points, rising to 270 points in April, a three year high, before shrinking to to 222 points in November.
The Where-Do-We-Go-From-Heres:
Nigeria
Nigeria’s ASI on July 4 hit the heights at 43031.81 points, a three-year high, having started off at 41228 points in January before embarking on a bear run that saw it crash to 29789.59 points on December 17.
The country goes into an election in February while oil prices have seen it revise its budgetary plans, heralding an uncertain future. The stock has market ended the year 16% down, but many dealers see it as a market correction, and should bloom again in 2015.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s Industrial Index headed down, starting the year at 201 points and trading at 167 points on December 10, just off its year low of 163 reached in April. It has however seen worse: in May 2012 it reached 128.95 points. The majority of its counters also rarely trade, as investors remain wary of risk.
The Surprise:
Swaziland
Swaziland generally gets a rough ride in the media, but is SZ Index has not been too bothered, starting the year at 294.27 points, and flattening at 298 points since October, which is a three-year high. It has a very unusual market curve—smooth and linear. It may be a small market, but it is a thriving one.
Why do well-travelled Nigerians defend mediocrity at home?
December 18, 2013 — Why do some of these “exposed” Nigerians rush to rationalize, defend or excuse their country’s mediocrity and ghastly performance? Writer Okey Ndibe talks low expectations for Nigeria and calling out bad leadership.
One of the most tragic aspects of Nigeria’s aborted promise is that too many Nigerians have now imbibed a terrible culture of low expectations. They look daily at the series of crises bedevilling the country, and they manage, somehow, to see something admirable.
It is sad to encounter this attitude in Nigerians who have never travelled outside their country, and who are, therefore, blind to the dramatically higher levels of efficiency in most other countries, including some of Nigeria’s neighbours on the western hump of Africa. Lacking a reference point, these Nigerians may be forgiven for believing that the intolerable state of affairs in their country is a mirror of how things happen elsewhere in the world.
But it’s always a case of sheer exasperation when one comes across well-travelled Nigerians infected with the virus of low expectations. These world-wise Nigerians have no excuse. They have been to other efficiently-run countries; they have seen other societies where institutions work fluidly and high quality services are expected and delivered; often, they function within these well-choreographed societies, helping to sustain a culture of excellence.
So why do some of these “exposed” Nigerians nevertheless rush to rationalise, defend or excuse their country’s mediocrity and ghastly performance?
Visiting London last week, I was interviewed by Kayode Ogundamisi on his live political program on BEN Television, “Politricks with KO.” The interview touched on the subject of presidential performance. I asserted that President Goodluck Jonathan, like Olusegun Obasanjo before him, had failed to deliver result-oriented leadership. Soon after, two or three callers questioned my assessment. One, a resident of London, reeled off a few roads he alleged that the Jonathan administration was building. He, or another caller, reminded me that the president had set up new universities. They insisted that the president deserved praise for getting round to roads and the setting up of new universities. Another, also resident in London, sought to remind me and viewers that Mr. Obasanjo’s presidency was marked by impressive feats, among them the payment of a huge chunk of Nigeria’s external debt and the husbanding of mobile telephony.
The sense of fervour in the two callers’ voices was sad to behold. If they had never been to a society where things work, I would have understood their misplaced advocacy. I reminded them that no serious leader today would have the temerity to list the building of roads as one of his or her achievements. The mayor of London, I argued, would be run out of the city if he ever tried to campaign on his road repair record. British citizens and residents take good roads for granted, which is as it should be. On the matter of Mr. Jonathan’s new-fangled universities, it was enough to tell my interlocutor that the government had not lived up to its obligation to fund existing universities. What, then, was the sense in creating more?
Mr. Obasanjo’s payment of jumbo sums to Nigeria’s external creditors never struck me as an achievement – not when he made the payment and not in retrospect. A more visionary leader might have used all that cash to improve his country’s ghastly infrastructure. Why transfer nearly $20 billion to creditors when Nigerians have no healthcare, no electric power, no dependable network of roads, and no waste disposal system? Why hand over such princely sum when our public schools, from kindergartens to universities, are in heartrending shape? Why invest in the Paris and London Clubs when the failure to address Nigeria’s electric power woes remains a huge impediment to Nigerian businesses, hampers economic enterprise, and leaves hordes of Nigerian graduates unemployed? What was the sense in serving the interests of external creditors – many of them complicit in the mismanagement of the loans they gave – when Nigeria’s climate of insecurity gets worse by the day? In short, why hasten to pay the foreign Peter and Paul whilst neglecting the plight of the Nigerian Musa, Okoye and Adebayo?
One of the callers to BEN Television scolded me for the sin of holding a Nigerian president to the same expectations I would apply to President Barack Obama. Nigeria was not America, he stated. It was, on the face of it, a salient point; but it was also a deeply troubling point. Here’s why.
Nigeria is in such dire straits that it is in more desperate need than America (or Britain, Norway, Germany) for tested, committed leaders. In other words, Nigerians need a leader with vision, energy, passion, and drive far more urgently than do Americans. And there are Nigerians who have the intellectual acumen, vision and leadership skills to stand toe to toe with the best leaders anywhere in the world. For some reason, however, the Nigerian state is rigged by and for mediocrities.
Here’s another slice of the argument. Many Nigerians are quick to contend that it’s unfair to demand American-grade performance for Nigerian public officials. But the same Nigerians are hardly ever outraged at the outlandish payments and perks enjoyed by their officials. Consider this fact: Each member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives hauls away enough cash in a year to pay Mr. Obama’s salary several times over. In fact, many local government chairmen take home enough cash to make Mr. Obama – whose salary is $440,000 a year – look, by comparison, like a chump.
It baffles that some Nigerians are at peace with the lavish payments to Nigerian public office holders, from municipal officials to the president. Yet, these same Nigerians raise their hackles the moment a critic demands that our obscenely remunerated officials demonstrate a semblance of engagement. It boils down to that disease of low expectations.
Given how much money Nigerian officials are paid – to say nothing of the additional sums they steal – why is it out of place to hold them to the highest levels of expectation? If they’re in the highest paid league, what’s wrong with insisting that their performance be Messi-like?
Nigerians who have never had the privilege of travelling to other parts of the world – and who, therefore, have never seen the fruits of true leadership – deserve our patience when they mistake the substandard roads most Nigerian governments build as evidence of sagacious leadership. As one caller to BEN Television noted, many Nigerians are so dehumanised that they praise governors for paying salaries!
The greater tragedy – absolutely inexcusable – is when those who have seen the world, who ought to know better, embrace the culture of low (even no) expectations. In the end, as I tried to tell the viewers of “Politricks with KO,” Nigeria – on such indices as healthcare, education and social services – lags many countries with significantly less resources. Countries like Ghana, Uganda, Jamaica, South Africa, Botswana and the Philippines are way ahead of Nigeria where it counts. Part of the reason is this: Nigeria is cursed with “leaders” who intone that they’re “moving the nation forward.” But they neither know what “forward” means, nor how to move in its direction.
This article originally appeared on Sahara Reporters, and is reproduced here with permission of the author. Follow him on Twitter @okeyndibe.
