Africa issues.
1. How to reorder colonial experience: The case of land in Zimbabwe
2. Conflict diamonds
3. FGM
4. Food security
5. Education & Digital divide
6. Rural Transport
The Political Third Rail Supporting Muslim issues this campaign season could end many a political career. Just ask Cynthia McKinney . [
http://www.msnbc.com/news/798208.asp]
Zimbabwean farmer Alan Burl expects the drought to cause 'catastrophic' starvation in southern Africa
`This Is My Home'. An evicted white Zimbabwean farmer explains why he won't leave the country of his birth
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
Aug. 22. Alan Burl is a second-generation farmer in Zimbabwe. He grew up on Mushangwe Estate in the Ruzawi River area, about 70 miles east of the capital, Harare, and led the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union from 1989 to 1991.
BURL, 55, was one of some 2,900 white farmers ordered off their land on Aug. 8 as part of a radical government land-expropriation program.
About 200 farmers have since been arrested for refusing to comply with the new law, which has drawn criticism from political leaders around the world. Earlier this week, senior U.S. State Department officials used some of their strongest language yet to condemn the Zimbabwe government, saying that President Robert Mugabe won re-election through a "fraudulent?vote last March and that his policies were helping to spread starvation through drought-stricken southern Africa. "It is madness to arrest commercial farmers in the middle of a drought when they could grow food to save people from starvation", Andrew S. Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told reporters in Washington.
Although Burl is one of the farmers who have moved to another home, he was charged last week with violating the eviction order because his employees continue to tend his 300 cattle and operate his equipment on the land. Burl says police issued him the summons last week when he went to them to complain of the theft of a $1 million irrigation pump from his property. The evening after he and seven other local farmers were arraigned in a local magistrate's court, he spoke with NEWSWEEK's Tom Masland. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: What happened in court on Wednesday?
Alan Burl: We were remanded on bail of 5,000 Zimbabwe dollars [less than $100] and ordered to come back Sept. 4. And we were ordered to take all our movable property off the farm by the 31st of August.
Were there other conditions?
"We can only go back onto our property with police escort. But I got a special dispensation for my cattle. The magistrate understood that there's nowhere else to move them because so many farms are affected. The only answer would be to slaughter them all, and he accepted that this wouldn't be wise."
Is this the end of the road for you?
"No. We'll be able to argue our case at the next hearing. And actually it's quite wise right now to move your assets, to keep them from being stolen. There's wholesale theft taking place all over the country. As the economic crisis hits people, they're turning to helping themselves to whatever they can steal. The farmers can't operate, the police are overwhelmed, and it has opened the gateway for thieves. They're taking electric motors, or bales of tobacco or bags of corn-whatever they can take. I'm looking for a place to store my equipment. That's what most people are doing-holding on to it. If we're allowed to carry on, then we'll move stuff back on once there's law and order."
Who are the thieves?
"It's impossible to say for sure. [Black settlers who farm on part of the property] had no income. It was a disaster. Maybe they make more money by selling electrical goods, or irrigation piping. They're rolling up fencing. The settlers will blame the farm workers. It might be neither. It might be just professional thieves from the town. Unemployment is huge, food is short and people have to keep themselves alive somehow. "
What will become of your employees?
I don't know how they face the future. Now they don't have a job. We probably have 500 people on our property. We had enough grain stored for two years for them. But some of the settlers took angle grinders, they cut the locks off the doors and they must have taken one year's grain away. We also had lost our big pump, for our drip-irrigation scheme. Three nights before that we lost almost half a million [Zimbabwean] dollars worth of processed tobacco that was waiting to go to the auction floor.
Is it the same all over the country?
No, the situation is incredibly confused. The bail conditions vary from area to area. In some areas the farmers have been instructed they have to stay on their farms until the Supreme Court rules [on whether the expropriations are legal]. Some magistrates imposed no bail.
How are your relations with those on your land?
The first [black] settlers arrived two years ago. The ones that are wanting to farm I don't have a problem with. I dipped their cattle, and I still pump all the water they need. But when politics is involved it can turn very ugly. Just after the presidential elections [last March], 80 people broke into our house. They smashed the doors down. They took all the food out of the deep freeze and the fridge, anything that was in the liquor cabinet they drank; they helped themselves to our cell phones and calculators. The police eventually came after seven or eight hours. We've never been harmed physically.
You're not ready to call it a day?
I'm born here, this is my home. I intend to stay here. These are interesting times. It's actually unbelievable what has happened. We've got to get through it. I don't know how it's going to end.
What's your own prediction?
Let me tell you, if there's another drought this year, it's going be horrendous. The entire production of the settlers that were on my farm this year didn't amount to half a percent of what we normally produce. And normally when there are floods in Europe, there's drought in southern Africa. It means the jet stream has come deeper toward the Mediterranean. So my prediction would be that this coming year might not be a good one. And then [hunger] is going to be catastrophic.
(c) 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
War on `blood' diamonds ramped up
New EU move may stem flow of illicit stones in war-torn Africa
Diamond prospectors sift through the earth in the Corbert mine in Waiima, Sierra Leone in this file photo from May 2000. The enormous wealth buried in the dirt in certain Southern African countries continues to fuel horrific civil wars on the continent.
By Ursula Owre Masterson
MSNBC
NEW YORK, Aug. 21. When U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan heads to southern Africa this weekend, he'll no doubt have to face, among other issues, the ongoing scourge of "blood" diamonds, which have fuelled decades of brutal wars in countries like Angola, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. But thanks to recent peace negotiations and a decision by the European Commission this month, Western governments and the diamond industry are one step closer to cutting rebels and their smuggled stones out of the $7 billion a year world diamond trade.
