Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

What is the Future of the FCFA Zone in West and Central Africa? Part III: Why UEMOA and CEMAC should be merged.

By Nfor Nwayuke Susungi

"Is the CFAZONE ready to stand on its own by severing the umbilical cord with the Operations Account? Can a country such as Cameroon go it alone? My answer to both questions is a definite NO."

How should the CFAZONE be reformed?

Against the background of crisis in the Eurozone and the possible (but unlikely) collapse of the Euro and the stable economic and monetary situation which currently exists in the CFAZONE,  with extremely low inflation, the question is in what direction should the CFAZONE chart its future?  Is the CFAZONE ready to stand on its own by severing the umbilical cord with the Operations Account?  Can a country such as Cameroon go it alone? My answer to both questions is a definite NO.

What is the Future of the FCFA Zone in West and Central Africa? Part II: The Maastricht Treaty and the CFA ZONE

By Nfor Nwayuke Susungi

The Maastricht Treaty of Economic and Monetary Union did not specifically address the relationship between France and the Franc Zone.  It merely recognized the national budget of each member state of the EC as a sovereign domain, subject to deficits being limited to less than 5% of GNP, which is one of the convergence criteria that must be met in order to qualify for EMU. However, since the convertibility of the FCFA was guaranteed through the budget of the French Treasury, which manages the Operations Account, the maintenance of the Franc Zone in its present form was not deemed to be in direct conflict with the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty.

What is the Future of the FCFA Zone in West and Central Africa? Part I: The Origins of the "Franc"

In a recent discussion on Facebook, spurred by recent rumors of a possible devaluation of the Franc CFA, the currency used by 14 Francophone African countries, I asked Dr. Nfor Susungi, a former senior official at the African Development Bank, the following question: "What do you make of the argument that governments in Francophone Africa are stubbornly clinging to the Franc CFA because of the (false) prestige factor (i.e., having a convertible currency), outright laziness, and risk aversion - too scared to go-it alone?" Here is the Part 1 of his three-part response.

Egypt: End Game Mubarak!

"In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic.He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor" - Vice President Omar Suleiman."

 

The Army As The Central Factor In The Success of "Street Revolutions"

By Dibussi Tande

In  a recent article on why the streets in sub-Saharan Africa have remained silent while massive anti-regime protests rock North Africa, the Christian Science Monitor posits that this is due to weak civil society organizations:
 

"Regime change is common in Africa, but it tends to come from the barrel of a gun and not because of street demonstrations, says Achille Mbembe, an historian at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. This means there are few organizations with the power to challenge the authority of rulers, to organize dissenters, and to articulate alternative ideas of government that ordinary people would be willing to give their lives for.

An Afternoon with FW De Klerk: A Talk About The Tansformative Power of Change

By Dibussi Tande

Last Friday, December 10, 2010, I had the privilege of listening to a talk by former South African President Frederick W De Klerk about the transformative power of change.


The former president had come to Chicago to talk about “the important lessons of negotiation, management of change, and leadership that led to the peaceful end of apartheid under his leadership,” with a focus “on the risks and sometimes leaps of faith involved in this fundamental agreement to bring lasting peace,” and “how his success can be translated into any organization's business model.”

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR): Seeking Justice for Victims or Imposing a Victor’s Justice?

By Dibussi Tande

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, is different things to different people. To some, it is merely a tool to assuage Western guilt for not doing enough to stop the 1994 Rwandan genocide; to others, the ICTR is a victor’s court designed to give a veneer of  
legality and legitimacy to the Rwanda Government’s one-sided narrative of the events leading up to and during the genocide – a narrative that makes a black-and-white distinction between the Tutsi victims on the one hand and the Hutu perpetrators on the other; still, there are others who believe that the tribunal’s mandate is a just and necessary one, i.e. to prosecute “persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994”. And there are yet others who view the court’s mandate and performance thus far in shades of grey.

SELLING AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE: Developing the Market for African Intellectual Property

ByDayo Ogunyemi

"Africans must lose any naïveté about how IP rights are managed and exploited in developed economies. Historically, African content creators have had a lack of awareness about the international market value of their IP creations as well as the complexities of copyright and contract law that govern their trade."