December 18, 2013 — Why do some of these “exposed” Nigerians rush to rationalize, defend or excuse their country’s mediocrity and ghastly performance? Writer Okey Ndibe talks low expectations for Nigeria and calling out bad leadership.
One of the most tragic aspects of Nigeria’s aborted promise is that too many Nigerians have now imbibed a terrible culture of low expectations. They look daily at the series of crises bedevilling the country, and they manage, somehow, to see something admirable.
It is sad to encounter this attitude in Nigerians who have never travelled outside their country, and who are, therefore, blind to the dramatically higher levels of efficiency in most other countries, including some of Nigeria’s neighbours on the western hump of Africa. Lacking a reference point, these Nigerians may be forgiven for believing that the intolerable state of affairs in their country is a mirror of how things happen elsewhere in the world.
But it’s always a case of sheer exasperation when one comes across well-travelled Nigerians infected with the virus of low expectations. These world-wise Nigerians have no excuse. They have been to other efficiently-run countries; they have seen other societies where institutions work fluidly and high quality services are expected and delivered; often, they function within these well-choreographed societies, helping to sustain a culture of excellence.
So why do some of these “exposed” Nigerians nevertheless rush to rationalise, defend or excuse their country’s mediocrity and ghastly performance?
Visiting London last week, I was interviewed by Kayode Ogundamisi on his live political program on BEN Television, “Politricks with KO.” The interview touched on the subject of presidential performance. I asserted that President Goodluck Jonathan, like Olusegun Obasanjo before him, had failed to deliver result-oriented leadership. Soon after, two or three callers questioned my assessment. One, a resident of London, reeled off a few roads he alleged that the Jonathan administration was building. He, or another caller, reminded me that the president had set up new universities. They insisted that the president deserved praise for getting round to roads and the setting up of new universities. Another, also resident in London, sought to remind me and viewers that Mr. Obasanjo’s presidency was marked by impressive feats, among them the payment of a huge chunk of Nigeria’s external debt and the husbanding of mobile telephony.
The sense of fervour in the two callers’ voices was sad to behold. If they had never been to a society where things work, I would have understood their misplaced advocacy. I reminded them that no serious leader today would have the temerity to list the building of roads as one of his or her achievements. The mayor of London, I argued, would be run out of the city if he ever tried to campaign on his road repair record. British citizens and residents take good roads for granted, which is as it should be. On the matter of Mr. Jonathan’s new-fangled universities, it was enough to tell my interlocutor that the government had not lived up to its obligation to fund existing universities. What, then, was the sense in creating more?
Mr. Obasanjo’s payment of jumbo sums to Nigeria’s external creditors never struck me as an achievement – not when he made the payment and not in retrospect. A more visionary leader might have used all that cash to improve his country’s ghastly infrastructure. Why transfer nearly $20 billion to creditors when Nigerians have no healthcare, no electric power, no dependable network of roads, and no waste disposal system? Why hand over such princely sum when our public schools, from kindergartens to universities, are in heartrending shape? Why invest in the Paris and London Clubs when the failure to address Nigeria’s electric power woes remains a huge impediment to Nigerian businesses, hampers economic enterprise, and leaves hordes of Nigerian graduates unemployed? What was the sense in serving the interests of external creditors – many of them complicit in the mismanagement of the loans they gave – when Nigeria’s climate of insecurity gets worse by the day? In short, why hasten to pay the foreign Peter and Paul whilst neglecting the plight of the Nigerian Musa, Okoye and Adebayo?
One of the callers to BEN Television scolded me for the sin of holding a Nigerian president to the same expectations I would apply to President Barack Obama. Nigeria was not America, he stated. It was, on the face of it, a salient point; but it was also a deeply troubling point. Here’s why.
Nigeria is in such dire straits that it is in more desperate need than America (or Britain, Norway, Germany) for tested, committed leaders. In other words, Nigerians need a leader with vision, energy, passion, and drive far more urgently than do Americans. And there are Nigerians who have the intellectual acumen, vision and leadership skills to stand toe to toe with the best leaders anywhere in the world. For some reason, however, the Nigerian state is rigged by and for mediocrities.
Here’s another slice of the argument. Many Nigerians are quick to contend that it’s unfair to demand American-grade performance for Nigerian public officials. But the same Nigerians are hardly ever outraged at the outlandish payments and perks enjoyed by their officials. Consider this fact: Each member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives hauls away enough cash in a year to pay Mr. Obama’s salary several times over. In fact, many local government chairmen take home enough cash to make Mr. Obama – whose salary is $440,000 a year – look, by comparison, like a chump.
It baffles that some Nigerians are at peace with the lavish payments to Nigerian public office holders, from municipal officials to the president. Yet, these same Nigerians raise their hackles the moment a critic demands that our obscenely remunerated officials demonstrate a semblance of engagement. It boils down to that disease of low expectations.
Given how much money Nigerian officials are paid – to say nothing of the additional sums they steal – why is it out of place to hold them to the highest levels of expectation? If they’re in the highest paid league, what’s wrong with insisting that their performance be Messi-like?
Nigerians who have never had the privilege of travelling to other parts of the world – and who, therefore, have never seen the fruits of true leadership – deserve our patience when they mistake the substandard roads most Nigerian governments build as evidence of sagacious leadership. As one caller to BEN Television noted, many Nigerians are so dehumanised that they praise governors for paying salaries!
The greater tragedy – absolutely inexcusable – is when those who have seen the world, who ought to know better, embrace the culture of low (even no) expectations. In the end, as I tried to tell the viewers of “Politricks with KO,” Nigeria – on such indices as healthcare, education and social services – lags many countries with significantly less resources. Countries like Ghana, Uganda, Jamaica, South Africa, Botswana and the Philippines are way ahead of Nigeria where it counts. Part of the reason is this: Nigeria is cursed with “leaders” who intone that they’re “moving the nation forward.” But they neither know what “forward” means, nor how to move in its direction.
This article originally appeared on Sahara Reporters, and is reproduced here with permission of the author. Follow him on Twitter @okeyndibe.
New, privatized African city heralds climate apartheid
Nigeria's Eko Atlantic augurs how the super-rich will exploit the crisis of climate change to increase inequality and seal themselves off from its impacts
A simulation of the downtown in Eko Atlantic city, under construction in Lagos, Nigeria. Photograph: Eko Atlantic
Martin Lukacs
It's a sight to behold. Just off Lagos, Nigeria's coast, an artificial island is emerging from the sea. A foundation, built of sand dredged from the ocean floor, stretches over ten kilometres. Promotional videos depict what is to come: a city of soaring buildings, housing for 250,000 people, and a central boulevard to match Paris' Champs-Élysées and New York's Fifth Avenue. Privately constructed, it will also be privately administered and supplied with electricity, water, mass transit, sewage and security. It is the "future Hong Kong of Africa," anticipates Nigeria's World Bank director.
Welcome to Eko Atlantic, a city whose "whole purpose", its developers say, is to "arrest the ocean's encroachment." Like many low-lying coastal African countries, Nigeria has been hit hard by a rising sea-level, which has regularly washed away thousands of peoples' homes. To defend against the coastal erosion and flooding, the city is being surrounded by the "Great Wall of Lagos", a sea defence barrier made of 100,000 five-ton concrete blocks. Eko Atlantic will be a "sustainable city, clean and energy efficient with minimal carbon emissions," offer jobs, prosperity and new land for Nigerians, and serve as a bulwark in the fight against the impacts of climate change.
