empty sky

Middle Class Africa

2012-02-16T11:22:00.000+02:00

Awesome graphic from Believing in Africa So nice to be reminded from time to time that there is so very much more to this amazing continent than death, despair and hunger!

Link: AU leadership battle

2012-02-16T06:55:00.001+02:00

I don't know much about the AU leadership struggles beyond noting that Dlamini-Zuma has proved herself to be pretty competent as a Foreign Affairs Minister, particularly in Africa, and that a woman leading anything at the AU would be nice. Thanks to the internet, I have access to the ideas of people who know stuff. This great post from Opalo's weblog makes some interesting points.

WFP oversimplifies the Sahel

2012-02-13T08:36:00.000+02:00

WFP is very fond of bite-sized - or rather twitter-sized factoids to explain complex situations. Sometimes they are useful. Raising awareness by getting out there the fact, for example, that more poor children are dying because of poor nutrition and sanitation than anything else is useful. But sometimes it's a problem. This is a problem: 1. Why are people going hungry in the Sahel?The rains

Mermaids in Zimbabwe

2012-02-07T18:03:00.001+02:00

Sometimes Africa makes me a little sad (in a half-exasperated, half-amused kind of way): Essential work on planned reservoirs in Zimbabwe has stopped because mermaids have been hounding workers away, according to the country's Water Resources Minister. (full disclosure - source: Mail Online) On a completely unrelated point, Zimbabwe is still struggling with a typhoid outbreak. I wonder how

Typhoid in Zimbabwe

2012-02-01T08:00:00.000+02:00

Between 800 and 900 cases of typhoid have been reported in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, mostly in high-density areas. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights has criticised the government for what they see as a lack of urgency. State media initially seemed to be suggesting that food sellers might be to blame but the epidemiology and disease control section of the Ministry of Health

News in headlines - a lighter note

2012-02-01T06:14:00.000+02:00

Two headline gems from Times of Zambia (via AllAfrica.com): First Ladies Body Wants More Men Involved (As an aside, how exactly would you punctuate that?) And, an excellent example of reality cruelly reinforcing (generally) mistaken stereotypes about Africa: Relief to Villagers as Stray Lion is Captured

Swaziland crisis eases

2012-01-28T10:44:00.000+02:00

The crisis in Swaziland caused by a dramatic drop in income a couple of years ago appears set to ease as Swaziland looks set to receive around R7 billion from SACU in the 2012/2013 financial year. SACU revenue share is a major part of the Swazi government's income - this R7 billion is equivalent to roughly half of the country's national budget. The funds will allow the government to pay back the

IFAD loan for Malawi food security, fighting rural poverty

2012-01-27T11:17:00.000+02:00

IFAD will provide a US$22.85 million loan to Malawi to assist smallholder farmer to fight rural poverty and improve food security. Malawi is a small country with strong agricultural potential. Agriculture provides livelihoods for 85 percent of the country. Input support programmes have helped prevent widespread, deadly food insecurity in the last decade but financial instability after foreign

Poverty is relative

2012-01-27T07:04:00.000+02:00

Stereotype-breaking random factoids for Friday: This $32 billion, not million, is slightly more than four times the current budget of the government of the United Republic of Tanzania, which is less than $8 billion. The same amount is equivalent to 25 per cent of Angola's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), or half of Kenya's GDP. Nice little reminder of just

Niger hunger (again)

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000+02:00

In 2010 and 2011, I wrote a several times about Niger. The situation there caught my attention. It is one of the reasons I decided to focus my energies and my attention on food security. It's harder to write the second time around. Niger is back where they were a couple of years ago. With a better governance situation - a democratically elected civilian leader who has shown his willingness to

Zambian currency

2012-01-24T14:00:00.000+02:00

I swear I was just talking about this 3 months ago: The Bank Governor’s comments comes after Cabinet approved the rebasing of the Zambian kwacha by dividing the current notes by 1000.This will consequently result in the removal of the three zero’s from the denominations of K 1,000 kwacha and above.Therefore 1 000 , 5 000, 10,000 and 50 000 kwacha will become K1, K5, K 10 and K 50 respectively

Disaster and psychological disorders

2012-01-24T07:17:00.001+02:00

One of my favourite parts of studying abnormal psychology was the recognition that psychological disorders are just extremes of the norm. Diagnosis is a matter of recognising when everyday, ordinary personality and behavioural traits have become a problem. Okay, I'm oversimplifying but the point is that people who are not mentally ill have the same characteristics as those who are, just not as

