Africa Up Close

Telia company logo courtesy of Håkan Dahlström via Flickr Commons.

How to marshal the knowledge, resources, and power of the private sector to achieve good social outcomes? This has been a holy grail of many working in the social justice and non-profit sector. It may seem self-evident that achieving good social outcomes—more development, a healthier population and less violence—is in the interests of business. But, that is simply not the case. Alcohol companies that market their products aggressively in poor neighborhoods feed high levels of inter-personal violence and increase risky sexual behavior, both at great cost to the health system and society. And companies producing fast foods and sodas have contributed to high levels of obesity and diabetes globally. These are just two examples of how business interests do not always align with social interests.

African Union Headquarters. Photo courtesy of UNAMID via Flickr Commons.

The African Union (AU) is swiftly emerging as a significant security and peacebuilding actor on the international scene. It has a clear role, as a regional body under the UN Charter Chapter VIII), to deal with situations constituting threats to international peace and security. However, as continental integration accelerates, several scholars of African peace and security studies have noted worrisome trends in the African Union’s practices regarding security and growing militarization.[1] These trends also constituted the main research theme for conference “African Security and Unbridled Militarization? New Approaches to African Peace and Security Governance,” held from November 22 to 23, 2017 in Uppsala, Sweden. The conference convened leading researchers in the field of African security governance, who made a number of important observations on African peace and security.

H.E. President Emmerson D. Mnangagwa at the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council. Photo courtesy of the United Nations Geneva via Flickr Commons. 

Zimbabwe is coming in from the cold. After 37 years of mismanagement and decline under Robert Mugabe, the population of the former breadbasket of Africa had enough, and ousted its leader in November 2017. While in many respects the bloodless coup was simply a re-organization and consolidation of power in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), Zimbabwe now has the opportunity to shed its pariah status and re-engineer its future. This will not be an easy task as cronyism, corruption, and maladministration have become so commonplace that any move towards just governance will seem radical and viewed (at least by some) as a betrayal.

Fulani herders and cattle in Nigeria. Photo courtesy of Dr. Mary Gillham Archive Project via Flickr Commons. 

The sporadic and ongoing violent conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in rural communities in Nigeria is a serious threat to human security and development in the country. The conflicts also have a strong potential to spread to other neighboring countries in West Africa, but the international community has remained silent on the possibility of the conflict spreading. On New Year’s Day, Fulani herdsmen killed about 73 people in a farming community in Benue state. The victims included women, children, and young and old residents of the community. An arrest or prosecution has yet to happen, and similar violence has occurred across the country since then. A slow response from the government has led to suspicions in the media that the government is in support of the Fulani militiamen involved in the violence. Furthermore, it is alleged that some of the Fulani militiamen migrated from other countries in West Africa to carry out the attack, due to a shared ethnicity that is present in several other countries across the sub-region.

H.E. Thabo Mbeki, Former President of South Africa at a high-level policymaker discussion conducted by the Brookings Institution Africa Growth Initiative on February 17, 2016. Photo courtesy of the Brookings Institution via Flickr Commons.  

I recently commenced my research fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. I have begun navigating the research and policy landscape of the United States and discussed elements of my research with a couple of experts in Washington.

Women and girls gather over a solar panel installation in Benin. Photo courtesy of Solar Electric Light Fund via Flickr Commons. 

Over 620 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)—roughly two-thirds of the region’s population— lack access to electricity (Figure 1).The overall electrification rate for the region is 31 percent, with less than 10 percent of rural households having access to electricity. [1] Of the region’s grid-connected households, 40 percent do not pay their bills.

United States Flag at half-mast in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of Ted Eytan via Flickr Commons. 

“Living with violence is not living.” These were the unequivocal words of 17-year-old Raphael Harriohay at the Global Summit to End Violence against Children in Stockholm, Sweden in February 2018. He was speaking on behalf of the children represented at the Summit. His words were uttered around the same time as the Parkland, Florida mass shooting took place, as children from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were hiding under their desks, fleeing their school building, and watching as their teachers and friends were mowed down by gunfire. Over the coming weeks and months, the children of Parkland, Florida will come to know the tragic truth of these words first hand.

Mining at the Tarkwa Mine in Ghana. Photo via Wikimedia Commons. 

“Galamsey”[1]

Africa is endowed with numerous natural resources including gold, ore, copper, bauxite, manganese, and timber among others. Formal extractive companies do not offer much employment to local people, pushing them to find employment through illegal mining practices. The influx of small-scale and illegal miners, mostly Chinese to Africa, has worsened the illegal mining activities on the continent with migrant miners abusing mining laws and mining practices. Mining communities in Africa are experiencing numerous detrimental impacts environmentally, socially, and economically from mining. According to a report by Oxfam Australia, mining can negatively affect people by forcing them from their homes and farms and preventing them from accessing clean land and water.[2]

High school students in Mankon, Bamenda, Cameroon, an Anglophone speaking region that has protested against the Francophone majority. Photo courtesy of Alberto Vaccaro via Flickr Commons. 

The immediate future of Cameroon is fraught with uncertainties. On October 1, 2017, during rallies marked by calls for a secession from French-speaking Cameroon, dozens of people were killed by security forces in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest Cameroon. Besides Boko Haram in the North, the resurgence of the Anglophone Problem in the Western regions is the single biggest threat to the unity and stability of Cameroon today. This is especially concerning as the country braces for a challenging electoral year in 2018 amidst calls for President Paul Biya to step down after 35 years in power. The ongoing resurgence of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon requires immediate international attention. The stability of Cameroon is of crucial importance not only for the sub-region of Central Africa, but also for the fight against terrorism in the entire region. The ruling regime’s poor management (repressive approach) of the ongoing crisis is largely responsible for the escalations in recent months. The way forward to a sustainable solution lies in an inclusive, mediated dialogue geared toward institutional reforms and the promotion of local governance, not only in Anglophone regions but also in the whole country.

A group of children at a South Sudanese refugee camp in Gambella Ethiopia. Photo courtesy of UNICEF Ethiopia via Flickr Commons. 

Historically, the international community’s response to conflict in African countries has been too weak, too little, and sometimes too late, such as the case of the delayed international intervention in the Rwandan Genocide. However, since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, South Sudan has recorded an overwhelming presence of the international community in support of peace and ending the civil war. The question remains then, whether the international community will learn from past mistakes in their efforts to support peace and rebuild South Sudan.