At least that's the official story. Other facts suggest this gleaming city will be a menacing allure to most. In congested Lagos, Africa's largest city, there is little employment and millions work and scavenge in a vast, desperate informal economy. Sixty percent of Nigeria's population – almost 100 of 170 million people – live on less than a dollar a day. Preventable diseases are widespread; electricity and clean water hard to come by. A few kilometres down the Lagos shoreline, Nigerians eke out an existence in the aquatic slum of Makoko, built precariously on stilts over the ocean. Casting them as crime-ridden, the government regularly dismantles such slums, bulldozing homes and evicting thousands. These are hardly the people who will scoop up square footage in Eko Atlantic's pricy new high-rises.
Those behind the project – a pair of politically connected Lebanese brothers who run a financial empire called the Chagoury Group, and a slew of African and international banks – give a picture of who will be catered to. Gilbert Chaougry was a close advisor to the notorious Nigerian dictatorship of the mid 1990s, helping the ultra-corrupt general Sani Abacha as he looted billions from public coffers. Abacha killed hundreds of demonstrators and executed environmentalistKen Saro-Wiwa, who rose to fame protesting the despoiling of the country by Shell and other multinational oil corporations. Thus it's fitting for whom the first 15-story office tower in Eko Atlantic is being built: a British oil and gas trading company. The city proposing to head off environmental devastation will be populated by those most responsible for it in the first place.
Eko Atlantic city will sit on ten million square metres of land built of sand dredged from the Atlantic Ocean. Photograph: Eko Atlantic
The real inspiration for Eko Atlantic comes not from these men but the dreamworlds of rampant capitalism, stoked by a successful, thirty year global campaign to claw back gains in social security and unchain corporations from regulation – what we now know as neoliberalism. In Nigeria, oil wealth plundered by a military elite spawned extreme inequalities and upended the economy. Under the IMF's neoliberal dictates, the situation worsened: education and healthcare were gutted, industries privatized, and farmers ruined by western products dumped on their markets. The World Bank celebrated Nigeria; extreme poverty doubled. The most notorious application of the power of the Nigerian state for the interest of the rich came in 1990: an entire district of Lagos - 300,000 homes – was razed to clear the way for high-end real-estate development.
As elites in Nigeria and elsewhere have embraced such inequality as the very engine of growth, they have re-established some of the most severe forms of colonial segregation and gated leisure. Today, boutiques cannot open fast enough to serve the Nigerian millionaires buying luxury cars and yachts they'll be able to dock in Eko Atlantic's down-town marina. Meanwhile, thousands of people who live in communities along the coast expect the new city will bring displacement, not prosperity, says environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey. To get their way, the developers, backed by industry and politicians, have trampled over the country's environmental assessment process. "Building Eko Atlantic is contrary to anything one would want to do if one took seriously climate change and resource depletion," he says.
The wealthy and powerful may in fact take climate change seriously: not as a demand to modify their behaviour or question the fossil-fuel driven global economy that has made it possible, but as the biggest opportunity yet to realize their dreams of unfettered accumulation and consumption. The disaster capitalists behind Eko Atlantic have seized on climate change to push through pro-corporate plans to build a city of their dreams, an architectural insult to the daily circumstances of ordinary Nigerians. The criminalized poor abandoned outside their walls may once have served as sufficient justification for their flight and fortification – but now they have the very real threat of climate change as well.
Eko Atlantic is where you can begin to see a possible future – a vision of privatized green enclaves for the ultra rich ringed by slums lacking water or electricity, in which a surplus population scramble for depleting resources and shelter to fend off the coming floods and storms. Protected by guards, guns, and an insurmountable gully – real estate prices – the rich will shield themselves from the rising tides of poverty and a sea that is literally rising. A world in which the rich and powerful exploit the global ecological crisis to widen and entrench already extreme inequalities and seal themselves off from its impacts – this is climate apartheid.
Prepare for the elite, like never before, to use climate change to transform neighbourhoods, cities, even entire nations into heavily fortified islands. Already, around the world, from Afghanistan to Arizona, China to Cairo, and in mushrooming mega-cities much like Lagos, those able are moving to areas where they can live better and often more greenly – with better transport and renewable technologies, green buildings and ecological services. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the super-rich – ferried above the congested city by a fleet of hundreds of helicopters – have disembedded themselves from urban life, attempting to escape from a common fate.
In places like Eko Atlantic the escape, a moral and social secession of the rich from those in their country, will be complete. This essentially utopian drive – to consume rapaciously and endlessly and to reject any semblance of collective impulse and concern – is simply incompatible with human survival. But at the moment when we must confront an economy and ideology pushing the planet's life-support systems to breaking point, this is what the neoliberal imagination offers us: a grotesque monument to the ultra-rich flight from responsibility.
A counter-point to Eko Atlantic, Nigerian architect Kunle Adeyemi has designed floating structures for the Makoko slum that are buoyed by plastic barrels and powered by solar panels.
There are, however, alternatives, like one proposed for the Makoko slum, the home of a quarter-million Nigerians – the same number who are intended to inhabit Eko Atlantic. Nigerian architect Kunle Adeyemi has designed what amounts to a counter-point, a floating settlement of which a school has already been built – making it only the second school that Makoko has ever had. The floating structures – made of low-cost wood and buoyed by recycled plastic barrels – have solar panels, sloped roofs to harvest rainwater, and compost toilets to solve dire sanitary needs.
Nnimmo Bassey thinks the floating settlements are just the thing to help the sustainable development of under-served communities across Nigeria's coastlines. "It is a structure that suits the environment, is easy to replicate and appropriate to peoples' lifestyle, and is sensitive to the challenges of sea level rise," he says. "It would help create what we need: communities for people, not gated anti-people communities."
The project is animated by a very different vision: that we must share rather than hoard, reduce inequality rather than increase it, and encourage the resiliency of everyone rather than the escape from the worst for a few. That the needs of the most vulnerable, rather than the desires of the most wealthy, must be the starting point of any effort to truly combat the climate crisis.
The choices before Lagos confront us all. While ours is not the first civilization whose elites have proved spectacularly indifferent to collective, ecological survival, it is up to us whether we will be the last.
Follow Martin on twitter: @Martin_Lukacs
Nigeria's Eko Atlantic augurs how the super-rich will exploit the crisis of climate change to increase inequality and seal themselves off from its impacts
A simulation of the downtown in Eko Atlantic city, under construction in Lagos, Nigeria. Photograph: Eko Atlantic
Martin Lukacs
It's a sight to behold. Just off Lagos, Nigeria's coast, an artificial island is emerging from the sea. A foundation, built of sand dredged from the ocean floor, stretches over ten kilometres. Promotional videos depict what is to come: a city of soaring buildings, housing for 250,000 people, and a central boulevard to match Paris' Champs-Élysées and New York's Fifth Avenue. Privately constructed, it will also be privately administered and supplied with electricity, water, mass transit, sewage and security. It is the "future Hong Kong of Africa," anticipates Nigeria's World Bank director.