In the wake of the copyright / Intellectual Property controversy over the 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem, Scribbles from the Den republishes a very educaitonal article from 2003 in which Dayo Ogunyemi, who once ran an entertainment law practice in New York, argues that there is a dire need to raise awareness within Africa about the value of Intellectual Property (IP), and the remedies that are available when these rights have been violated. Read on...

Undermining African Intellectual and Artistic Rights: Shakira, Zangalewa & the World Cup Anthem

By Dibussi Tande

During a tour of Cameroon in 1975, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, met Tala Andre Marie, a budding Cameroonian blind singer and guitarist who had just released a funk number titled  Hot Koki. Tala gave him a copy of the record "to give him an insight into the kind of music being made in Cameroon". According to the Boston Globe, “Two years later, Brown dropped “Hustle!!!’’ –  with the same melody, beat, and arrangements, only with English lyrics.” Tala and his music label, Fiesta Records, gathered a team of lawyers who filed a law suit in the United States. After a drawn out battle that lasted four years, an American court concluded that James Brown had indeed used Tala’s song without authorization. Tala says there was very little financial fallout from the case, with the bulk of the money going to the lawyers. Tala nonetheless contends that it was a huge moral victory and good PR.

The Presentation - State of Social Justice & Digital Media in Africa

The State of Social Justice and Digital Media in Africa

View more presentations from dibussi.

The State of Social Justice and Digital Media in Africa

Summary of a Keynote address delivered by Dibussi Tande at the Highway Africa Conference's "Digital Citizen Indaba", Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Republic of South Africa - September 5, 2009 (Orginally published on the Highway Africa Blog)

We just heard the opening keynote talk by Cameroonian blogger Dibussi Tande (he blogs at Scribbles from the den), who talked about “The state of social justice and digital media in Africa”. Below is a summary of his talk from the Digital Citizen Indaba website:

Equatorial Guinea - "Once Upon a Coup" Airs on PBS Today (Preview)

A failed coup attempt…a British mercenary in a notorious African prison…a dictator suspicious of Western powers…and beneath it all, a spectacular underwater oil reserve that the world’s major powers would love to get their hands on.

It may sound like the latest John LeCarré bestseller, but in fact it’s the real-life intrigue of Once upon a Coup, WIDE ANGLE’s penetrating look at the mysterious goings-on in Equatorial Guinea, a tiny West African nation newly rich with oil and infamous for corruption. The story begins in 2004, when a group of mercenaries, including a British ex-special forces officer named Simon Mann, is arrested in Zimbabwe.

Mediating election-related conflicts in Africa

 By Christopher Fomunyoh. (Center for Humanitarian Dialogue Background Paper, July 2009)

Excerpt:

Beyond major conflicts in Africa over the territorial integrity of states such as Sudan and Somalia, many recent conflicts on the continent are ignited by grievances over bad governance and exclusionary political practices. In many cases, flawed or failed elections have either precipitated political disputes or aggravated simmering tensions into an outburst of conflict. For example, in the last five years, violent conflicts have ensued from the competition for political power in Africa as demonstrated by dramatic election-related crises in Ethiopia, Kenya and Zimbabwe.1 While the magnitude of hostilities in all cases may not rise to the level of armed conflict or civil war, invariably, many lives are lost, property destroyed, societies are further polarized and democratization efforts are either stalled or reversed. In some cases, intense and long drawn-out disputes over electoral processes and outcomes raise questions about the legitimacy of the winning party and candidate through the duration of that candidate’s term of office.

Barack Obama - Africa Has Not Yet Fulfilled its Potential

"But for all the progress that has been made, we must surely acknowledge that neither Kenya nor the African continent have yet fulfilled their potential - that the hopefulness of the post-colonial era has been replaced by cynicism and sometimes despair, and that true freedom has not yet been won for those struggling to live on less than a few shillings a day, for those who have fallen prey to HIV/AIDS or malaria, to those ordinary citizens who continue to find themselves trapped in the crossfire of war or ethnic conflict." President Obama

As Africa anxiously waits to see how/if US policy towards Africa will change under the Obama administration, the following speech delivered in 2006 by then Senator Barack obama at the University of Nairobi in Kenya gives us a rare insight into the President's views on corruption, ethnic politics and patronage in Africa.