FOR YEARS, the international diamond industry has operated with few rules or regulations to ensure that the sparkling gemstones that end up in Madison Avenue boutiques, American malls, and jewelry shops across Europe don't fund conflict in the African regions where many are mined.
According to the industry, between two and four percent of global diamond production consists of "blood" or "conflict" diamonds, and although it is hard to say exactly how many innocent lives have been lost as a result, human rights groups tracking the illegal trade say that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in various wars fuelled, in part, by diamond profits.
LAUNDERING DIRTY STONES
The United Nations has pointed to warring factions, who launder rough diamonds by sending them to the world markets in Europe through third countries like Gambia, which has no diamond mines of its own to obscure their true origin. Rebels then use the proceeds from such illicit diamond sales to buy arms. In places like Sierra Leone, rebels often use barbaric means, hacking off the arms of women and children to scare them away from mines where rebels are operating.
'Dateline' Invesigates: Diamonds of Conflict. (see below).
Now, however, recent peace negotiations in Congo and a new resolve on the part of Western governments, including the United States, and diamond industry leaders offer hope that this source of rebel funds may finally be cut off for good.
In mid-August, the European Commission, the European Union's executive body, announced plans to put into EU law a set of rules now known as the "Kimberly Process." Agreed on by diamond producers and traders two years ago, the international policing system would make countries issue official certificates of origin for all rough diamonds.
"our business is tainted in any shape or form, or has the slightest connection to the killing of women and children, why would any sane industry not do everything it can to get rid of it?"
ELI IZHAKOFF. Chairman, World Diamond Council
Newly designed shrink-wrap packaging and non-forgeable certificates would allow the movement of uncut stones to be traced. Under the EU plan, any diamonds without a certificate would be refused entry or confiscated.
The proposed regulation would require the approval of 15 EU member states before going into effect, probably by the beginning of next year.
EU MOVE APPLAUDED
Human rights groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) following the Kimberly Process from its inception welcomed the new development.
"This means that Europe is taking the issue seriously,?said Ian Smillie, project coordinator for Partnership Africa Canada, a coalition of NGOs committed to stemming the flow of "blood" diamonds. "It's a positive step on the way to getting the Kimberly Process in place, and it covers a lot of countries.?
Diamond-rich sections of Africa have become prime targets for rebel takeover, in part because the gems are so easy to trade for arms.
Sierra Leone
Rebels fighting Sierra Leone's government continue to hold much of the diamond rich interior. International agencies say diamonds have enriched rebel leaders and are traded for money and guns.
Angola
Angola's decades-old civil war is fueled not only by diamonds but by oil as well. UNITA rebels, once backed by the CIA and South Africa, continue to control diamond regions and fund their war by trading for arms, particularly from Ukraine and Bulgaria.
Rwanda, Zambia, Congo
A three-year-old war over Congo's gem-filled territory has drawn Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia into a complex and deadly conflict. Gems help fund rebels in Congo as well as their foreign backers, and violence in Rwanda and in neighboring Burundi.
Amboka Wameyo of the British-based development agency ActionAid also applauded the EU move, saying that despite the seemingly small percentage of such diamonds on the market, "the number of people that have actually died because of conflict diamonds is huge.?
The diamond industry itself, which has played a pivotal role in the development of rules to stamp out the scourge, called the latest European moves "significant and positive.?
"We've been waiting for this a long time," said Eli Izhakoff, chairman of the World Diamond Council, the industry's organization in charge of developing and implementing a tracking system for "conflict" diamonds. "Given that Europe has both Antwerp and London (the world's largest diamond importing hubs), if we get the EU passing this type of legislation, it will set the tone for all countries to take part.?
The industry has incentive to be part of the change, or risk its reputation ?and potential profits.
"The symbol of love and happiness in America should not be paid for with the blood of Africans."
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-ILLINOIS)
"This is our livelihood", he added, "If our business is tainted in any shape or form, or has the slightest connection to the killing of women and children, why would any sane industry not do everything it can to get rid of it?"
U.S. TAKES ACTION
The new public awareness of "blood" diamonds has pushed U.S. lawmakers into action too: "The symbol of love and happiness in America should not be paid for with the blood of Africans,?said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) as he proposed the "Clean Diamonds Act" on Capitol Hill earlier this summer. If passed, the bi-partisan bill would, like the latest EU proposals, back up the Kimberly Process by banning the import and sale of "dirty" diamonds across the United States. "Our legislation says `if you can't prove to U.S. Customs agents that your diamonds are legitimate, take your business and your diamonds elsewhere,'" Durbin said.
According to the diamond industry, Americans buy more than 65 percent of the world's diamonds in the form of engagement rings and other jewelry, so the proposed law could have a considerable impact on the illicit trade.
BATTLE FAR FROM WON
But as rosy as the proposed new legislation on both sides of the Atlantic sounds, the NGOs involved, including Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, and ActionAid, warn that, despite good intentions, the battle against "blood" diamonds is far from won.
"Getting the Kimberly Process implemented is a positive step," said Partnership Africa Canada's Smillie, "But the system will not be worth the paper it's written on if there's not an inspection system in place. You have to be able to monitor it ?and enforce it. If a country like Gambia just rubber stamps these diamonds, it will do no good.?
Tormented Sierra Leone
ActionAid's Wameyo agreed, saying that the lack of independent monitoring and the potential for non-signatories to continue laundering dirty diamonds were serious loopholes.