Welcome to Eko Atlantic, a city whose "whole purpose", its developers say, is to "arrest the ocean's encroachment." Like many low-lying coastal African countries, Nigeria has been hit hard by a rising sea-level, which has regularly washed away thousands of peoples' homes. To defend against the coastal erosion and flooding, the city is being surrounded by the "Great Wall of Lagos", a sea defence barrier made of 100,000 five-ton concrete blocks. Eko Atlantic will be a "sustainable city, clean and energy efficient with minimal carbon emissions," offer jobs, prosperity and new land for Nigerians, and serve as a bulwark in the fight against the impacts of climate change.
At least that's the official story. Other facts suggest this gleaming city will be a menacing allure to most. In congested Lagos, Africa's largest city, there is little employment and millions work and scavenge in a vast, desperate informal economy. Sixty percent of Nigeria's population – almost 100 of 170 million people – live on less than a dollar a day. Preventable diseases are widespread; electricity and clean water hard to come by. A few kilometres down the Lagos shoreline, Nigerians eke out an existence in the aquatic slum of Makoko, built precariously on stilts over the ocean. Casting them as crime-ridden, the government regularly dismantles such slums, bulldozing homes and evicting thousands. These are hardly the people who will scoop up square footage in Eko Atlantic's pricy new high-rises.
Those behind the project – a pair of politically connected Lebanese brothers who run a financial empire called the Chagoury Group, and a slew of African and international banks – give a picture of who will be catered to. Gilbert Chaougry was a close advisor to the notorious Nigerian dictatorship of the mid 1990s, helping the ultra-corrupt general Sani Abacha as he looted billions from public coffers. Abacha killed hundreds of demonstrators and executed environmentalistKen Saro-Wiwa, who rose to fame protesting the despoiling of the country by Shell and other multinational oil corporations. Thus it's fitting for whom the first 15-story office tower in Eko Atlantic is being built: a British oil and gas trading company. The city proposing to head off environmental devastation will be populated by those most responsible for it in the first place.
Eko Atlantic city will sit on ten million square metres of land built of sand dredged from the Atlantic Ocean. Photograph: Eko Atlantic
The real inspiration for Eko Atlantic comes not from these men but the dreamworlds of rampant capitalism, stoked by a successful, thirty year global campaign to claw back gains in social security and unchain corporations from regulation – what we now know as neoliberalism. In Nigeria, oil wealth plundered by a military elite spawned extreme inequalities and upended the economy. Under the IMF's neoliberal dictates, the situation worsened: education and healthcare were gutted, industries privatized, and farmers ruined by western products dumped on their markets. The World Bank celebrated Nigeria; extreme poverty doubled. The most notorious application of the power of the Nigerian state for the interest of the rich came in 1990: an entire district of Lagos - 300,000 homes – was razed to clear the way for high-end real-estate development.
As elites in Nigeria and elsewhere have embraced such inequality as the very engine of growth, they have re-established some of the most severe forms of colonial segregation and gated leisure. Today, boutiques cannot open fast enough to serve the Nigerian millionaires buying luxury cars and yachts they'll be able to dock in Eko Atlantic's down-town marina. Meanwhile, thousands of people who live in communities along the coast expect the new city will bring displacement, not prosperity, says environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey. To get their way, the developers, backed by industry and politicians, have trampled over the country's environmental assessment process. "Building Eko Atlantic is contrary to anything one would want to do if one took seriously climate change and resource depletion," he says.
The wealthy and powerful may in fact take climate change seriously: not as a demand to modify their behaviour or question the fossil-fuel driven global economy that has made it possible, but as the biggest opportunity yet to realize their dreams of unfettered accumulation and consumption. The disaster capitalists behind Eko Atlantic have seized on climate change to push through pro-corporate plans to build a city of their dreams, an architectural insult to the daily circumstances of ordinary Nigerians. The criminalized poor abandoned outside their walls may once have served as sufficient justification for their flight and fortification – but now they have the very real threat of climate change as well.
Eko Atlantic is where you can begin to see a possible future – a vision of privatized green enclaves for the ultra rich ringed by slums lacking water or electricity, in which a surplus population scramble for depleting resources and shelter to fend off the coming floods and storms. Protected by guards, guns, and an insurmountable gully – real estate prices – the rich will shield themselves from the rising tides of poverty and a sea that is literally rising. A world in which the rich and powerful exploit the global ecological crisis to widen and entrench already extreme inequalities and seal themselves off from its impacts – this is climate apartheid.
Prepare for the elite, like never before, to use climate change to transform neighbourhoods, cities, even entire nations into heavily fortified islands. Already, around the world, from Afghanistan to Arizona, China to Cairo, and in mushrooming mega-cities much like Lagos, those able are moving to areas where they can live better and often more greenly – with better transport and renewable technologies, green buildings and ecological services. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the super-rich – ferried above the congested city by a fleet of hundreds of helicopters – have disembedded themselves from urban life, attempting to escape from a common fate.
In places like Eko Atlantic the escape, a moral and social secession of the rich from those in their country, will be complete. This essentially utopian drive – to consume rapaciously and endlessly and to reject any semblance of collective impulse and concern – is simply incompatible with human survival. But at the moment when we must confront an economy and ideology pushing the planet's life-support systems to breaking point, this is what the neoliberal imagination offers us: a grotesque monument to the ultra-rich flight from responsibility.
A counter-point to Eko Atlantic, Nigerian architect Kunle Adeyemi has designed floating structures for the Makoko slum that are buoyed by plastic barrels and powered by solar panels.
There are, however, alternatives, like one proposed for the Makoko slum, the home of a quarter-million Nigerians – the same number who are intended to inhabit Eko Atlantic. Nigerian architect Kunle Adeyemi has designed what amounts to a counter-point, a floating settlement of which a school has already been built – making it only the second school that Makoko has ever had. The floating structures – made of low-cost wood and buoyed by recycled plastic barrels – have solar panels, sloped roofs to harvest rainwater, and compost toilets to solve dire sanitary needs.
Nnimmo Bassey thinks the floating settlements are just the thing to help the sustainable development of under-served communities across Nigeria's coastlines. "It is a structure that suits the environment, is easy to replicate and appropriate to peoples' lifestyle, and is sensitive to the challenges of sea level rise," he says. "It would help create what we need: communities for people, not gated anti-people communities."
The project is animated by a very different vision: that we must share rather than hoard, reduce inequality rather than increase it, and encourage the resiliency of everyone rather than the escape from the worst for a few. That the needs of the most vulnerable, rather than the desires of the most wealthy, must be the starting point of any effort to truly combat the climate crisis.
The choices before Lagos confront us all. While ours is not the first civilization whose elites have proved spectacularly indifferent to collective, ecological survival, it is up to us whether we will be the last.
Follow Martin on twitter: @Martin_Lukacs
A lolly to make you jolly, an ice cream to earn a living
in Voices 10 days ago
Shameeg Fagodien has been selling ice creams, cold drinks and bottled water on Camps Bay beach for the past seven years. Every day he walks the beach with his iceboxes, calling out the rhymes that ice cream sellers are known for in the Western Cape. He spoke to RA’EESA PATHER about his job and summers in Cape Town.
My best memory is the first day I came here. It was very hot, and some people thought I was going to run away with their money. But they got to know me, and they learned that I work hard.
