AFRICA IMPRESSIONS...

Living in a beautiful country, with potential in so many aspects and usually a chaotic reputation, gave me a fair view of the African continent, here is what some friends around the world had to say about the beautiful Africa.

I think it is a continent with a lot of potential, but the people suffered a lot of mental and identity brainwashing in the past that still haunts them and turns them against each other
- Tamika Gayle , Jamaica

Tengo la sensacion de que Africa a pesar de ser un continente buenísimo de recursos, esta muy desaprovechado esto no se debe solo a que los paises occidentales se aprovechan de ellos llevando sus sedes allí para tener trabajadores mas baratos sino porque allí la riqueza también esta muy mal repartida y hay demasiada corrupción en los gobiernos. La gente africana, o es muy rica, (un 1%) o extremadamente pobre (99%) la solución, en teoría, seria muy fácil inversiones en infraestructuras y sector secundario (industria) para que los diferentes paises pudiesen ir progresando económicamente el problema es que los paises occidentales tendrían que respetar sus mercados hasta que fueran algo competitivos y esto no va a pasar así que, a pesar de que me parece una pena, veo la solución muy lejana.
- Jorge Escartin, España

The theme of Africa is one of the most important today, because of the way it affects other countries by how poverty affects the economies of other nations. This blog is very good as we sample different aspects of Africa and its development as well as solutions to the problems it faces.

- Annie Tierney, Australia

News

Ethiopia: New glass factory enters market with capacity of 42,000 tons a year

Posted by Rahel May 18th, 2009 at 9:25 am

Ethiopia Hansom International Glass PLC for producing sheets of glass is scheduled to be inaugurated tomorrow, two years after its construction started. It is equipped with complete machinery imported from China.
Covering an area of 114,607 sqm, the factory, which has already started trial production, has the capacity to produce 42,000 tons of glass a year. It also recycles used and broken glass.
The factory was jointly established by two shareholders: CGC Overseas Construction Group Ltd and China-Africa Development Fund. The company has a registered capital of 16 million dollars. When it starts full- fledged production, it will save Ethiopia a lot of foreign currency.
The factory will not only produce glass to meet local demand, but will also export it to countries in East Africa, Jason Jiang, deputy general manager, told the reporter.
The raw materials, dolomite, feldspar, silka sand and limestone are all locally purchased except for sodium carbonate which is imported from China.
The stones are ground in an underground mill before being transported through conveyors into the furnace. Inside the furnace, liquid propane gas, furnace oil and electricity combine to produce a blazing inferno for meting the crushed stones and sand and mixing them with sodium carbonate in a 1,5000c heat
The furnace has cameras that feed video footages to computers in the control room where engineers monitor the temperature of the fire and the thickness of the glass.
On the other end of the furnace, crystal a sheet of glass slides out from between rollers and is then exposed to cool temperature until it becomes firm before being cut to sizes.
Mr Jiang told The Reporter that the company has a long-term plan to manufacture glass for vehicles.
- By Yelibenwork Ayele The Reporter

Recommended Literature

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It is a 2007 book by Professor Paul Collier exploring the reason why impoverished countries fail to progress despite international aid and support.

The book suggests that, whereas the majority of the 5-billion people in the "developing world" are getting richer at an unprecedented rate, a group of countries (mostly in Africa and Central Asia but with a smattering elsewhere)are stuck and that development assistance should be focused heavily on them.

REVIEWS

-Martin Wolf in the Financial Times called it "a splendid book" and "particularly enjoyed the attack on the misguided economics of many non-governmental organisations." He says that Collier sheds much light on how the world should tackle its biggest moral challenge. It shows, too, how far western governments and other external actors are from currently giving the sort of help these countries desperately need.
-The Guardian called it an important book and suggested that citizens of G8 countries should fight for change along the lines he suggests.
- The Economist says it "tickled my soul" and "should be compulsory reading for anyone embroiled in the hitherto thankless business of trying to pull people out of the pit of poverty where the “bottom billion” of the world's population of 6.6 billion seem irredeemably stuck"
- Nicolas Kristof in the New York Times described it as "'The best book on international affairs so far this year"
-William Easterly, influential American economist specialising in economic growth and foreign aid, critically assessed The Bottom Billion in The Lancet. He lambasts it for being an 'ivory tower analysis of real world poverty.

Recommended Literature

The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre, first published 1961) is Frantz Fanon's most famous work, written during and regarding the Algerian struggle for independence from colonial rule. As a psychiatrist, Fanon explored the psychological effect of colonization on the psyche of a nation as well as its broader implications for building a movement for decolonization.

REVIEW BY Gail M. Gerhart
September/October 1997

This stunning intellectual polemic in praise of anticolonial revolution, first published in French in 1961 and English translation in 1963, overshadowed the liberal analyses of African independence being produced at the time in influencing black Americans' perceptions of Africa. Fanon, a French-trained psychiatrist from Martinique who became an activist in the Algerian revolution, berated African elites for their bourgeois tendencies and narrow nationalism and called on African intellectuals to identify with popular strivings. Drawing on his experience treating Algerian mental patients, he lauded the therapeutic effect of revolutionary violence on the brainwashed minds of the colonized -- an idea embraced by the Black Panthers in their rejection of the nonviolent methods of the civil rights movement. In a postmodern vein, Fanon reflected on the problem of revolutionary truth: "The native replies to the living lie of the colonial situation by an equal falsehood . . . Truth is . . . all that protects the native, and ruins the foreigners . . . The good is quite simply that which is evil for 'them.' "

- http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/53377/gail-m-gerhart/the-wretched-of-the-earth

Del libro de Franz Fanton LOS CONDENADOS DE LA TIERRA.

