West, Central, and East Africa in the Twenty-First Century: Stories from Social Change

[teqniq]

So, a little bit of cheer for the new year.

Ethiopia just announced it is freeing all political prisoners

In a surprise move, Ethiopia's leader on Wednesday announced plans to drop charges against political prisoners and close a notorious prison camp in what he called an effort to "widen the democratic space for all."

Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn's comments came after anti-government protests engulfed much of the restive Oromia and Amhara regions in recent months, bringing many businesses, universities and transport networks to a standstill. The protests spread into other parts of the East African country, leading to a months-long state of emergency that has since been lifted....

 

[Idris2002]

For a while now, the Chinese have been involved in various speculative building projects in Africa (and not out of the goodness of their hearts, but you know that).

In 2012, the BBC website had this piece, arguing that the new suburb of Kilamba in Angola's capital, Luanda, was a "ghost town":

Angola's Chinese-built ghost town

I've just come across a piece claiming that this former "ghost town" now has 80,000 inhabitants:

Views of suburban Luanda: banishing the ghosts from Kilamba - Africa Research Institute

 

[Idris2002]

So, a little bit of cheer for the new year.

Ethiopia just announced it is freeing all political prisoners

Of course, things are more complicated than they might appear:

Ethiopia: The Failures of the regime and the way forward | nazret.com

 

[bimble]

I don't know if this goes here but maybe it should. Just learnt a bit about what is going on in Cameroon, where i think it'd be fair to say there's almost a civil war situation at the moment.
I've seen nothing of this in the news and don't really understand what's going on but the division is between english speakers ('the anglophone region') and french speakers, who include almost all of the government, administration and the military.
The situation has been getting worse for months, with many killed (government & military as well as civilians) and thousands fleeing, as various (english speaking) militant groups fight for the division of the country along linguistic lines and the government tries to keep control. This is not the positive kind of post-colonial story.
Cameroon govt ready for dialogue over Anglophone crisis – Atanga Nji in Buea | Africanews
Anglophone problem (Cameroon) - Wikipedia

 

[Idris2002]

Sierra Leone appoints a commisar for innovation, operating out of the office of the president:

Why Sierra Leone appointed a 31-year old MIT PhD as its first chief innovation officer

We'll see what, if any, positive changes this brings.

 

[teqniq]

Uganda’s brutal treatment of MPs is enabled by global indifference | Robert Amsterdam

'Museveni is losing the battle against free speech in Uganda thanks to the Free Bobi Wine movement'

 

[Idris2002]

Sierra Leone has just pulled out of a big loan with China. The money was to be used for a new airport, but Freetown had second thoughts:

Sierra Leone cancels multi-million dollar airport deal with China - CNN

Relevant to the "China is a neo-colonial power in Africa" debate.

 

[snowy_again]

Was it replacing or upgrading Lungi?

 

[eatmorecheese]

Was it replacing or upgrading Lungi?

Replacing. Decision implies Lungi will be upgraded instead.

 

[Idris2002]

Replacing. Decision implies Lungi will be upgraded instead.

I'm not sure how viable the proposed bridge across the harbour (third largest natural harbour in the world will be, mind).

 

[Idris2002]

Local elections in Mozambique are being disputed by RENAMO (yes, that RENAMO of bush war infamy):

Mozambique opposition cries foul over election

 

[Idris2002]

Surfin' safari Salone style:

Big Wata: The Surfers of Sierra Leone

(Sierra Leonean surfer dudes hang ten across "di big wata").

 

[teqniq]

Detained Ugandan Activist, Dr. Stella Nyanzi Refuses Bail to Teach Prisoners How to Use Facebook

Dr. Stella Nyanzi, who was arrested by Ugandan authorities for 'insulting the late mother of President Yoweri Museveni in a Facebook post' has refused bail, saying she wants to teach fellow prisoners how to use Facebook.....