There’s nothing better than to be on the beach. The best part is talking to people and making up rhymes: A lolly to make you jolly, a water for your daughter, a Coke light to keep the figure tight, or a Caramel Crunch is better than lunch, don’t be shy I’m the coloured guy. They just come into my head, I sit and think of the rhymes like … “A Coke Zero! Who wants to be a hero?” I like to make people laugh.
When it’s hot, I love to be in the water. I could go into that ocean a hundred times. Oh man, but I love to swim.
During winter, I have to look for something else to keep me busy, because how else are my children going to eat? How are they going to get clothes for school?
We working on commission. We must sell to earn our wages. I earn R5 commission on ice creams, R3 on cooldrink, and R3 on water.
You have to get a permit to work on each beach.
On weekends I’m at Clifton because I don’t have a permit to work in Camps Bay, and that’s the way it works. Some guys come here to sell and they don’t have permits to work on the beach. We can’t do anything about that.
We a lot of guys working here, there’s about 25 or 30 of us and it’s hard to make sales. It’s hard work, but what can you do? We live in the townships. I’m from Manenberg.
We must struggle for our children. I sold three ice creams today. A taxi costs R20, and that’s the money we get. But I say thank you to God for what I have, because some people go to bed with less.
Life in Manenberg is very difficult. There’s gangsterism, and they’re shooting now. The children are going for gangsterism, but they don’t know what that life is. I was a gangster, I didn’t know what it meant to be one, but now I’m grown up and I realise what it is.
When my first child was born, I learned that gangster life wasn’t worth it and I got out. I want to see my grandchildren. One day they might need me, so I need to stick around, and I changed my lifestyle.
Being here keeps me away from everything in Manenberg. Everything at home is gone, it’s like I’m part of the beach here. I meet other people, I talk and have fun, I don’t worry about home. But when it comes to the end of the day, and I must go home with the taxi, it all comes back. I wonder if I’ve made enough for my children.
Camps Bay is very different to Manenberg. Our mothers told us to go to school and get an education so that we could live like the people who stay here.
Today isn’t the same like it was in those years, now we can come and work, we can take our opportunities, and I can earn for my children.
I’ll still be here in five or six years’ time. If God gives me the strength, I’ll appreciate it.
- As told to Ra’eesa Pather
in Voices 10 days ago
Shameeg Fagodien has been selling ice creams, cold drinks and bottled water on Camps Bay beach for the past seven years. Every day he walks the beach with his iceboxes, calling out the rhymes that ice cream sellers are known for in the Western Cape. He spoke to RA’EESA PATHER about his job and summers in Cape Town.
My best memory is the first day I came here. It was very hot, and some people thought I was going to run away with their money. But they got to know me, and they learned that I work hard.
There’s nothing better than to be on the beach. The best part is talking to people and making up rhymes: A lolly to make you jolly, a water for your daughter, a Coke light to keep the figure tight, or a Caramel Crunch is better than lunch, don’t be shy I’m the coloured guy. They just come into my head, I sit and think of the rhymes like … “A Coke Zero! Who wants to be a hero?” I like to make people laugh.
When it’s hot, I love to be in the water. I could go into that ocean a hundred times. Oh man, but I love to swim.
During winter, I have to look for something else to keep me busy, because how else are my children going to eat? How are they going to get clothes for school?
We working on commission. We must sell to earn our wages. I earn R5 commission on ice creams, R3 on cooldrink, and R3 on water.
You have to get a permit to work on each beach.
On weekends I’m at Clifton because I don’t have a permit to work in Camps Bay, and that’s the way it works. Some guys come here to sell and they don’t have permits to work on the beach. We can’t do anything about that.
We a lot of guys working here, there’s about 25 or 30 of us and it’s hard to make sales. It’s hard work, but what can you do? We live in the townships. I’m from Manenberg.
We must struggle for our children. I sold three ice creams today. A taxi costs R20, and that’s the money we get. But I say thank you to God for what I have, because some people go to bed with less.
Life in Manenberg is very difficult. There’s gangsterism, and they’re shooting now. The children are going for gangsterism, but they don’t know what that life is. I was a gangster, I didn’t know what it meant to be one, but now I’m grown up and I realise what it is.When my first child was born, I learned that gangster life wasn’t worth it and I got out. I want to see my grandchildren. One day they might need me, so I need to stick around, and I changed my lifestyle.
Being here keeps me away from everything in Manenberg. Everything at home is gone, it’s like I’m part of the beach here. I meet other people, I talk and have fun, I don’t worry about home. But when it comes to the end of the day, and I must go home with the taxi, it all comes back. I wonder if I’ve made enough for my children.
Camps Bay is very different to Manenberg. Our mothers told us to go to school and get an education so that we could live like the people who stay here.
Today isn’t the same like it was in those years, now we can come and work, we can take our opportunities, and I can earn for my children.
I’ll still be here in five or six years’ time. If God gives me the strength, I’ll appreciate it.
- As told to Ra’eesa Pather
What Is Brazil Really Doing in Africa?
Posted: 01/04/2015 3:22 pm EST Updated: 01/04/2015 3:59 pm EST
This post was co-authored with Nathan Thompson.
Brazil's foreign policy elite like to talk up their political solidarity and cultural affinity with Africa. Sympathetic observers note that Brazilians are more involved there than at any time since the 1960s. There is some truth to these claims. In the past decade, Africa became one of Brazil´s fastest growing trade partners. Brazilian trade to the continent expanded from $4.3 billion in 2000 to $28.5 billion in 2013. But what is really driving Brazilian engagement in the region?
Hardly surprising, there are some hard geopolitical and commercial calculations motivating Brazil´s rapprochement with Africa. While publicly advocating a selfless developmental -- or south-south -- project, Brazilian companies have business interests in most of Africa's faster growing economies. And tighter relations with African counterparts also allows Brazil to secure its maritime control and influence over the South Atlantic.
The dramatic surge in Brazilian engagement in Africa was propelled by President Lula (2003-2010), who traveled on 12 separate occasions to 29 states. No fewer than 19 of the 37 Brazilian embassies operating in Africa opened their doors during the past decade. Likewise, 18 of the 34 African embassies in Brasilia were inaugurated during the same period. And while his successor, President Dilma Rousseff, significantly reduced Brazil's global engagements since 2011, Africa still matters to some in the foreign policy establishment.
Brazil backed these diplomatic gestures with development muscle. The national development bank, the BNDES, has disbursed roughly $ 2.9 billion to underwrite projects in Africa since 2007. The Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) are also invested in African countries. ABC grew under Lula and EMBRAPA opened a new office in Ghana in 2006. The creation of a BNDES office in South Africa in late 2013 underlines the importance Brazil attaches to its partnerships there.
Brazil's tropical agriculture know-how and bio-ethanol expertise have found willing partners in parts of Africa. EMBRAPA fielded major initiatives in the so-called "cotton 4+Togo" which includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad Mali and Togo. Meanwhile, Brazilian companies entered into significant bio-fuel deals in Mozambique, Angola and Nigeria with the idea of also investing in local technical expertise, infrastructure and technology.
