The Challenge for Africa

by Wangari Maathai

12 Lydia Polgreen, “Once a Bright Point, Senegal Teeters Toward a Crisis,” New York Times, June 18, 2008.

  13 Hilaire Avril, “Overfishing Linked to Food Crisis, Migration,” Inter Press Service, August 11, 2008.

  14 Paul Fauvet, “Fisheries Ministry Has Just One Patrol Boat,” Agencia de Informação de Mocambique, May 31, 2008.

  15 “Poverty, Search for Status Driving Migration to Europe,” UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, July 4, 2007.

  16 See “And Then There Were No Fish” and Sharon LaFraniere, “Europe Takes Africa's Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow,” New York Times, January 14, 2008.

  17 “Why Drop the Debt?” Jubilee USA Network, www.jubileeusa.org/truth-about-debt/why-drop-the-debt.html (accessed September 2008).

  18 See “The Dirty Dozen,” Trace Aid, http://traceaid.com/media/looting_indexi.pdf; and http://traceaid.com/pages/media/briefs/pre-2004-briefs-archive.php (accessed September 2008).

  19 See Jubilee Debt Campaign, www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Malawi+348i.twl (accessed September 2008), and “Unfinished Business: Ten Years of Dropping the Debt,” Jubilee Debt Campaign, May 2008.

  20 Global Environment Outlook (GEO) 4, p. 200.

  21 United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2008, p. 6.

  22 Figure and Johnson-Sirleaf quotation from “Africa Action Stands with African Voices on Debt Cancellation,” Africa Action, July 12, 2007, www.africaaction.org.

  23 Sam Olukoya, “Nigeria Makes Progress on Stolen Cash,” BBC News, July 2, 2008.

  24 Data on commodities from Cheru, African Renaissance, particularly pp. n–13 and 129-33; and Ayittey, Africa Unchained.

  25 “World Economic and Financial Surveys: Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2007,” International Monetary Fund.

  26 Economic Report on Africa, 2008. See Fig. 1.1, p. 22.

  27 Economic Report on Africa, 2007, p. 22.

  28 Ibid., p. 127.

  29 “Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2008,” International Monetary Fund, p. 3.

  30 Collier, The Bottom Billion, p. 39.

  31 Ibid., pp. 140-46.

  32 “Norway: An Oil Nation,” see the government of Norway's website at www.norway.org.uk/policy/trade/oil/oil.htm (accessed September 2008).

  33 UN Human Development Report 2007/2008, p. 229.

  34 “Norway: Economy,” Wikipedia.

  35 Darren Foster, “Nigeria: The Corruption of Oil,” Frontline, May 1, 2007.

  36 “Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks Prepare for Growth of Tele communications in Africa at CTO Roundtable,” Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire, May 29, 2007, www.csrwire.com/News/8692.html (accessed September 2008).

  37 “Regional Economic Outlook, Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2008,” International Monetary Fund.

  38 “On the Frontier of Finance,” Economist, November 15, 2007.

  39 See Collier, The Bottom Billion.

  40 See Cheru, African Renaissance, p. 127. For an article on NEPAD's achievements and challenges, most notably the call for strong leadership, see Wiseman Nkuhlu, “NEPAD: A Look at Seven Years of Achievement—and the Challenges on the Way Forward,” January 23, 2008, www.africafiles.org/article.asp?id=17138 (accessed September 2008).

  41 CIA Factbook: European Union, see www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html (accessed September 2008).

  42 Thomas J. Christensen and James Swan, “China in Africa: Implications for U.S. Policy,” U.S. Department of State, June 5, 2008, www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2008/06/105556.htm (accessed September 2008); see also Alden, China in Africa, pp. 12, 18, and 22.

  43 See Alden, China in Africa; see also the thoughtful essay by George Esunge Fominyen, “China in Africa: Invasion or the New Face of Globalisation?” www.gefominyen.com/2008/06/china-in-africa.html (accessed September 2008).

  44 Joseph Kahn, “China Courts Africa, Angling for Strategic Gains,” New York Times, November 3, 2006.

  45 Howard W. French, “Behind the Reluctance of China and Africa to Criticize Mugabe,” International Herald Tribune, July 3, 2008.