NGOs and the industry are also concerned that the proposed U.S. legislation will founder because of Washington's current preoccupation with the war on terror and the economy.
Overall, however, the World Diamond Council's Izhakoff says the current level of unified determination to stamp out blood diamonds is what's most important, at least for the time being.
"Let's do this incrementally and see how it works first," he says. "I think that once the system is in place, with the vigilance of NGOs and caring countries, we'll make sure it's a fool-proof system and a tremendous deterrent to anyone who wants to play deadly games.?
MSNBC.com's Ursula Owre Masterson is based in New York. Reuters contributed to this report.
NBC News
NEW YORK, July 1. For centuries, diamonds have been a symbol of love. But in some parts of the world, they've become an instrument of war. They're called "conflict diamonds??sold to pay for armies terrorizing some of the poorest people on earth. Human rights groups have been trying to halt the trade, and many jewelers will tell you they try not to buy or sell conflict diamonds. Should you believe them? Dr. Bob Arnot reports.
"IF YOU HAVE a glass of wine tonight, you're going to know exactly where that bottle of wine came from. Why shouldn't you know where that diamond is coming from? ", says Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio.
Almost anything you buy, running shoes, furniture, groceries, comes with a label telling you where it's from. Why not diamonds, perhaps one of the most expensive items you'll ever buy?
"There's no paper trail," says Hall. "There's no system to stop conflict diamonds."
Conflict diamonds are diamonds that are financing wars in Africa and costing millions of innocent people their lives and limbs. Hall says the only way to stop this bloodshed is to stop buying diamonds from these war zones.
"You should ask the question, `Where is this diamond from?", says Hall. "If that jeweler says, `I don't know,?don't buy a diamond there until he finds out.?
But how do you find out? Right now, after a diamond is cut and polished, there's no way to know. For the past three years, Hall has pushed legislation so consumers can make sure the diamonds they are buying are not linked to human suffering.
July 2, Video, shot secretly, captures a street teaming diamond vendors.
In Sierra Leone, rebels - funded by diamond profits - have waged a campaign of terror, hacking off the limbs of civilians.
In Angola, again, diamonds are paying for weapons in fighting that has driven millions of people from their homes.
And the biggest losses are in the Congo ?it's estimated that in the last three years, 2.5 million people have lost their lives because armies are fighting over the country's diamonds and other mineral resources.
"If you didn't have diamonds in the Congo, you wouldn't have this war," says Alex Yearlsey of the London-based Global Witness, a human rights group that has brought international attention to conflict diamonds.
Diamonds in the Congo are the major resource, the major reason, the conflict has been going on for so long. When "Dateline" visited, we saw a little girl, Vamilia, who was shot in the leg and had seen her parents killed in front of her.
It's important to keep in mind that not all diamonds cause despair. The majority of diamonds are clean and even benefit the countries that produce them. But conflict diamonds are a significant number.
In the United States, whether it's the 15 percent that the human rights groups claim or the 4 percent the diamond industry asserts, sales of conflict diamonds adds up to well more than $100 million. Although it's not illegal to buy or sell conflict diamonds in this country, the United Nations and the United States have imposed some import bans and humanitarian groups have expressed outrage, all pressure that the jewelry industry is well aware of.
"We're working so hard for a meaningful solution to this problem," says Matt Runcie, who heads the Jewelers of America, a trade organization of 11,000 jewelry stores.
Runcie says no jeweler can make any guarantees until a system is in place to make sure diamonds are clean.
"The truth is, however, that today, retail jewelers in America cannot provide the complete assurance that consumers have every right to seek in connection with the sale of an individual diamond,?says Runcie.
`DATELINE NBC' INVESTIGATES
So what are jewelers telling customers who ask about conflict diamonds? "Dateline" went on a shopping trip with hidden cameras to find out. We visited Tiffany's, Cartier and Harry Winston, three premiere diamond sellers on New York's Fifth Avenue. They were all willing to tell us about color, clarity and carat size, but listen to what happened when we asked where the diamonds were from.
At Tiffany's, one saleswoman told us just what the Jewelers of America advises its members to tell customers. "We make every attempt possible not to buy from anyone that would purchase from those areas," she says.
Dateline: "So you can't really guarantee it"
Tiffany saleswoman: "No one can."
But a few feet away at the same Tiffany's store, a salesman did assure us that we were not about to buy conflict stones.
Tiffany salesman: "We only buy from reputable dealers and diamond-cutting markets."
Dateline: "So the Congo and Sierra Leone, no."
Tiffany salesman: "No."
And just down Fifth Avenue at Cartier, we were told by two saleswomen that we were not buying diamonds from war zones - - again, a claim we were told no jeweler can make.
Cartier saleswoman: "We don't buy from them."
Second Cartier saleswoman: "We don't get diamonds from there, I don't think."
Our next stop was Harry Winston, who is famous for outfitting stars for the red carpets at the Oscars and Golden Globes. The founder's nephew told us the store would not tarnish its image by selling conflict diamonds.
Winston salesman: "No, we have no part of that. I know what you're talking about."
But can he really be sure? Like most retailers, Harry Winston gets its diamonds from wholesalers whom the company won't identify but who buy diamonds around the world and bring them to the United States.
Besides Winston, "Dateline" contacted half a dozen other retailers, and they all said basically the same thing, their wholesalers assure them the diamonds they're getting are clean. Should those assurances give jewelers and consumers the confidence that the diamonds they are buying are conflict-free?"