Notwithstanding enthusiasm about Brazil-African relations, the partnership has been rocky. At the diplomatic level, Rousseff's decision in 2013 to cancel (or restructure) $900 million worth of debt with 12 African countries did not get the reception she had hoped. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the African Union and intended to burnish Brazilian credentials and expand trade opportunities (since Brazilian law does not allow new loans or financial assistance with indebted countries), the move wasroundly criticized by the left and right for favoringauthoritarian and corrupt African economies. The President has since distanced herself from the deal.
Meanwhile, some major Brazilian corporations have come under fire for circumventing local laws and other forms of malfeasance. The multinational mining company Vale, already heavily invested in Africa, suffered financial and public relations setbacks over a suspect deal to acquire rights to the Simandou mining concession in Guinea. Other large oil, mining and infrastructure firms are also coming under extra scrutiny. This is likely to continue given the many corruption scandalsrocking the government on the home-front.
Despite professions of brotherly love, Brazilian companies are finding it harder to do business in Africa than initially anticipated. Managing and mitigating risk in some states regularly translates into higher costs of entry for prospective investors. Despite remarkable progress in poverty reduction and improving living standards, the continent suffers from political instability, weakly enshrined property rights, poor communications infrastructure, limited transparency and real personal risks on the ground.
This is not to say that opportunities do not exist. To the contrary: foreign investment in Africa is clearly on the rise. According to a recent African Development Bank report, combined public and private financial flows to Africa rose 400% since 2000 and are projected to exceed $200 billion in 2014. Although countries such as France, the UK and US are still the top foreign investors in Africa, China, Brazil, South Africa and others are closing the gap. China alone has invested some $27.7 billion -- almost half of what the BRICS are spending combined.
If Brazil is to make a dent in Africa, it needs to get ahead of the curve. Future economic and demographic projections indicate that African investment opportunities are changing. In the coming decades there will be less emphasis on resource-intensive extractive industries -- which are already crowded markets -- and greater opportunities for construction and consumer goods and services, especially in finance, retail and new information technologies. Foreign policy experts and investors should take note, and plan accordingly.
Brazil's engagement with Africa has historically been driven by oil and gas, mining and infrastructure interests. Companies such as Andrade Gutierrez, Odebrecht, Petrobras and Vale have a sustained presence on the continent. And while these and other firms will loom certainly large in future Brazilian calculations, forward-looking policy makers and investors would do well to explore fast-growing sectors in which Brazil exhibits a comparative advantage. This is not just about enlightened politics toward Africa, but also about sustaining growth and development at home.
*The Igarapé Institute is reviewing peace, security, trade and development policies between Brazil and Africa in 2015. This is the first post of the series.
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Posted: 01/04/2015 3:22 pm EST Updated: 01/04/2015 3:59 pm EST
This post was co-authored with Nathan Thompson.
Brazil's foreign policy elite like to talk up their political solidarity and cultural affinity with Africa. Sympathetic observers note that Brazilians are more involved there than at any time since the 1960s. There is some truth to these claims. In the past decade, Africa became one of Brazil´s fastest growing trade partners. Brazilian trade to the continent expanded from $4.3 billion in 2000 to $28.5 billion in 2013. But what is really driving Brazilian engagement in the region?
Hardly surprising, there are some hard geopolitical and commercial calculations motivating Brazil´s rapprochement with Africa. While publicly advocating a selfless developmental -- or south-south -- project, Brazilian companies have business interests in most of Africa's faster growing economies. And tighter relations with African counterparts also allows Brazil to secure its maritime control and influence over the South Atlantic.
The dramatic surge in Brazilian engagement in Africa was propelled by President Lula (2003-2010), who traveled on 12 separate occasions to 29 states. No fewer than 19 of the 37 Brazilian embassies operating in Africa opened their doors during the past decade. Likewise, 18 of the 34 African embassies in Brasilia were inaugurated during the same period. And while his successor, President Dilma Rousseff, significantly reduced Brazil's global engagements since 2011, Africa still matters to some in the foreign policy establishment.
Brazil backed these diplomatic gestures with development muscle. The national development bank, the BNDES, has disbursed roughly $ 2.9 billion to underwrite projects in Africa since 2007. The Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) are also invested in African countries. ABC grew under Lula and EMBRAPA opened a new office in Ghana in 2006. The creation of a BNDES office in South Africa in late 2013 underlines the importance Brazil attaches to its partnerships there.
Brazil's tropical agriculture know-how and bio-ethanol expertise have found willing partners in parts of Africa. EMBRAPA fielded major initiatives in the so-called "cotton 4+Togo" which includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad Mali and Togo. Meanwhile, Brazilian companies entered into significant bio-fuel deals in Mozambique, Angola and Nigeria with the idea of also investing in local technical expertise, infrastructure and technology.
Notwithstanding enthusiasm about Brazil-African relations, the partnership has been rocky. At the diplomatic level, Rousseff's decision in 2013 to cancel (or restructure) $900 million worth of debt with 12 African countries did not get the reception she had hoped. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the African Union and intended to burnish Brazilian credentials and expand trade opportunities (since Brazilian law does not allow new loans or financial assistance with indebted countries), the move wasroundly criticized by the left and right for favoringauthoritarian and corrupt African economies. The President has since distanced herself from the deal.
Meanwhile, some major Brazilian corporations have come under fire for circumventing local laws and other forms of malfeasance. The multinational mining company Vale, already heavily invested in Africa, suffered financial and public relations setbacks over a suspect deal to acquire rights to the Simandou mining concession in Guinea. Other large oil, mining and infrastructure firms are also coming under extra scrutiny. This is likely to continue given the many corruption scandalsrocking the government on the home-front.
Despite professions of brotherly love, Brazilian companies are finding it harder to do business in Africa than initially anticipated. Managing and mitigating risk in some states regularly translates into higher costs of entry for prospective investors. Despite remarkable progress in poverty reduction and improving living standards, the continent suffers from political instability, weakly enshrined property rights, poor communications infrastructure, limited transparency and real personal risks on the ground.
This is not to say that opportunities do not exist. To the contrary: foreign investment in Africa is clearly on the rise. According to a recent African Development Bank report, combined public and private financial flows to Africa rose 400% since 2000 and are projected to exceed $200 billion in 2014. Although countries such as France, the UK and US are still the top foreign investors in Africa, China, Brazil, South Africa and others are closing the gap. China alone has invested some $27.7 billion -- almost half of what the BRICS are spending combined.
If Brazil is to make a dent in Africa, it needs to get ahead of the curve. Future economic and demographic projections indicate that African investment opportunities are changing. In the coming decades there will be less emphasis on resource-intensive extractive industries -- which are already crowded markets -- and greater opportunities for construction and consumer goods and services, especially in finance, retail and new information technologies. Foreign policy experts and investors should take note, and plan accordingly.
Brazil's engagement with Africa has historically been driven by oil and gas, mining and infrastructure interests. Companies such as Andrade Gutierrez, Odebrecht, Petrobras and Vale have a sustained presence on the continent. And while these and other firms will loom certainly large in future Brazilian calculations, forward-looking policy makers and investors would do well to explore fast-growing sectors in which Brazil exhibits a comparative advantage. This is not just about enlightened politics toward Africa, but also about sustaining growth and development at home.