  46 Matt Schroeder and Guy Lamb, “The Illicit Arms Trade in Africa: A Global Enterprise,” African Analyst, #1, Third Quarter 2006, pp. 69-78.

  47 Richard Grimmett, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1998-2005,” Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, October 23, 2006.

  48 “Did ‘Ship of Shame’ Complete Mission?,” Yahoo News, May 8, 2008.

  49 Christof Maletsky, “‘Ship of Shame’ Cargo Delivered to Country,” The Namibian, May 20, 2008.

  Six LEADERSHIP

  1 “Prize Offered to All Africa's Leaders,” BBC News, October 26, 2006.

  2 “Chissano: Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership Acceptance Speech,” November 26, 2007, www.polity.org.za/article.php?a_id=122204 (accessed September 2008).

  3 Cited in Sarah Childress, “In Africa, Democracy Gains Against Turmoil,” Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2008.

  4 Ayittey, Africa Unchained, pp. 389-91.

  5 See the website for the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Market Women's Fund at http://smwf.org.

  Seven MOVING THE SOCIAL MACHINE

  1 Ben Onyasimi, “Govt Sets New Conditions for CDF Teams,” Kenya Times, August 13, 2008.

  2 “Integrating Tree Cash Crops in Agricultural Production Systems, Kenya,” by Mr. Y. Sato, managing director, Kenya Nut Company, and Mr. J. H. G. Waithaka, consultant, Eureka Agritech Limited, World Bank Group.

  Nine THE CRISIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

  1 See Jeffrey Gettlemen, “Official Sees Kenyan Ethnic Cleansing,” New York Times, January 31, 2008; and Simiyu Barasa, “Kenya's War of Words, New York Times, February 12, 2008.

  2 See, for instance, Najum Mushtaq, “Kenya: Writing for Peace,” Inter Press Service, August 5, 2008; “A List of Bloggers Covering the Kenyan Elections and Its Aftermath,” January 2, 2008, http://whiteafrican.com/2008/01/02/a-list-of-bloggers-covering-the-kenyan-elections-and-its-aftermath/; Generation Kenya, http://generation kenya.co.ke/main/; and Peace in Kenya, www.peaceinkenya.net/ (accessed September 2008).

  3 “Peace and Reconciliation,” Green Belt Movement website, www.greenbeltmovement.org/c.php?id=18 (accessed September 2008).

  4 “Kenya Tourism Down in Wake of Election Violence,” Associated Press, July 30, 2008.

  5 Jim Onyango, “Kenya: Spending on Police, Teachers Pushes Budget to SH760 Billion,” Business Daily Africa, June 11, 2008.

  Ten EMBRACING THE MICRO-NATIONS

  1 The story is told in John Carlin, “How Nelson Mandela Won the Rugby World Cup,” Daily Telegraph (UK), October 19, 2007; and Karen Bond, “Mandela Unites a Nation to RWC Glory,” Rugby News Service, July 9, 2007.

  Eleven LAND OWNERSHIP: WHOSE LAND IS IT, ANYWAY?

  1 GEO 4, p. 208.

  2 Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment, UNEP, 2008; for details, see “Glacial Retreat to Rapid Urbanization Chronicled in Landmark Satellite Report to Africa's Environment Ministers,” UNEP press release, June 10, 2008.

  3 Charlayne Hunter-Gault, “Land Ownership Elusive for South Africa's Poor,” All Things Considered, August 7, 2006.

  4 “Government Warns Namibia's White Farmers,” The Namibian, February 20, 2008.

  5 “White Farmers Under Siege in Zimbabwe,” BBC News, August 15, 2002.

  6 See Otsieno Namwaya, “Who Owns Kenya?” East African Standard, October 1, 2004; Clemence Manyukwe, “Judge Allocated Farm After ‘Special Duties,’” Financial Gazette, June 12, 2008; and the discussion regarding South Africa at www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldhaveyoursay/2007/10/whose_land_it_is_anyway.html (accessed September 2008).

  7 GEO 4, p. 196.

  8 Ibid., p. 210.

  9 Regional report of Working Group II, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007.

  10 GEO 4, p. 210.

  11 F. N. Tubiello and G. Fischer, “Reducing Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture: Global and Regional Effects of Mitigation, 2000
-2080,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2007.