Just up the street from Harry Winston, our undercover team went to a international wholesaler, Cora Diamonds, which cuts and polishes rough diamonds in New York.
First, a leading salesman bragged about Cora's A-list customers.
Cora salesman: "Winston. I mean all the jewelers."
But what he told us next really got our attention. We asked if he had any stones from Kisingani in the heart of Congo's war zone. At first, he said no.
Cora salesman: "No, we do not. No, No. I don't know if it's so PC to have things from Kisingani today."
But then he said, "We have an office there."
Dateline: "In Kisingani"
Cora salesman: "Yes."
Dateline: "So you can still get stones out of there?"
Cora salesman: "Well, yes. We can get stones out of there. But it's a bit problematic."
By anyone's definition, diamonds from Kisingani are conflict diamonds. When we later contacted Cora, the same salesman told "Dateline" that the company does not have any offices in Kisingani and does not deal in conflict diamonds. He also declined a request for an on-camera interview.
We also received a letter from the company's lawyer saying the salesman may have been referring to a separate company owned by relatives of the owner of Cora, which once had offices in the Congo. But in a second letter, the lawyer said he was mistaken, the relatives had no offices in the Congo. And, he said, neither company deals in conflict diamonds.
The downtown of Kenema, Sierra Leone, is lined with diamond merchants. Control of the diamond areas is the main issue in the brutal 10-year civil war in this west African country that has killed or maimed hundreds of thousands of people.
So who is buying these stones? We decided to find out for ourselves. We borrowed two rough, uncut diamonds from a dealer who told us they were worth about $1,000 and, more important, were from Sierra Leone, where diamonds have taken a terrible toll.
Then, we went to Manhattan's 47th Street, the largest diamond district in the United States, with hundreds of wholesalers and retailers. Thousands of rough and polished stones are traded and bought there every day. Business here is often done with cash and a handshake. Would anyone there care where the diamonds came from? We posed as middlemen, brokers ready to sell conflict diamonds.
At the first store, a salesman said he did not buy conflict stones but wasn't sure whether Sierra Leone was a conflict country.
Dealer: "I'll have to check that out and make sure it's OK."
The next dealers asked where the stones were from, and again we said Sierra Leone. But this time, it didn't seem to matter.
Dealer: "Sierra Leone. I thought so. I wasn't sure."
They offered us $800 cash for the larger stone.
Dealer: "If you want $800 in cash, tell me now, I'll give you the money."
Not only were they very interested in buying this stone; they wanted more.
Dealer: "The idea is not to one-time buy. They have access. I'd like to establish contact."
We took the stones to another dealer.
Dateline: "Buy diamonds?"
Dealer: "Yes."
After the dealer examined the diamond under an eyepiece, he also seemed eager to buy the stone. But he offered us only $200 because he said there was a crack.
Cash? He didn't seem to care where the diamonds came from, but he was interested in getting his hands on more of them.
"If you have a big package, you come talk about thousands of dollars," says the dealer.
If the industry can't be relied on to police itself, Rep. Hall says, it's up to the consumer to put pressure on jewelers to make sure the conflict diamonds don't make it into U.S. stores.
The congressman's bill, which would require certifying diamonds at the point of origin, has its supporters. Actor Martin Sheen recorded a public service announcement asking for support of the Clean Diamonds Act.
But Hall also has had his opponents. Despite its public statements about wanting to clean up the industry, for months the jewelry industry fought Hall's bill and backed another one.
"They went back on their word, and so they introduced a bill that was so weak that it would be better not to have anything in law than their bill," says Hall.
The biggest difference between the bills had been about diamond jewelry. The diamond industry wanted the legislation to cover only loose stones and not jewelry, the way the overwhelming majority of Americans buy their diamonds.
We asked Runcie of the Jewelers of America.
Dateline: "That is a $50,000 diamond. Is that diamond in your hand subject to your current legislation?"
Runcie: "Yes."
Dateline: "But if you take this diamond here and put it into a setting, this now becomes jewelry. Same diamond?"
Runcie: "Correct."
Dateline: But it's now jewelry. Is this included in your current legislation".
Runcie: "No, it is not."
Dateline: "So this could be imported into the United States as jewelry? It's exempted from your bill unless the president intervenes".
Runcie: "That's correct."
Under the jewelers' bill, conflict stones as part of jewelry would have been allowed in the country unless the president intervened ?a highly unlikely scenario.
At a press conference, Runcie said: "We realized that [we needed to come] together to create a solution."
But just weeks after our interview, Jewelers of America and the rest of the diamond industry changed their minds. They announced that they were all for including diamond jewelry in the bill.
"I thought hell would freeze over before we had a compromise,"says Hall.
There may be a truce Washington, but until the bill becomes law, consumers can't know for sure if the diamonds they're buying are helping countries prosper or fueling war.
"You know if you see people starve to death, if you see people hacked to death ?I tell you it frustrates you so much you want to do something about it," says Hall.
That compromise legislation was introduced recently. Supporters are optimistic that it will pass before the holiday shopping season.
http://www.woaafrica.org/Diamillen.htm
Peace and reconciliation
Conflict diamonds fund rebels in Sierra Leone
by Belinda Lamptey, WOA Intern
Diamonds may still be a symbol of love, but we should pause to imagine how many women suffered rape, how many limbs were dismembered, how much blood was spilled, and how many lives paid for those diamonds. These are "conflict diamonds" - diamonds that originate from areas controlled by rebels to fund military action against legitimate governments.