Obama and Africa: Change and Changelessness in US Foreign Policy

Dibussi Tande

"In spite of all the rhetoric about change, American foreign policy has been consistent over the years. It has been more of a gardening exercise than an act of bulldozing; a phenomenon described as the "change and changelessness" of US foreign policy."

President Obama's admonishment of those leaders "who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent" during his inaugural address has been widely interpreted in Africa to mean that, unlike previous US administrations, the Obama administration will go after leaders who oppress their people, violate human rights and prevent the growth of genuine democracy. In fact, in the past week, African newspapers, blogs, and internet forums have been replete with gleeful commentary announcing the impending discomfiture of those African dictators who refuse to "unclench their fists".

How The Obama Campaign Harnessed the Power of the Internet

By Matthew Fraser & Soumitra Dutta (Originally published in The Guardian)

He may be older than most Facebook users, but Barack Obama understood the potential of social media to communicate and to raise funds - and left his 72-year-old opponent floundering

As the musician Brian Eno noted on the BBC's Question Time this week, Barack Obama's triumph was the first US presidential election that was won on the internet. While most pundits focused on the question of race, one largely overlooked factor was his powerful techno-demographic appeal.

Bref Sejour

Mimboland News Agency: President Longstay of the Republic of Mimboland returned to the country today after a 43-day visit to Europe which official media coyly described as a "bref sejour" - a brief visit. This was president Longstay's fifth bref sejour to Europe and America this year, and yet another demonstration of the Mimboland leader’s "governance by remote control" which he has perfected into a science.

Bref Sejour

It's been a lifetime since he left
for a bref sejour across the seas
In his absence the people grope for survival
like drunken sailors staggering in a dark alley
wishing they had a steady and trusted hand
to guide them through these turbulent times
But this matters little to the Prince
For he knows that upon his return
The docile and groveling masses
Shall welcome him with open hands
grateful that he deigned to return
once again to their cursed land
for yet another bref sejour

Mimboland is a (not so) fictional African country created by novelist Francis Nyamnjoh. The leader of the "land of Mimbo" is president Longstay who is clinging onto power against the wishes of Mimbolanders. Here are some of Nyamnjoh's books set in the land of Mimbo.

Reversing the Brain Drain – The Example from Nigeria

By Nick Tattersall (Originally published in The Washington Post)

LAGOS (Reuters) - From cocktails with hip-hop stars to sushi with smooth-suited bankers, it's no wonder Nigerians moving back after decades in New York or London feel right at home among the high-rolling elite of Lagos.

This urban sprawl of 14 million people, the chaotic hub of Africa's most populous nation, may epitomize what many foreigners fear most about megacities in the developing world: violent crime, corrupt police and crumbling infrastructure.

An Insider Account of the Failed Coup in Equatorial Guinea

Originally published in The Independent

He was recruited to film Simon Mann's private army as it seized power in Equatorial Guinea. Instead, documentary-maker James Brabazon found himself embroiled in the most notorious failed coup of modern times. Here, he tells his story.

A man is hanging naked from the ceiling by a meat hook. His feet are bound, but his mouth is open – screaming a confession. He is surrounded by half a dozen soldiers in ragged uniforms whose fists are caked in his blood. Unsatisfied, they taunt him in a language he doesn't understand, as a rifle butt is thrust into his groin. His name is Nick du Toit. He is a South African mercenary, and one of my best friends.

In his final bout of punishment, the air fills with the bitter-sweet tang of roasting meat. It's his own flesh that's burning. Under the flames that spring from the soldiers' cigarette lighters, the fat on the soles of his feet spits and crackles. Opened wide by pain, his eyes gulp in the horror of the concrete cell he's strung up in.

Letter from Zimbabwe: "We have the right to choose our own leaders"

"...we have the right to choose our own leaders; we have the right to a bright and positive future; and we have the right to insist on our rights. We are not criminals and we are not bad people. We do not deserve the life Mugabe and his regime impose on us"

It’s hard to believe that the night before last the news was buzzing insanely with stories that Mugabe was on the brink of stepping down and going.

Tonight the news has swung like a pendulum with talk of a Mugabe crackdown against the opposition beginning. We saw him on TV seeing off the AU observers and almost immediately afterwards (like two fingers thrown up to the world) the news switched to the MDC MT officies being raided and riot police at the Meikles Hotel: apparently Tendai Biti, the MDC MT Secretary General was staying there.