Birth rates and migration

2012-01-17T09:12:00.001+02:00

It appears South Africa's birth rate is falling. According to the SAIRR, the birth rate will drop 17% between 2010 and 2040. Which they seem to think is a bad thing. Mostly because they fear that a birth rate below 'replacement level' will shrink the workforce, as well as increasing the dependency ratio because there will be a larger population over 65 (12% instead of 5%). Apparently the SAIRR

Angolan politics

2012-01-13T14:24:00.001+02:00

2012 is an important year for Angola. As well as general elections, the country will hold local government elections for the first time*. Voter registration is currently underway and awareness campaigns are planned. Elections are due to take place in September. It is to be hoped that the statement by the Mass Media Minister that must promote "Morally Uplifting Songs". I'm hoping that something

Farm inputs in Zimbabwe

2012-01-12T12:27:00.000+02:00

Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has distributed over 13 000t of fertiliser and 1000t of seeds to farmers around the country. This is under the Input Loan Scheme, which brings together three input schemes to ensure that farmers receive inputs on time. All this is good - more people growing food probably means that next year less than 1 million Zimbabweans will need food assistance.

Mozambique to get third mobile operator

2012-01-12T08:29:00.000+02:00

Mozambique's already highly competitive cellphone market looks set to welcome a third network operator, Movitel - a joint venture between the holding company of Mozambique's ruling party and state-owned (or possibly Defence Ministry-owned) Vietnamese telecoms company Viettel. Existing network operators, M-Cel and Vodacom are already locked in a price-war to try and secure market dominance. Mobile

African leaders not happy over South African ANC's birthday bash

2012-01-11T14:19:00.000+02:00

It appears several African leaders are furious over the way they were treated while attending the South African ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), centenary bash this past weekend. This line from the article: Security guards for President Yuweri Museveni from Uganda had to buy him some grilled chicken from Nando’s.I must say, the ruling party not being able to organise their own

Malawi court workers on strike

2012-01-10T11:05:00.000+02:00

Courts in Malawi were closed on Monday as judicial services workers began striking over working conditions and pay. According to an activist group, pay hikes of 40% and 60% were approved by parliament in 2006 and 2009 respectively but have not been implemented. Malawi is facing increasing economic pressure as the IMF holds up a green light on resumption of donor funding. Donors withdrew funds

Zimbabwe bans second-hand underwear

2012-01-09T06:51:00.000+02:00

I'm not sure why this only makes the news now (it was passed in December), but SA's Times Live just discovered it, so here we are: Zimbabwe's government has banned the import of second-hand undergarments, "whether purchased, donated or procured in any other manner". Taking advantage of the economic crisis, and the general poverty levels in Zimbabwe, enterprising people have been importing

Speaking of chickens...

2012-01-06T16:56:00.000+02:00

"Malawians are like chickens, they cry over simple issues. Are you telling me that the only problems you can cry about are forex and fuel? We have challenges of climate change, but where are they, where are the 'opposition' NGOs?" Mutharika queried while mimicking chicken cry. *This would be funny if the shortages of forex and fuel, coupled with maize shortages threatening to spread to many

Headline of the day

2012-01-06T15:35:00.001+02:00

Country to Be Self-Sufficient in Chicken By 2014Love African news! :) In other news, Mozambique is also considering imposing quotas on imported cement. Are they allowed to do that?

Zimbabwe teachers to strike

2012-01-06T11:31:00.000+02:00

Teachers' Unions in Zimbabwe have announced that their members will not report for work when schools open next week unless the government agrees to raise salaries to what they say is the basis minimum level needed for survival, as well as reconsidering housing and transport allowances. Mugabe met with civil servants last year and promised to double salaries using income from diamond sales. This

Stereotypes and Swaziland

2012-01-04T21:42:00.000+02:00

Mswati III has 13 wives and hosts an annual dance where he can choose a new bride from tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins.From a Guardian article (h/t Humanosphere) in which pro-democracy activists accuse Coca-Cola of being responsible for the plight of Swaziland because they pay taxes. But that's a whole different problem. This problem - with the quote - bugs me more right now. It

More food woes - West Africa and Sahel

2012-01-04T19:51:00.001+02:00

There has been lots of discussion (again) in the last few months lamenting the failure of the international community/NGOs/everyone to react to the clear early warning signals of the most recent famine in the Horn of Africa. This great (and depressing) HPN paper explores in more detail some of the reasons why good early warning information never seems to translate into early enough action in the

Food situation worstening in several S African countries

2012-01-04T16:46:00.001+02:00

Leave the internet for 3 weeks and everything falls apart. Ok, maybe not everything but the food situation in several Southern African countries certainly seems to have taken a dip from the quick skim I'm had time to manage. Swaziland used to be a net exporter of food, once upon a time in the 1970s. By 2010, 1 in 10 people in the country depended on food aid. Now, rainfall failures in the