The stimulus for the conflict diamonds campaign has been Sierra Leone, but the issue applies to Angola and the Congo (DRC) as well. During the past decade, over 6.5 million people from these African countries have been chased out of their homes and villages by wars of greed.
Conflict diamonds have funded rebel leader Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone since 1991, enabling his men to wage war against the government of Tejan Kabbah. They intimidated civilians, especially in the north-east of the country, and early on turned to cutting off the hands of civilians. Their crude amputations later spread to feet, lips, ears and noses.
In Angola, conflict areas produced diamonds worth about $150 million in 1999, despite UN Security Council sanctions against their export the previous year. A Security Council report indicates that "diamonds had a uniquely important role within UNITA's political and military economy." In the DRC too, diamonds have been a key source of funding of the brutal regional war.
Conflict diamonds, the industry says, account for less than four percent of the world's $7 billion trade in uncut stones; human rights advocates estimate the figure to be closer to 25%. In either case, the inhumanity and atrocities associated with these diamonds are stunning. Thus, any steps to prevent conflict diamonds from reaching the US, which purchases 65% of the world's supply,. would undermine the capacity of rebel forces to fund their brutal wars.
Last year participants in a working group consisting of governments, industry and NGOs from some 38 countries - part of what has become known as the Kimberly Process - met in Belgium to seek ways to establish an international certification system that would keep all conflict diamonds from reaching the world market, while protecting those legitimate diamond producing countries like Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. This July, in Moscow, they approved the basics of such a system.
In the last Congress industry and advocates worked together on legislation that essentially prohibited the entry of conflict diamonds into the US by banning the importation of diamonds originating from countries that had not adopted an international system of rough diamond controls, but at the last minute the diamond industry withdrew its support of this Clean Diamonds Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Tony Hall.
This Congress began with both an industry bill and an advocacy bill. In late June, however, faith-based advocates and NGOs reached a compromise with the diamond industry that addresses most of our concerns with current legislation. The status this summer is that Senators Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold and Michael DeWine have introduced the Clean Diamonds Act (S 1084). The legislation will create a system to prohibit the US import of conflict diamonds and impose serious penalties upon those who trade in them. Given the endorsement by both the World Diamond Council and NGOs, this bill will likely render the industry bill (the Conflict Diamonds Act, S 787), sponsored by Sen. Judd Gregg, dead.
The House counterpart (HR 918, also entitled the Clean Diamonds Act) remains an active bill. Introduced by Reps. Hall and Frank Wolf, it was countered by a weak industry version known as the Conflict Diamond Act. The key bones of contention were that (1) the industry wanted to exclude jewelry, which worried advocates because it seemed to allow the possibility that RUF rebels in Sierra Leone might simply attach a cheap stud or ring to a diamond and thereby avoid these restrictions; (2) there was no time line for implementation in the industry bill; and (3) penalties were weak in their legislation.
The Senate compromise bill includes jewelry, provides a deadline (while allowing the President to grant extensions), and subjects violators to strong civil and criminal penalties, including confiscation of diamonds and the blocking of US assets. It spells out details of the certification system, while allowing for that system to be superceded by an international agreement if the US is a party to it. The bill authorizes $5 million to aid countries that have financial difficulties implementing the system of controls. It creates a presidential advisory commission, with equal membership to NGOs and the diamond industry.
Despite these encouraging developments, WOA and our colleagues believe conflict diamonds must remain a focus for advocacy. Only when the international certification is in place can we be sure that the diamonds purchased around the world are worth their value, not the life and limbs of innocent human beings.
A Millennial Campaign for Africa: Toward a just US policy
Time, December 3, 2001/Vol. 158 No. 23
The Last Rites: For centuries women have suffered in traditional African circumcision rituals. Now women's movements are trying to stop these dangerous ceremonies
BY SIMON ROBINSON/Nairobi
Kenyan Seita Lengila after her circumcision
Massita, 61, takes a piece of old cloth from her battered white purse, unfolds it and gingerly lays out seven miniature knives. The crude blades are nicked, the wooden handles worn. An older woman sitting next to her leans over and taps the knives twice with the fingers of her right hand, then touches her forehead. This is to avoid eye problems after looking at the knives, she says.
Massita picks up one knife and explains how it is used to remove the clitorises of young women. Her mother did the same job before her, she says. And her grandmother. "These are the very knives they used."
The World Health Organization estimates more than 100 million women worldwide have been circumcised, that is, had part or all of their clitoris, labia or vulva cut out. The practice, now commonly called female genital mutilation (FGM), is most widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the Horn of Africa, where up to 98% of girls are circumcised, and in Islamic populations in the continent's west. It is also found in Christian countries like Ethiopia and Kenya.
"It doesn't matter whether it's Christian, Muslim or whatever," says Zipporah Kittony, a Kenyan M.P. and chairman of the Kenyan women's lobby group Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (Progress for Women). "It's cultural and it's commonplace."
But attitudes toward FGM are slowly changing. In a quiet revolution, African women are beginning to speak out against the practice. Media campaigns linking such rituals to difficulties in pregnancy and AIDS have slowed the custom, especially in urban areas. The growing number of educated women has helped too.
In the countryside, success is coming not by abolishing coming-of-age rites altogether but by recognizing their importance and replacing the cutting with alternative rituals. "In some tribes you cannot become a mature woman unless you have come through the ritual," says Kittony, whose group has used alternative rites to reduce the incidence of FGM in some parts of Kenya by up to 15%. "So we teach these women to be role models rather than circumcisers. They teach the girls maturity, they counsel them."