Fair play

 

[teqniq]

Update to the above, quelle surprise:

Stella Nyanzi further remanded over misuse of social media

 

[teqniq]

And then there's this:

Congolese Cover-Up

The U.N. concluded two of its investigators, an American and a Swede, were killed in a random ambush in Congo. But evidence suggests they may have walked into a government trap....

 

[yield]

Why Ebola crisis in DRC is unlike anything before
27/11/18

It is the worst Ebola outbreak to have struck the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - and the most complex one.

Since August, authorities in the country, together with a host of partners, have been trying to contain a new outbreak of the disease in the eastern North Kivu and Ituri provinces.

As of November 21, there have been 373 suspected cases of Ebola, including 347 confirmed cases. At least 217 people have already died.

There have been 10 outbreaks of Ebola since 1976 in the DRC, which is considered among the most experienced in dealing with the virus.

The situation this time, though, is different.

The North Kivu and Ituri provinces are among the most unstable and densely populated in the country, and subject to some of the highest levels of human mobility in it.

At the same time, there are warnings that a "perfect storm" of insecurity, community resistance about vaccinations and political manipulation threatens the efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

These factors collectively make the latest outbreak unlike anything the DRC, which is scheduled to hold a crucial presidential election on December 23, has experienced before.

 

[eatmorecheese]

It seems to be on. Is Kabila really going?

Congolese finally go to the polls amid fears over fraud

 

[Idris2002]

A coup d'etat appears to be underway in Gabon;

Gabon's army declares coup 'to restore democracy'

The yanks have moved in 80 soldiers prior to this, ostensibly to protect US citizens in the nearby DRC. . .

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens with this one. The "retirement" of Mugabe in 2017 was essentially a coup, but they tried not to call it that. . .

 

[teqniq]

So, a little bit of cheer for the new year.

Ethiopia just announced it is freeing all political prisoners

Just for people to be aware, if not already, this was January 3rd last year.

 

[Idris2002]

The youngest continent fights back.

Africa in 2019: The youngest continent fights back | Article | Africa Confidential

This piece compares current protests across Africa to the early days of the Arab spring. Which does not bode well.

 

[Idris2002]

Here's something which is relatively optimistic:
Medium-scale farms are on the rise in Africa. Why this is good news

With the remorseless urbanization of the continent, old-school peasant production was going to have to go. The kick is in the final paragraph there, which talks about the emergence of new classes of landless labourers in the wake of the rise of these new strong farmers.

 

[yield]

How the World Bank’s ‘pandemic bonds’ resisted Ebola
February 21, 2019. https://www. ft.com/content/c3a805de-3058-11e9-ba00-0251022932c8 (paywalled) Outline - Read & annotate without distractions
Severe disease outbreak in the DRC tests the limits of financial innovation

Two years ago the World Bank celebrated what it called “a momentous step” — an attempt to use the global bond markets to change the face of aid and development.

The Bank had just sold its first “pandemic bonds”, raising $320m from private investors, in a deal designed to help developing nations facing a serious outbreak of infectious disease. It was a way of “leveraging our capital market expertise,” said then-president Jim Yong Kim, “to serve the world’s poorest people.”

Just a year later, a severe attack of Ebola hit the Democratic Republic of Congo. So far it has claimed nearly 500 lives and become the second-largest outbreak ever recorded, according to Médecins Sans Frontières. Yet the bonds have yet to pay out a penny.

A linked emergency cash facility at the World Bank has paid the DRC more than $11m and is preparing to disburse more. But the lack of support so far from the pandemic bonds, which mature in July 2020, has prompted questions about the limits of financial innovation. The bonds’ criteria include the requirement that a disease must spread across an international border before the affected nation can receive the cash — which has so far not been the case with the DRC’s bout with Ebola.

Critics argue that such legalistic structures are not an easy fit with the world of development and charity.

“The financialisation of risks is a new avenue for the privatisation of profits and the socialisation of losses,” says Bodo Ellmers, head of policy at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad). “It would be better if donors funded the necessary assistance directly.”

