The West is behind the curve relative to African investment. China is decades ahead and reaps massive benefits. As in this Current.tv video, Angola gets new and improved infrastructure: roads, railways, hospitals, universities and schools, new businesses and is the fastest growing economy on the Continent.

Unfortunately Chinese investment does nothing for Angolan unemployment and promotes widespread corruption. China doesn’t tie investments to human rights, economic stability, good governance or democratic ideals. Its investments target the vast Angolan oil and iron ore resources it needs for now and the future. Moreover, this is happening in Sudan (oil), the Democratic Republic of Congo (copper, cobalt, coltan), Zambia (copper), Mozambique (wood), Equatorial Guinea (oil) and elsewhere.

The new Administration in Washington has the daunting task of finding ways to strengthen its ties to Africa humanely and quickly, before its too late. What is clear is that the old, Western ways of doing business there no longer matter.

A Hundred Very, Very, Very Large Buys You Three Eggs

The answer is, in Zimbabwe, not very much. Back in July, the government of Zimbabwe issued one hundred billion dollar notes. With one, you can buy four oranges or three eggs as shown in the picture above. But they still cannot buy you a loaf of bread.

Once-prosperous Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented economic meltdown since it gained independence in 1980. The official inflation rate is now at 2.2 million percent. And, the reason for this? I’m no economist, but I know enough to submit two words as evidence: bad leadership.

Robert Mugabe has a lot to answer for in Zimbabwe. His is a bitter betrayal. Once a hero, revered for his part in the country’s fight for independence from England (remember colonial Rhodesia?), he has led the country deeper into sectarian violence and economic collapse. Zimbabwe, was a net exporter of food and one of the strongest economies in Africa. Now it cannot feed itself. A true recipe for disaster.

Sorrow in Eastern Congo

As the work of healing our nation continues, do not forget the work that must be done elsewhere. We will surely turn our attentions to Iraq and Afghanistan and rightly so. But let us not forget the work to be done in the last place many of us think about, Africa.

People are still being killed for land and oil in Darfur, but I want to turn your attentions to Eastern Congo for the moment. Few of us know of its civil war or minimize it as yet another ‘African problem that has nothing to do with me’.

Just remember this. Congo is awash with gold, diamonds and metals such as cassiterite and coltan used to weld small pieces together in electronics. The conflict in Eastern Congo is being funded by mineral resources that end up in MY cell phone, YOUR laptop and other electronics.

That connection deepens my stake in a war that sprung out of festering hatreds from the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Perhaps some of us saw its dramatization in the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’ or remember when we here in America were focused on Bosnia and ignored Rwanda. That ‘oversight’ allowed the ’summer of blood’ when 800,000 were murdered in 100 days.

Although media outlets here in America continue to ignore the news from Goma, Kiwanja and other places in Eastern Congo, it doesn’t have to be like that. The BBC and the (London) Times have daily online updates. And, if you find yourself hungry for up-to-date details, review Ushahidi.

Ushahidi, which in Swahili means ‘testimony’, is an award-winning mapping tool initially deployed during last year’s post-election violence in Kenya to let people on the ground ‘crowd source’ reports and photos. Since the Internet is rarely available in conflict zones, Ushahidi allows ordinary citizens to report news via mobile phone SMS text messaging. The BBC and regional news outlets use it daily to enhance their reporting.

It is more than just a program, however. The Ushahidi Engine is a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or the Web and visualize it on a map or timeline. The goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response. In May 2008, it was used to map the xenophobic attacks perpetrated against non-South Africans. Imagine if it had been available during the Katrina disaster in 2005.

Today the Ushahidi team deployed the version of their software for the Democratic Republic of Congo (see below). Instances of deaths, property loss, sexual assault, disease, displacement of peoples, locations of fighting, peace efforts and more can be tracked.

screen capture - Ushahidi - Eastern Congo

To learn more about Ushahidi and the situation in Eastern Congo, follow the links below:

Ushahidi
http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2008/11/07/ushahidi-deploys-to-the-congo-drc/
http://drc.ushahidi.com/

http://whiteafrican.com/
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2008/10/31/the-congo-war-take-three/

Africa News - Times of London
Africa News - BBC

My musical tastes are eclectic, lending to having grown up in the Jim Crow world of the 50’s and 60’s and to my exposure to many cultures during times abroad in the 70’s. Among my favorite genres are rhythm and blues, jazz, rap and world music because they most closely represent the significant cultural influences in my life.

If I am pressed to commit to such a thing, I’d have to say my all-time favorite band is Deep Forest, the collaboration of French musicians Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet. They compose a new kind of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance/chillout beats. Their sound has been described as ‘ethno-introspective ambient world music’. Their debut album, Deep Forest, mixes New Age electronics with UNESCO field recordings of music from Zaire, the Solomon Islands, Burundi, Tibesti and the Sahel.