An alternative rite of passage, which in one Kenyan language is known as circumcision through words, commonly involves a period of seclusion for the girls. Elder women teach them health issues including the dangers of aids and other sexually transmitted diseases. Sometimes a group of girls is taken to a local school or hall and shown films about the dangers of FGM. The week often ends with a party. "We are not against people's customs, we are against the cutting," says Traor-Dosso Mariam, secretary-general of the Ivorian Association for the Defence of Women's Rights, which encourages alternative rituals.
The idea is spreading. Last year more than 100 former circumcisers from across Africa grouped together and agreed to put down their knives and razor blades for good. Now they instruct rural women on health and childbirth. "We teach [the circumcisers] a trade that responds to their economic needs," Gambian Fatou Waggeh, an anti-FGM campaigner who was circumcised at 15 and is now 32, told a Rome conference in March. "[We] recognize that we must provide them with alternatives for training and [keeping their] power within the community."
GEORGE MURRAY/GALBE.COM for TIME.
Kenyan anti-FGM campaigners
Pressure for change is also coming from governments. At least eight sub- Saharan African nations including Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Senegal have passed legislation or announced presidential decrees banning FGM. Africa's courts are also getting tougher. In a historic ruling last December, a Kenyan court issued an order preventing a father from forcing his daughters, aged 15 and 17, to undergo circumcision. Women's groups across Africa applauded the ruling.
"You can talk to these women all you want about the human-rights side of it, or the danger to the girls. But it's the threat of being arrested that has an effect," says Drissa Kon? a 29-year-old community health worker in northern Ivory Coast. "Let one woman in this region be arrested for performing excisions, and watch how fast they stop doing it."
Still, prosecutions remain rare. And unless laws are strictly enforced they may even do more harm than good. In some places the threat of punishment has pushed the practice underground, leading to an increased possibility of botched operations. In Odienn, northwestern Ivory Coast, festivities surrounding the excision ritual are now modest affairs. "People used to hold great festivities," says Mabana Tour, 37. "Streets were blocked off, there was music and the girls would run around town all made-up and dressed in special clothes. Now, we might have a special meal together in the house, something much more discreet, because people are scared."
Elsewhere, elders continue to encourage circumcisions because the custom provides an important social and economic role. Families in the Sabaot tribe in Kenya, for instance, receive cows upon the circumcision of their first girl. And alternative ceremonies can cause problems of their own. Julie Maranya, coordinator of a Kenyan anti-fgm group, says that because young girls are being taught sex education as part of their alternative initiation, "they think they are now free to engage in pre-marital sex. That's why we have made many tiny mothers."
But as it slowly becomes more common for young women to shun circumcision, the heavy stigma of being "uncut" is fading. Ivorian Banassiri Sylla, 34, recalls the day 26 years ago when she was to be circumcised. "I remember the blade. How it shone! There was a woman kneeling over me with the knife. I bit her; it was all I could do. Then three women came to hold me down. One of them sat on my chest. I bit her with all my might." The women finally let Sylla go, but her uncut status was a mark of shame for her family. "Never, ever would I do this to my daughters," she says. "It strips a woman of her very womanhood."
Even circumciser Massita realizes the changing times. None of her daughters has shown an interest in taking up the family trade. When she dies, she says, she will have her knives buried with her.
With reporting by WANJA GITHINJI/Nairobi and NANCY PALUS/Odienn.
Copyright 2002 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
Links
FGM Research Home Page [
http://www.hollyfeld.org:80/~xastur/]
FGM [
http://www.path.org/why.htm]
Related Stories on FGM [
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/fgm.html]
FGM Updates & News [
http://www.hollyfeld.org/~xastur/news.html]
Feminology - Women's Resources on the Net [
http://galaxy.tradewave.com/editors/Stephanie-Walker/women.pages.html]This is a general resource cross-listed in the 'international issues' section above, repeated here because the politics & law section has a sub-page on female genital mutilation.
Women of Africa Resources [
http://www.lawrence.edu/~bradleyc/war.html] This site is cross-listed below in the African Studies section, repeated here for its links female genital mutilation.
Paper linking FGM, Male Circumcision, and Surgical Transsexuality [
http://www.usc.edu/Library/QF/papers/holmes.long.html] by S. Holmes
Female Mutilation Brought to the U.S. [
http://www.infomanage.com/women/fgm.html] The text of a column by influential editorialist Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe decrying female genital mutilation.
Point/Counterpoint: Gender-Based Criteria for Asylum [
http://www.wcl.american.edu/PUB/humright/brief/i33/ptintro.htm] Two articles debating whether FGM is sufficient grounds for political asylum in the U.S.; more detail in "domestic issues" below.
[
http://www.aufl.edu/asq/v6/v6i1a1.htm]
GENDER AND SOIL FERTILITY IN AFRICA: INTRODUCTION
Christina H. Gladwin
Abstract: Soil fertility is the number-one natural resource in Africa; yet its depletion on smallholder farms has led to stagnant or decreasing per capita food production all over Africa during the last two decades. Unexamined, except in this special edition, are the gender impacts of the soil fertility crisis in Africa. The papers in this issue, the result of a University of Florida project called "Gender and Soil Fertility in Africa, assume, if one generalization can be made about the diverse farming systems and multitude of cultural traditions in sub-Saharan Africa, that women farmers usually produce the subsistence food crops, while men produce export and cash crops. African women on small rainfed farms produce up to 70-80% of the domestic food supply in most sub-Saharan African societies and also provide 46% of the agricultural labor. However, women's food-crop yields are generally low -- too low by Green Revolution standards, and much lower than men's yields. The papers collected here examine different projects in Africa with respect to the different methods used to reach women farmers in order to improve their soils and increase their yields. Such methods include fertilizer vouchers and grants, microcredit, small bags of fertilizer, agroforestry and legume innovations, and increased cash cropping by women. Results demonstrate to African policy makers which methods work, and reach women farmers with different household compositions, so that they can reverse the alarming trend toward declining per capita food production.