El prólogo escrito por Jean Paul Sartre, nos muestra una pequeña visión dentro del libro describiendo el proceso del colonialismo y las consecuencias que ha tenido.

La manera en que fueron colonizadas estas comunidades, aun siendo en diferentes continentes tienen las mismas características. Han dejado a su paso testimonios, sentimientos y civilizaciones marcadas. Los colonizados hoy en día juegan un diferente rol, y luchan en contra de lo que alguna vez fueron, a través de guerras y eliminando a un enemigo común; hecho que ha creado un lazo de hermandad. Tal y como el libro lo menciona "Los europeos eran sujeto de historia ahora solo son objetos."

El punto final de Sartre, menciona como los europeos observan la lucha que ha unido a grupos que antes peleaban entre sí, y como a través del tiempo se han unido, y finaliza diciendo que en un futuro se unirán los que hoy solo observan por una causa distinta. Coincido con esa conclusión al ver la historia del hombre como un proceso cíclico, en el que todos formamos parte de un solo movimiento, y en ocasiones las partes se unen o se separan pero finalmente vuelve a llegar ese momento de unión. Así como EL CICLO DEL AGUA.

From Gear M. Kajoba's Land Use and Land Tenure in Africa : towards an evolutionary conceptual
framework

"In order to resuscitate agricultural sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa, there is need to work towards an interface, between indigenous land use or cropping systems (which seem to be neglected) and modern market oriented systems."

This should involve:

• incorporating into market production, traditional practices such as small-scale irrigation and inter cropping of cereals
• indigenous agronomic systems should be modernized and brought into the market

With respect to land tenure there has to be empowering of small scale farmer (INCLUDING WOMEN).

From David Millar's Traditional African Worldviews

We often come in as intruders into their on-going world of discovery and rediscovery, then we enrol them in our activities, dictating the rules of par ticipation, without allowing them to enrol us in their style of participation. The Empathetic Learning and Action (ELA) framework tries to come to grips with these parallel realities. Negotiation, consensus building, and establishing of dialogue are the objectives within the ELA framework.

From Carolyn Logan's TRADITIONAL LEADERS IN MODERN AFRICA.

Africa in modern times, when it comes to governance has found itself at crossroads, a choice in between modern democracy through elected leaders and traditional tribal leaders.

The question of how traditional authorities “fit” into a modern political system becomes particularly acute
at the local level, where these leaders exert the most influence on the daily lives of Africans, and where
the contest with government authorities for resources and responsibilities is most intense.

In my opinion this a false dichotomy, traditional and modern CAN coexist and also complement each others needs.

Our findings are clear: positive attitudes toward chiefs are not incompatible with democracy – and vice versa. Even more startlingly, far from being in stark competition for public esteem, local traditional leaders appear to draw their sustenance and legitimacy from the same well as elected officials. We see strong evidence that African individuals tend to have an orientation toward leadership – a leadership affect – that shapes their perceptions of both elected and non-elected leaders similarly.

Birgit Englert's,

Popular Music and Politics in Africa –
Some Introductory Reflections

‘Popular culture’ is a broad term, especially if the meaning of ‘culture’ is
understood as referring to “[…] whatever is distinctive about the ‘way of
life’ of a people, community, nation or social group.” (Hall 1997: 2)

“Social justice is the best way to ensure sustainable peace and eradicate poverty. And I believe in people coming together organizing, joining forces, making their voices heard.”

Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General

Temba S.B. Masilela's,
Alternative Media and Political
Change in Africa: Analytical
Schemes for Assessing Significance
and Potential.

A conclusion

"Community media, in reaction
to the mass media, attempt to redefine the communication realm
(i.e. the relations between informer and informed) and to enhance,
through the acquisition of simple technology, the possibilities
that people have of intervening in the process of information
production" (Council for the Development of Community
Media, 1977:397).

A few important pinpoints from Lee Haring's, THE SEARCH FOR GROUNDS IN AFRICAN ORAL TRADITIONS.

Africa has maintaned it's history throughout time mostly through oral traditions, therefore difficulty in translating such stories has been encountered.

African literature has the following characteristics:

• wider culture context


• social relations


• cosmology

Africans use their history and storytelling as a form of explaining the reason why humans exist and the path they should follow; in the same way conflicts in the African societies are revealed.

African folktales are stable, self contained, they can be trustworthy vehicles of the immense weight of values they carry from generation to generation without being tainted by present reality.

WOMEN'S role has become an important one in Africa's oral history. By sharing an insight of their lives they communicate to other women around the world their attitudes towards their oppression.

By voicing their thoughts and way of life they're becoming a tool in modernization of social and economic system.

These African women are presenting an alternative social vision through their storytelling.

Reflexiones...

Mi perspectiva sobre Africa antes de comenzar este curso era bastante limitada. Al pensar en dicho continente las imágenes que venían a mi mente era de personas muriendo, hambruna, extrema pobreza, enfermedades terminales, casas insalubres y personas muriendo de SIDA. Nunca pasaba por mi mente tecnología siendo desarrollada ni crecimiento económico ni mucho menos inversiones que se transformaban en edificios innovadores.
Al comenzar el curso realmente me sorprendí al conocer como los africanos analizan a su continente, asimismo la manera tan peculiar de transmitir su historia. Considero que es importante tomar en cuenta el tiempo antes y el después de ser colonizados para realmente entender al continente africano.
La historia africana ha despertado una gran curiosidad y sed de conocerla, por lo tanto espero con entusiasmo las próximas investigaciones y sean dentro o fuera de clase.