Spoiler: text

The pandemic bonds came in two classes: one covering diseases such as influenza, which pays investors a coupon of 6.5 per cent over Libor, and the other, which covers Ebola and other diseases, paying 11.1 per cent over Libor.

The coupons are paid by donor nations Germany and Japan. If the bonds mature without paying out, investors get their money back plus the chunky coupons.

The pandemic bonds are just one example of a wider trend: investors have also bought into vaccine bonds, while the growing market for catastrophe bonds is another example of how private finance is being tapped to replace traditional funding structures such as disaster aid.

The aim of the pandemic bonds, according to the World Bank, is to tackle social ills through private investment.

“If Anderson Cooper flies there [to a disaster zone] the international community will pass the hat, but that tends to be more recovery and reconstruction money,” says Michael Bennett, head of structured finance at the World Bank Treasury, referring to the CNN presenter. “We are targeting emergencies, trying to get money on to the ground immediately . . . transferring some of these risks to the private sector helps to increase the pool of risk-bearing capital out there.”

But Mr Bennett notes that the bank adopted a “very literal” definition of pandemic as an event which spreads beyond one country. “We were looking at things that were crossing boundaries — Sars, Mers [a respiratory virus], Zika, [a previous outbreak of] Ebola. They were the experiences we had at the back of our minds,” he says.

The Ebola bond’s biggest holder is UK fund manager Baillie Gifford, according to Bloomberg data. Baillie Gifford declined to comment on its rationale for buying the bond when contacted by the FT.

Stone Ridge Asset Management, a New York hedge fund also listed by Bloomberg as an Ebola bondholder, was unavailable for comment.

Heidi Crebo-Rediker, a former US State Department chief economist and an adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who runs advisory firm International Capital Strategies, says she is “not concerned” about the use of capital market instruments to raise aid finance.

“If there is, in fact, a particular constraint in the case of the pandemic bond then it does not reflect poorly on the principle of using the capital markets, but it is a factor that needs to be taken into account when designing future financing structures,” she says.

Bonds are a useful way of financing aid because their proceeds can be used as a “pre-funded facility” for emergencies in which “you need the money immediately”, Ms Crebo-Rediker argues.

The World Bank itself thinks there is real scope to expand the concept. Pandemic bonds could help create a private market in insuring emerging economies against medical risks, according to Mukesh Chawla, the World Bank’s pandemic emergency facility co-ordinator.

“If we can bring private money into play and keep improving [the bond structure] and make it easy and profitable for countries to buy the insurance, then that may be a process [by which] countries can self-cover as time goes by, rather than relying on donor assistance,” Mr Chawla says.

But for now at least, some are sceptical.

Tim Jones, policy officer at the Jubilee Debt Campaign, an advocacy group, argues that the capital markets “insist on such large premiums and coupon payments and tight conditions . . . to reduce the actual risk they are taking on,” he says.

 

[Idris2002]

Head of Ghana TUC speaks out:

Ghana’s Trade Union wants employers to pay workers appropriately to prevent corruption - Pulse Ghana

Interesting because during all the hype around "African middle classes" Ghana was one of the countries cited. Yet here an institution of an African working class is getting stuck in.

 

[Poi E]

Britain's theft of land in Kenya the subject of a complaint to the UN. Note that this is separate from the KLFA claims that resulted in a settlement from HMG.

Kenyans who claim UK drove them from their land seek UN inquiry

« British colonial land and human rights abuses in kenya ; UN complaint for justice and compensation »

 

[Idris2002]

Growth of African cities:

Did someone say "urbanization in Africa"?

Five Trends that will Shape Urban Africa in 2022

Uncovering the politics of African urbanization

thisweekinafrica.substack.com

Good wee listicle, that one. I will have more to comment on it in the near future.

 

[trabuquera]

More urbanization in Africa - whole west coast from Abidjan to Lagos to become a contiguous megacity before long apparently. This combined with rising sea levels might be problematic...
Megalopolis: how coastal west Africa will shape the coming century