[
http://web.mit.edu/africantech/www/articles/ComputerLiteracy.htm]
African Technology Forum. This article appeared in Volume 8, Number 1 of ATF.
Increasing Computer Literacy in Africa
Khaitsa Wasiyo *
In 1989, the Hasegawa family of the Kyoto Computer Gakuin (KCG) established the International Development of Computer Education (IDCE) program, a special program to expand computer education. Over the past six years, the IDCE program has donated almost 2,000 computers and provided computer instruction to countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America. IDCE, which has also been registered as a non-profit corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is headed by Yu Hasegawa, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. Her mother, Yasuko Hasegawa, presides over the KCG in Kyoto, where over 2,500 students study computer science. Founded by Shigeo and Yasuko Hasegawa in 1963, KCG was the first private computer institute to be established in Japan.
IDCE's launched its first project in Thailand by donating 300 8-bit personal computers. It was such a success that several projects have been completed in other developing countries. Hundreds of computers have been sent to secondary and upper level schools in Thailand, Ghana, Poland, Kenya, Peru, and Zimbabwe.
IDCE's goal is to widen access to basic computers for educational purposes in developing countries, where often there is no public access to computer technology. The program aims to increase basic computer skills and encourage computer education. The program is also a medium for encouraging cultural exchange between Japan and participating countries. Ms. Hasegawa says, "We believe that the spread of education in science and technology can be the key to a country's future economic independence and prosperity." Not everyone agrees with her, however. "I have been told that what Africa needs is not computers, but water and clothes and other necessities of life. But I think they need both. The African people have a great desire to learn and to utilize the tools of modern technology. I believe that if we provide the seed, this capability will flourish."
The IDCE Five Step Program
The program entails the following five steps:
1. KCG donates one to three hundred computers to the government of the participating country.
2. The recipient government is responsible for maintaining and distributing the computers to schools all over the country.
3. KCG provides instructors to the recipient country to teach an intensive course to selected teachers of the schools receiving the computers.
4. Local instructors are taught how to operate the machines as well as educational strategies useful for teaching computer skills. This is a two-phase instructional program. The first technical training is a 15 to 21 day intensive session in the recipient country, during which time local teachers learn the basic programming skills and tools. According to IDCE Curriculum Director, Mark Johnson, the goal "is to teach instructors how to think linearly like a programmer. Once this hurdle has been crossed, the rest of the course is a snap."
5. The second phase is a more intensive session that takes place at the Kyoto Computer Gakuin for a few trainees who excelled in the first phase. The session in Japan is an international joint training program with teachers from East Europe, Africa, and South East Asia. The instructors from Japan who had taught the graduates of the first phase in the home countries are available to welcome them and to continue this education process. There have been two joint training courses so far. In 1992, 40 people from around the world enrolled into this intensive program, living and studying together. In 1994, the joint training session was held in October as part of Kyoto's 1200th anniversary. The session involved over 40 teachers from Peru, Zimbabwe, Thailand, and Ghana.
After going through the five steps in the program, the recipient country establishes a computer education program at schools for the general public. KCG and the countries continue to work together in encouraging and supporting computer education.
Programs in Africa
To date, IDCE has conducted three successful programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.
Ghana
On May 29, 1991, Dr. R. G. J. Butler, the Director-General of the Council For Scientific and Industrial Research, said in a letter to IDCE, "Third world countries like Ghana are making all efforts to enter and compete in the computer age. This is particularly vital for the growth of the science and technology sector as well as for industry in these countries. In this regard, the donation of 200 computers by the Kyoto School of Computer Science in Japan is an important and laudable gesture. It will go a long way to facilitate the building up of Ghana's capabilities in computer science." Over 24 teachers from secondary schools and polytechnics enrolled in the first phase.
Although the basic steps of the program were completed in 1991, KCG and Ghana have continued to collaborate in the efforts to promote computer education. In 1993, the Ministries of Education and Science and Technology opened a computer center named after the president of KCG, Yasuko Hasegawa. At the opening ceremony, the Minister of Education announced the increase in the budget for computer education in Ghana. Since the project was so successful, it has also become a joint project with the Ministry of Education. In 1994, another phase of the project was implemented, involving one hundred 8-bit and 16-bit computers.
Kenya
The IDCE Kenya program-a national training workshop-was organized in a joint effort with the Kenya Industrial Research Development Institute. The secretary of the National Council for Science and Technology, Professor Ogallo, who officially opened the workshop, praised the donors for the 200 computers donated to educational institutions, 40 of which will be used during the workshop. The rest will be distributed to polytechnics, universities, and other educational institutions.
Several local teachers from Kenya had the opportunity to go to Japan for more intensive studies during the first international training program. The Kenya program has been applauded by Prof. Karega Mutahi, Kenya's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Research, Technical Training, and Technology. Dennis Ouma, MIT Kenyan graduate and program instructor, observed: "We started our teaching with a simple overview of the computer, and then moved on through programming and an overview of the operating system and basic software. It was designed to enhance their computer literacy and I think we really succeeded." In 1993, the basic five steps were successfully completed.