*The Igarapé Institute is reviewing peace, security, trade and development policies between Brazil and Africa in 2015. This is the first post of the series.
MORE:
Judaism Added to the African Studies Agenda
New panels on Black Judaism offered at annual scholarly conference
By Len Lyons|December 30, 2014 1:28 PM|Comments: 16
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African Studies Association’s annual conference this year offered panels discussing the rising tide of Black Judaism—communities in sub-Saharan Africa and in the African Diaspora identifying themselves as descendants of Jews or practicing some form of Judaism. I attended the November conference along with 1,600 participants from 30 countries, and presented new research on Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Five other researchers and authors in the field of Black Judaism also contributed to the panels.
The panels were proposed by William F. S. Miles, a political scientist from Northeastern University. His academic interest in Nigeria took a personal turn in 2008 when he discovered, while reading Edith Bruder’s The Black Jews of Africa, that the several thousand Nigerian Igbo who practice Judaism had religious traditions quite similar to those of his own family. Miles, who returned to Nigeria several times to visit the Jews of the capital city of Abuja—where there are now four synagogues—describes Jewish life in his book, The Jews of Nigeria.
Daniel Lis, who co-led the sessions with Miles, also studies Jewish identity and practice among the Igbo. His new book, Jewish Identity Among the Igbo of Nigeria, traces the history and current beliefs of the Igbo Jews. An estimated 30,000 of the more than 20 million Igbo have incorporated Jewish elements into their religious life—a process known as “Judaizing.” And 3,000 to 5,000 follow “rabbinic” Judaism—the prayers and rituals likely familiar to Jews everywhere—which they learned from visiting rabbis and from the Internet. Miles calls them the first “Internet Jews.”
Jewish identity and practice have taken root in more countries than Ethiopia and Nigeria. Tudor Parfitt, the most widely published scholar on the Black Judaism panels, stirred up controversy at a conference called ‘Converts, Returnees, and Adherents: New Ways of Joining the Jewish People,’ at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute earlier this year, where he made the stunning claim that a “shadow” population of those who self-identify as Jews by origin is equal to the number of recognized Jews worldwide—about 14 million. Along with the Igbo and Ethiopian Jews, there are the Lemba of Zimbabwe and South Africa and the Abayudaya of Uganda. The shadow population also includes the Zulu, Yoruba, and Tutsi, who have a tradition of descent from ancient Jews, but who don’t seek a connection with contemporary Jewish life.
At the ASA conference, Ruth Iyob from the University of Missouri, the author of several books on African history, took issue with the title of the new panel. During the Q&A portion of the morning session, she challenged the presenters to explain what they meant by “Black Judaism.” She later explained by telephone: “The word ‘black’ does not give people from Africa enough complexity. In fact if you go to Ethiopia, people there would be surprised if you told them they were black. We need more historical analysis of what black means.”
The diversity of the paths by which African Americans come to Judaism is an example of how the simplified rubric of ‘Black Judaism’ lends itself to controversy. According to an estimate by Rabbi Capers Funnye of Chicago, as many as 10,000 African Americans trace their Jewish identity to being descendants of ancient black Israelites. Conversion through modern Jewish denominations is therefore considered unnecessary. They created their own synagogues and are led by their own ordained rabbis, who follow a tradition that began in Harlem in the 1920s.
According to Parfitt, Bruder, Lis, and other scholars, the notion of descent from the biblical Lost Tribes or ancient Israelites was introduced into African societies during the colonization of Africa beginning in the 19th Century. The biblical narrative of world history was so dominant for the colonizing Christians of Europe that they could only conceive of the African peoples they encountered as descendants of Lost Tribes. The colonizers interpreted practices native to Africa, like circumcision and animal sacrifice, as “Jewish” in origin. Parfitt counts these populations, many of whom internalized and adopted that narrative, as Jews in his “shadow” population, though he characterizes the Lost Tribe believers as having a “constructed Jewish identity.”
Mainstream rabbis would also object to the idea that those who identify as descendants of ancient Israelites are Jews by the standards of halakha, or Jewish religious law. Those rules stipulate that to be Jewish, one must be the child of a Jewish mother or have been converted by a beit din, a religious court.
Some black Jews who affiliate with more mainstream Jewish congregations also disparage such claims of descent. But Yvonne Crenshaw, a 61-year-old graduate student in African Studies at Wayne State University, who attended the ASA conference with her adult daughter, Taija Woods, believes that’s a mistake. Crenshaw and her daughter both attend reform congregations in Oak Park, MI. Crenshaw’s father was a biracial Orthodox Jew, her mother an Irish Catholic who converted before Yvonne was born. Of Crenshaw’s six adult children, five remain affiliated with the Jewish community.
“Jews can’t possibly be an ethnic group,” Crenshaw told me by telephone. “I don’t know who was or who was not part of the Exodus, but I know the Israelites who came out of Egypt were not white. If the goal of Judaism is to follow God and the Torah, then whoever does that is a Jew. No one can prove descent.”
Crenshaw doesn’t think think the boundaries of Jewish peoplehood should be drawn so tightly. “Why are we excluding people when we are a shrinking faith?” she asked. “The fact that we (Jews) are shrinking in number means we need to hold onto everyone who wants to be Jewish.”
But for Crenshaw’s daughter, Taija Woods, there’s a far bigger race issue within modern Judaism than who is considered halakhically Jewish. “All this discussion is fine,” she said in the lobby following the afternoon session. “But as a Jew of color, as soon as I walk into a room full of Jews, the most important thing about me becomes the color of my skin, and there’s no getting around it.”
The people pushed out of Ethiopia's fertile farmland
By Matthew NewsomeEthiopia
The construction of a huge dam in Ethiopia and the introduction of large-scale agricultural businesses has been controversial - finding out what local people think can be hard, but with the help of a bottle of rum nothing is impossible.
After waiting several weeks for letters of permission from various Ethiopian ministries, I begin my road trip into the country's southern lowlands.
I want to investigate the government's controversial plan to take over vast swathes of ancestral land, home to around 100,000 indigenous pastoralists, and turn it into a major centre for commercial agriculture, where foreign agribusinesses and government plantations would raise cash crops such as sugar and palm oil.
After driving 800km (497 miles) over two days through Ethiopia's lush highlands I begin my descent into the lower Omo valley. Here, where palaeontologists have discovered some of the oldest human remains on earth, some ancient ways of life cling on.
Some tourists can be found here seeking a glimpse of an Africa that lives in their imagination. But the government's plan to "modernise" this so-called "backward" area has made it inaccessible for journalists.
As my jeep bounces down into the valley, I watch as people decorated in white body paint and clad in elaborate jewellery made from feathers and cow horn herd their cows down the dusty track.
I arrive late in the afternoon at a village I won't name, hoping to speak to some Mursi people - a group of around 7,000 famous for wearing huge ornamental clay lip plates.
The Mursi way of life is in jeopardy. They are being resettled to make way for a major sugar plantation on their ancestral land - so ending their tradition of cattle herding.
Meanwhile, a massive new dam upstream will reduce the Omo River, ending its seasonal flood - and the food crops they grow on its banks.
It is without doubt one of the most sensitive stories in Ethiopia and one the government is keen to suppress.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised schemes like this, alleging that locals are being abused and coerced into compliance.