  12 See “Renewed Focus on the Importance of Agricultural Extension Services,” African Agriculture, May 4, 2008, http://africanagriculture.blogspot.com/ (accessed September 2008).

  13 International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development, www.agassessment.org, April 2008.

  14 Ernest Harsch, “Agriculture: Africa's ‘Engine for Growth’: Small-scale Farmers Hold the Key, Says NEPAD Plan,” Africa Recovery 17:4 (January 2004).

  Twelve ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

  1 Zeddy Sambu, “Power Suppliers Eye Thermal Sources to Bridge Deficit,” Business Daily Africa, April 1, 2008.

  2 Mwaniki Wahome, “As Power Shortage Looms, KenGen Looks to Old Dams,” Daily Nation (Kenya), August 28, 2008.

  3 “Ethiopia: Deforestation and Monoculture Plantations Behind the Fires,” World Rainforest Movement, Bulletin no. 55, February 2002.

  4 GEO 4, p. 203.

  5 State of the World's Forests 2007, UNFAO, 2007.

  6 Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment, UNEP, 2008.

  7 GEO 4, p. 205-13; see also Sonja van Renssen, “Climate Change ‘Will Set Kalahari Dunes in Motion,’” SciDev.net, June 30, 2005, www.scidev.net/en/news/climate-change-will-set-kalahari-dunes-in-motion.html (accessed September 2008).

  8 GEO 4, pp. 196-213.

  9 Edward Miguel, Shankar Satyanath, and Ernest Sergenti,“Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: An Instrumental Variables Approach,” Journal of Political Economy 112:112 (2004).

  10 GEO 4, p. 201.

  11 Ibid., p. 209.

  12 Abraham McLaughlin and Christian Allen Purefoy, “Hunger Is Spreading in Africa,” Christian Science Monitor, August 1, 2005.

  13 “‘Pace of Desertification Doubled Since 1970 s, U.N. Says,’” Africa Conservation Forums, June 16, 2004, www.africanconservation.org/cgibin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=7&forum=DCForumID33 (accessed September 2008).

  14 GEO 4, p. 212.

  15 “Valuation of Ecological Services and Natural Capital,” in “Phytotechnologies,” United Nations Environment Programme, Freshwater Management Series no. 7, www.unep.or.jp/Ietc/Publications/Freshwater/FMS7/n.asp (accessed September 2008).

  16 “Valuing Ecosystem Services,” in World Resources, 1998-99, World Resources Institute, http://earthtrends.wri.org/features/view_feature.php?fid=15 &theme=5 (accessed September 2008).

  17 “The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital,” University of Vermont, www.uvm.edu/giee/publications/Nature_Paper.pdf (accessed September 2008).

  18 Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing: Synthesis, 2005, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005.

  19 GEO 4, p. 202.

  20 “Clean Energy Investments Charge Forward Despite Financial Market Turmoil,” UNEP press release, June 2008.

  21 “Algeria Aims to Export Power—Solar Power,” CBS News, August 11, 2007.

  22 Alok Jha, “Solar Power from Saharan Sun Could Provide Europe's Electricity, Says EU,” The Guardian, July 23, 2008.

  23 “Algeria Plans to Develop Solar Power for Export,” Reuters, June 19, 2007.

  Thirteen SAVING THE CONGO FORESTS

  Information on the Congo Basin is gathered from a number of sources:

  Biodiversity, weather, and climate: “Congo Basin Forest Partnership,” USAID Sub-Saharan Africa; Alison L. Hoare, “Clouds on the Horizon: The Congo Basin's Forests and Climate Change,” Rainforest Foundation, February 2007; “Congo River Basin, A Reservoir of Biodiversity Threatened with Extinction,” IRIN, February 15, 2005; “Congo Basin Forest Fund: Why a Fund Is Needed,” see www.cbf-fund.org; “The Forests of the Congo Basin: A Preliminary Assessment,” USAID/CARPE [Commission des Forets D'Afrique Centrale], 2005.

