Imhotep: The Collective African Blog

The Law of "Diminishing Returns" and African Leadership

By Innocent Chia

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, former President of South Africa and its first to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections, may have been the one leader that the world and his people would have readily forgiven if he had chosen the transgression of holding on to power. After all, it was before the eyes of the world that the anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African NationalCongress (ANC) served 27 years of his life sentence in prison, much of it in a cell in Robben Island, for sabotage after he went underground and began the ANC's armed struggle. But after five years of presidency, 1994 to 1999, the cultural icon of freedom and equality knew he had given enough of himself and passed the relay baton for someone else (Thabo Mbeki) with a fresh set of eyes to either change or continue with the same trajectory.

Cameroon: Whose President? (Part IV: How Education is Undervalued and Ridiculed)

By Jing Thomas

Cameroonian Francophone leadership seems more interested in pleasing France when it comes to designing the country’s educational programs than actually tailoring them to respond adequately to national development challenges.

Yaounde. It is the morning hours and government offices have just opened. A rap at one of the office doors and a man walks in. He has just returned from a university abroad with a hard earned degree in zoology and is about to apply for a job at the Department of Forestry, a seemingly normal thing for a country with vast expanse of virgin equatorial forest and numerous national parks.

Cameroon: Whose President? (Part III: Paul Biya and the Policy of Ethnocentrism)

By Jing Thomas

As for Biya, he at least makes no pretensions of borrowing a leaf from Ahidjo's balanced development program. He simply hides behind the facade of "national unity" to perpetuate a similar practice of ethnic and regional favoritism. When he single-handedly and arbitrarily abolished the United Republic of Cameroon, national unity was used by some quarters to justify this action. And yet it has now become standard practice for his tribesmen, who have confiscated the nation for themselves and are exposing it to the worst economic rape, to throw non-natives out of their own region.

Cameroon: Whose President? (Part II: How Ahmadou Ahidjo Under-Developed Northern Cameroon)

By Jing Thomas

A sophisticated and scholarly people, with a longstanding history of trade, politics, learning and animal husbandry, was lulled to sleep with the narcotics of "balanced development" and its dangerous by-product of favoritism.

In Ahidjo’s native North Cameroon, children were compelled to go to school and all kinds of incentives and inducements were provided, from free books and uniforms to attractive scholarships. It was far easier for a Northerner to join the military, a formidable lever of power, than members of other regions; special entrances, often made simpler to suit northern whims, were reserved for people of this region to gain easy access into most of the professional schools.

It was almost standard practice for many of its businessmen to grab huge loans from banks and some national financial institutions like FONADER with no intention of repaying.

Cameroon: Whose President? (Part I: Regional Favoritism as a Source of National Underdevelopment)

By Thomas Jing (Originally published on CAMNET in December 2001)

Introduction
The package could have been conveniently labeled: To hell with education and pay lip service to national unity! Yet it is the basis on which a country has persisted for more than four decades in dealing with its development problems. As it headed into the new millennium, its balance sheet was predictably unflattering and simply read: two times the world's most corrupt nation; an explosion of the aids epidemic; cities in the clutch of violent gangs and armed thugs; and runaway deforestation.

Holding Parents Accountable: A New Paradigm for African Development?

Innocent Chia

It is déjà vu all over again in Africa: A public official is appointed or promoted today and the public knows that it is just a matter of time before their rags become riches. As a matter of fact, the public has become so cynical of this fact; it is not only an expectation, it is an imperative. Family members, including the spouse and kids, feel the moment and take appropriate steps to adapt to the nouveau riche lifestyle of decadence and opulence. Close and distant relatives, friends and foe, community and village know that salvation has come to one of theirs.

Zambia and the Vulture

Thursday, February 15th, 2007
Originally from DEMOCRACY NOW“Vulture fund” companies buy up the debt of poor countries at cheap prices, and then demand payments much higher than the original amount of the debt, often taking poor countries to court when they cannot afford to repay. Investigative journalist Greg Palast reports on one company trying to collect $40 million from the government of Zambia after buying its debt for $4 million.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush declared the United States was taking on the challenges of global hunger, poverty and disease, and urged support for debt relief, which he called the best hope for eliminating poverty. But what exactly are wealthy nations doing to reduce the debt of impoverished countries?

Today we take a close look at companies known as “vulture funds.” Vulture fund companies buy up the debt of poor countries at cheap prices, and then demand payments much higher than the original amount of the debt, often taking poor countries to court when they cannot afford to repay. For an in-depth look at this issue, we turn to a BBC Newsnight documentary by investigative reporter Greg Palast.

La France de Sarkozy: A New Dawn in Franco-African Relations?

By Teke Ngomba

How will the broader relationship between France and African leaders change? Will African leaders move ahead and re-define the relationship between their respective countries and France?

Many saw it coming- and had waited impatiently for it. Likewise, many had wished it ended as a wishful thinking. But on Sunday, 6 May 2007, it did materialize. Nicolas Sarkozy, 52, son of a Hungarian immigrant and leader of the ruling conservative UMP party in France, finally won the second round of the French presidential elections with 53% of the votes. Mr. Sarkozy defeated socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, who obtained 47% of the ballots.

Who is Charles Taylor?

By Jing Thomas

With the recent announcement by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone that the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor's is expected to start on June 4 at The Hague, I am republishing this profile of Taylor which I originally published last year in The African Nation.

Swathed in richly embroidered kente, a calm and confident demeanor, Charles Ghankay Taylor conjures up the image of a king. This regal appearance is a mask, for behind it lies a thug, a thief, a liar, an actor and much more.

His rise from relative obscurityto the status of international scoundrel and fugitive began in Arthington, Liberia, where he was born on January 28, 1948. His father, Nelson, was a teacher, lawyer and judge of American-Liberian extraction while his mother, Zoe, was a native woman from the Gola tribe. This ethnic mix provided Taylor with the right cocktail to explode on the Liberian political stage.