Recently I discovered a favorite track from the first album posted on YouTube. Play Night Bird as you read further.

The haunting yet pleasing yodeling is from a group of young Baka women from the Ituri Rainforest that stretches across Cameroon, Congo and parts of Burundi. They were recorded by an ethnomusicologist working in Burundi in 1967 and this is their formal greeting for guests.

In the few decades since these incredible voices were recorded, the Baka (or Aka or BiAka or Mbuti or ‘pygmies’, as they are known) are disappearing at an alarming rate. As a result of encroachment, destruction of habitat, slavery and the Congo Civil War (2003), their numbers have dwindled to less than 30,000.

Rather than viewing them as ‘primitive’ (and thus valueless) as we in the West typically do, why not learn from these very old peoples? And, old they are, having a high predominance of L1, the oldest genetic haplotype on Earth.

One thing I learned is that Baka fathers spend more time in close contact to their babies than in any other known society. Baka fathers have their infant within arms reach 47% of the time and have been described as the ‘best Dads in the world.’ It has been observed that they pick up, cuddle, and play with their babies at least five times as often as fathers in other societies. It is believed that this is due to the strong bond between Baka husband and wife. Throughout the day, couples share hunting, food preparation, and social and leisure activities. The more time Baka parents spend together, the greater the father’s loving interaction with his baby. Would that I’d spent more time cuddling and playing with my son.

It’s difficult to accept that these incredible voices may be silenced in our lifetime. Please recognize that the destruction of their culture is happening concurrently with others the world over and that losing any one of these ancient cultures is losing a part of our collective selves.

Trade Not Aid

Interfaith Coffee Cooperative in Uganda

By now, the phrase ‘trade not aid’ is (or should be) commonplace in our conversations. In the case of Africa, ample evidence exists to support that most financial aid from wealthier nations does not reach its poor, hungry, sick and uneducated. According to Ugandan journalist, Andrew Mwenda, between 1960 and 2003, Africa received 600 billion USD in aid, yet poverty is still widespread. Corrupt bureaucracies, war, the failure to invest in infrastructures, crushing debt and the lack of self-incentives continue to siphon aid money from the Africans who need it most. Instead of continued addiction to foreign aid and subsequent debt, what if Africans utilized more of their vast natural and human resources to empower themselves economically?

At the 2007 TED conference in California and its sibling, TED Africa 2007 in Tanzania, leading proponents of wealth creation for Africa were showcased. Along with Mwenda, economist and author (Africa Unchained) George Ayittey, pioneering Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and others asked us here in the West to see beyond typical media portrayals of African helplessness. Instead, we should be looking to stories of self-reliance and ingenuity that show how Africans themselves are healing their continent from the inside out.

Many such success stories are surfacing across Africa. One that caught my attention is the Mirembe Kawomera Cooperative of Uganda, the best example of trade not aid I know. Mirembe Kawomera (meaning “Delicious Peace” in the Luganda language) had its beginnings in a request for neighbors to put aside old differences. In 2004, Joab Jonaday (”J.J.”) Keki, an Abayudaya coffee farmer, walked door to door asking his neighbors to come together to discuss collectively improving their lives. Previously, these fourth generation coffee farmers had struggled to survive on the low prices offered by local markets. Keki reasoned that if there were marketplaces with higher prices, every farmer could realize higher returns. Subsequently they formed Mirembe Kawomera to combine crops, refine techniques and seek new markets. Through the joint efforts of the cooperative and the fair trade Thanksgiving Coffee Company in California, the cooperative has been a success, growing to over 700 members. They have increased coffee yields and now fetch four times the former price.

They are investing profits in land and equipment, diversifying to include vanilla beans, offering microfinancing to members and contributing a fixed percentage of every sale to a variety of community public health and education projects. This new economic prosperity is only part of their success. From the beginning, they realized that theirs is a unique story. Their current, elected leadership represents each religious group within their community. The co-op president is a Jew, the vice-president, a Christian and the treasurer, a Muslim. They are all African and, in doing something together that none of them could have done alone, they have become self-reliant to build a sustainable business.

The example of Mirembe Kawomera is a blueprint for fair trade that can be applied to opportunities throughout Africa and the world. Given the current climate of class inequity, religious competition and war, a successful, African cooperative with interfaith members should be an inspiration to all of us.

Related links:

Visit the Mirembe Kawomera website for more on ‘delicious peace’. You can watch a video about the cooperative and buy their excellent coffee there.

Andrew Mwenda, Let’s Take a New Look at African Aid (video), TED 2007 Conference.

Andrew Mwenda and 3 others arrested in newspaper raid, Global Voices Online, April 28, 2008.