  World Bank and businesses involved in the Congo Basin: Rory Carroll, “Multinationals in Scramble for Congo's Wealth,” The Guardian, October 22, 2002, citing Final Report of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (New York: United Nations Security Council, S/2003/1027, October 2003); “Forests in Post-Conflict DRC: Analysis of a Priority Agenda,” Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Centre International de Recherche Agronimique pour le Développement (CIRAD), World Bank, et al., 2007; William Wallis and Dino Mahtani, “World Bank Admits Congo Omissions,” Financial Times, December 6, 2007; Robin Heighway-Bury, “Deforestation and Double Standards,” Bret-ton Woods Project, October 5, 2007; Andrew W. Mitchell, Katherine Secoy, and Niki Mardas, “Forests First in the Fight Against Climate Change: The VivoCarbon Initiative,” Global Canopy Programme, June 2007; Erik Reed and Marta Miranda, “Assessment of the Mining Sector and Infrastructure Development in the Congo Basin Region,” WWF, January 2007; “Carving Up the Congo,” Greenpeace, April 11, 2007.

  Politics, gorillas, bushmeat, and charcoal industry: Sharon Begley, “Slaughter in the Jungle,” and “Congo's Gorilla Tragedy,” News week, August 6, 2007; also CIFOR/CIRAD, above; Keya Acharya, “Rainforest Coalition Proposes Rewards for ‘Avoided Deforestation,’” Environmental News Network, August 15, 2007.

  1 GEO 4, p. 208.

  2 “Major Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo,” BBC News, September 12, 2007; “Ebola Information,” Wildlife Conservation Society, www.wcs.org/sw-high_tech_tools/wildlifehealthscience/fvp/167620 (accessed September 2008).

  Fourteen THE AFRICAN FAMILY

  1 See Helen Epstein, “The Hidden Causes of AIDS,” New York Review of Books, May 9, 2002.

  2 Gumisai Mutume, “Workers' Remittances: A Boon to Development,” Africa Renewal 19:19 (October 2005).

  3 “Migration and Development Brief 5: Revisions to Remittance Trends 2007,” Development Prospects Group, Migration and Remittances Team, World Bank, July 10, 2008.

  4 See “Remittances to Africa Overtakes Foreign Direct Investment,” UN press release, December 7, 2005.

  5 Batonga Foundation, www.batongafoundation.org; George Weah, www.tlcafrica.com/weah.htm; Ayaan Hirsi Ali, ayaanhirsiali.org.

  6 Lydia Polgreen, “Trees and Crops Reclaim Desert in Niger,” International Herald Tribune, February 11, 2007.

  7 Peter Greste, “Lesotho Gardens Relieve Food Crisis,” BBC News, June 3, 2008.

  8 See Ashden International Award Winners, 2008, www.ashdenawards.org/international_winners_2008 (accessed September 2008).

  9 See www.wanep.org.

  10 See Stephanie McCrummen, “Rangers Battle Odds to Save Rare Gorillas,” Sydney Morning Herald, August 13, 2007; and Ndesanjo Macha, “Conservation 2.0: Congo Park Rangers Bring Global Attention to Endangered African Wildlife,” Global Voices Online, May 16, 2007, www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/05/16 (accessed September 2008).

  11 Hammerskjoeld Simwinga, Feliciano dos Santos, Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor: all winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, www.goldmanprize.org.

  12 Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, winner of the Right Livelihood Award, www.rightlivelihood.org/abdi.html (accessed September 2008).

  13 Rachel J. King, “Four African Freedom Activists Honored: Recipients Chosen for Efforts to Establish, Improve Democracy in Africa,” America.gov, June 28, 2006.

  14 See www.tac.org.za/community.

  15 See www.tegla.org.

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  Ayittey, George B. N. Africa Unchained: The Blueprint for Africa's Future. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

  Calderisi, Robert. The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

  Cheru, Fantu. African Renaissance: Roadmaps to the Challenge of Globalization. New York: Zed Books, 2002.

  Collier, Paul. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

  Easterly, William. The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid
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  .Economic Report on Africa, 2008: Africa and the Monterrey Consensus: Tracking Performance and Progress. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2008.

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  Evans, Gareth. The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2008.

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