I'd spoken to local senior officials in the provincial capital of Jinka, before travelling into the remote savannah.
The suspicion is palpable as the chief of the south Omo zone lectures me. Local people and the area's reputation have been greatly harmed by the negative reports by foreigners, he says.
Eventually a frank exchange takes place and I secure verbal permission to report on the changes taking place in the valley.
The Gibe III Dam
The Gibe III Dam under construction in 2012
It seems prudent to let the Mursi tribe and attendant police warm to my presence before I start asking questions. After all, I have the whole evening.
But a brief chat with the tribe ends abruptly with the entrance of a police officer, wearing a replica Manchester United football shirt, vehemently waving a dog-eared copy of the country's constitution.
I am prohibited from talking to anyone and must immediately climb back into my jeep, drive back up the mountain and return to Jinka, he says.
As often in Ethiopia, he doesn't explain exactly why.
I object to driving through the wilderness at dusk on safety grounds and so a compromise is reached: I will pitch my hammock outside the police station, a short stroll away from the village, with armed guards watching my every move.
The political boss of the zone comes on the two-way radio. "This is house arrest," I protest. "No, just a misunderstanding," he replies.
The prospect of returning home without interviews is unthinkable. My ruse is to distract my captors.
I sit them down for a meal of pasta and vegetables - and brimming beakers of spiced rum - in front of my laptop, which is playing an Ethiopian comedy.
After saying good night I strike out through the scrubland.
I run without sense of direction through bush and bog, crawl under fences, and negotiate large herds of noisy cattle. I have to find a village elder I met earlier, and interview him before policemen and their flashlights turn up.
So I am relieved to stumble on two boys milking their cows in the moonlight. They lead me to the elder's hut. The sound of so many rudely-awakened animals in our wake fills me with dread that searchlights are heading our way.
The moment arrives. I squat in front of the elder inside his mud dwelling, surrounded by his sleeping companions: several cows, a goat and a cat. My dictaphone is poised to record truths heard by few journalists in this media-muzzled region.
I ask him in broken Amharic what is going on. He tells me: "The government is telling us to sell our cattle and modernise like townspeople - they say our land is the property of the sugar corporation. We have not been asked what we want or need.
"If we do not accept the resettlement plans, we'll be taken to jail. How can we survive if we have no access to land, cattle or water?"
I promptly thank the elder for his time, apologise for disrupting his evening and head back to my open-air jail.
On reaching my hammock I find several dozing policemen and an empty bottle of rum. Mission accomplished.
The Mursi people
By Matthew NewsomeEthiopia
The construction of a huge dam in Ethiopia and the introduction of large-scale agricultural businesses has been controversial - finding out what local people think can be hard, but with the help of a bottle of rum nothing is impossible.
After waiting several weeks for letters of permission from various Ethiopian ministries, I begin my road trip into the country's southern lowlands.
I want to investigate the government's controversial plan to take over vast swathes of ancestral land, home to around 100,000 indigenous pastoralists, and turn it into a major centre for commercial agriculture, where foreign agribusinesses and government plantations would raise cash crops such as sugar and palm oil.
After driving 800km (497 miles) over two days through Ethiopia's lush highlands I begin my descent into the lower Omo valley. Here, where palaeontologists have discovered some of the oldest human remains on earth, some ancient ways of life cling on.
Some tourists can be found here seeking a glimpse of an Africa that lives in their imagination. But the government's plan to "modernise" this so-called "backward" area has made it inaccessible for journalists.
As my jeep bounces down into the valley, I watch as people decorated in white body paint and clad in elaborate jewellery made from feathers and cow horn herd their cows down the dusty track.
I arrive late in the afternoon at a village I won't name, hoping to speak to some Mursi people - a group of around 7,000 famous for wearing huge ornamental clay lip plates.
The Mursi way of life is in jeopardy. They are being resettled to make way for a major sugar plantation on their ancestral land - so ending their tradition of cattle herding.
Meanwhile, a massive new dam upstream will reduce the Omo River, ending its seasonal flood - and the food crops they grow on its banks.
It is without doubt one of the most sensitive stories in Ethiopia and one the government is keen to suppress.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised schemes like this, alleging that locals are being abused and coerced into compliance.
I'd spoken to local senior officials in the provincial capital of Jinka, before travelling into the remote savannah.
The suspicion is palpable as the chief of the south Omo zone lectures me. Local people and the area's reputation have been greatly harmed by the negative reports by foreigners, he says.
Eventually a frank exchange takes place and I secure verbal permission to report on the changes taking place in the valley.
The Gibe III Dam
- Situated approximately 300km south-west of the capital Addis Ababa, the dam is 246m high
- Work started in July 2006 and was estimated to take 118 months (nearly 10 years)
- The government says it will provide much needed-power and help develop the country's economy
- Authorities say no-one has been forced from their home
It seems prudent to let the Mursi tribe and attendant police warm to my presence before I start asking questions. After all, I have the whole evening.
But a brief chat with the tribe ends abruptly with the entrance of a police officer, wearing a replica Manchester United football shirt, vehemently waving a dog-eared copy of the country's constitution.
I am prohibited from talking to anyone and must immediately climb back into my jeep, drive back up the mountain and return to Jinka, he says.
As often in Ethiopia, he doesn't explain exactly why.
I object to driving through the wilderness at dusk on safety grounds and so a compromise is reached: I will pitch my hammock outside the police station, a short stroll away from the village, with armed guards watching my every move.
The political boss of the zone comes on the two-way radio. "This is house arrest," I protest. "No, just a misunderstanding," he replies.
The prospect of returning home without interviews is unthinkable. My ruse is to distract my captors.
I sit them down for a meal of pasta and vegetables - and brimming beakers of spiced rum - in front of my laptop, which is playing an Ethiopian comedy.
After saying good night I strike out through the scrubland.
I run without sense of direction through bush and bog, crawl under fences, and negotiate large herds of noisy cattle. I have to find a village elder I met earlier, and interview him before policemen and their flashlights turn up.
So I am relieved to stumble on two boys milking their cows in the moonlight. They lead me to the elder's hut. The sound of so many rudely-awakened animals in our wake fills me with dread that searchlights are heading our way.
The moment arrives. I squat in front of the elder inside his mud dwelling, surrounded by his sleeping companions: several cows, a goat and a cat. My dictaphone is poised to record truths heard by few journalists in this media-muzzled region.
I ask him in broken Amharic what is going on. He tells me: "The government is telling us to sell our cattle and modernise like townspeople - they say our land is the property of the sugar corporation. We have not been asked what we want or need.
"If we do not accept the resettlement plans, we'll be taken to jail. How can we survive if we have no access to land, cattle or water?"
I promptly thank the elder for his time, apologise for disrupting his evening and head back to my open-air jail.
On reaching my hammock I find several dozing policemen and an empty bottle of rum. Mission accomplished.
The Mursi people
- About 10,000 Mursi people live in Ethiopia
- Traditionally insert pottery plates known as debhinya in the lower lips of young women
- They live in an area surrounded by the rivers Mara, Omo and Mago, which flow into Lake Turkana
- Mursi territory was incorporated into Ethiopia during the reign of King Menelik II in the 19th Century