Zimbabwe
In November 1994, KCG completed the last step of the International Development of Computer Education program. Computers were well received by the Ministry of Education and distributed to several secondary and polytechnical schools in the country. The first phase of the program took place at the National University of Science and Technology, in Bulawayo.
I participated in this program as one of the three US-based IDCE programming instructors. The instructors met with the students every day for two weeks from 9 am to 5 pm, sometimes longer, and introduced them to the core concepts of BASIC, a programming language, and computer operating systems. There were students there who could program in COBOL, and FORTRAN, and others who had never seen a computer let alone touch one. And yet, it was the eagerness with which the teachers embraced the course that impressed me. I was amazed at how quickly the teachers progressed through the curriculum. Towards the end of the program, it was a pleasure to see them programming database sorting programs! During the ceremony, as I heard the teachers talking and laughing at the simplicity of their earlier struggles with programming assignments, there was a sense of empowerment and an appreciation for computer education.
Conclusion
At ceremonies in Thailand and Japan, the Minister of Education of Thailand, and the Ministers of Education and of Science and Technology in Ghana presented awards to Yu Hasegawa and Yasuko Hasegawa for founding the IDCE program, and to Wateru Hasegawa, Vice-President of KCG, for donating most of the computers.
The key long-term players in this program are the recipient countries. The program is most successful in a country with a government that understands and appreciates the value of computer education. Governments should be aware that teaching computer information processing skills are a basic requirement in education for young people, and not just for the corporate world.
The goals of IDCE are simple and yet will have a significant impact on the increase of computer literacy in African countries: IDCE intends to make education in science and technology available to the ordinary people. As Ms. Hasegawa says, "The spread of education in science and technology is the key to a country's future economic independence and prosperity, and we wish to participate in the promotion of global computer education by passing on our own experience."e;
Khaitsa Wasiyo is ATF's Director of Sales and Marketing.
African Technology Forum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
I n t e r n e t ..I s s u e s ..i n ..A f r i c a
By Anne Elliot, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, July 2000.
Some facts about Africa
Population: 780.000.000
Area: 30,500,000 sq km
Africa is the second largest continent and makes up a fifth of the earth's landmass.
It is divided into 53 different countries and comprised of several thousand different ethnic groups.
The Internet has been hailed as the key to a global community, where everyone can participate on equal terms and share in the prosperity claimed to be associated with it. Others see the Internet as implicated in the widening gap between rich and poor, both within individual countries as well as between the West and the Third World. The issue of the 'Digital Divide' is high on the agenda of institutions in the West. The World Economic Forum, for example, has set up a Digital Infrastructure Initiative to "help developing countries leverage the potential of communication, technology and knowledge tools necessary for participation in the knowledge economy" (2000, ibid.).
The interest in the utilisation of the Internet in Africa is demonstrated by what Wild and Sibthorpe call "the glamorous period of international meetings and press coverage" from 1996-1999, when no less than 23 conferences on ICT in, or relevant to, Africa were held (1999, section 5). With this level of interest, it is timely to ask what issues are associated with Internet use in Africa, what the potential benefits, if any, are, and for whom.
This essay will first discuss the Internet-related issue ranked as the most pressing in the literature, that of access. Second, consider the benefits, if any, to the African people. Third, examine three selected issues: education, literacy and censorship. Fourth, briefly discuss the relationship between culture and development. Last, conclude with a personal perspective on any perceived benefits.
It is acknowledged that there are many important and complex issues associated with the use of the Internet in developing countries, for example the right of access to information, but due to the limits of this essay, these will not been discussed.
2. Access Issues
"Over half of the total number of people on-line live in the United States or Canada, even though their combined populations represent less than 6% of the world's total."
World Economic Forum 2000
"Many developing countries lack the basic infrastructure for the information revolution: phone lines, electricity and literacy." World Economic Forum 2000
The barrier to benefits from the Internet in developing countries is the lack of access. In Africa, the greatest impediments are the limited telecommunications infrastructure, the cost of Internet calls and the lack of IT expertise.
Telecommunications Infrastructure
The lack of telecommunications infrastructure is demonstrated by the abundant statistical information available on every aspect of this, both in the print media and on the World Wide Web (WWW). Joyce-Hasham (2000), for example, reports that less than 5% of the world's population is on-line (p. 12). The BBC Online Network (1999) asserts that more than 80% of the world's population has never heard a dial tone and that fewer than 2% are connected to the Internet. Wrench (1998) notes that Africa has 12% of the world's population, but just 2% of its telephone lines (p. 295). With the shortcomings of and overwhelming interest in improving the disparity in the telecommunications infrastructure in Africa, why has the infrastructure not expanded? According to the African Development Forum (1999b), two of the major reasons for the slowness in infrastructure development are the poverty of national governments and their respective telecommunications policies. Burnheim (1999) agrees that state monopolies are obstructing telecommunications services by maintaining and extending inefficient state-owned telecommunications companies (section 3.2). In Ghana, for example, a change from state monopoly to permitting overseas investment in local telecommunications provisions has seen a 67% increase in telephone lines in the three years from 1996 to 1999. However, it has not brought telecommunications services to the rural areas, where more than 75% of the population live (Otabil & Mensah, 2000, p. 22). Burnheim (1999) agrees, that "many African governments would like to maintain sole access to revenue from the new technology" (section 3.2). Inefficiency and lack of customer service are other factors that affect both access and cost. It is reported, for example, that in Africa 1 million people are currently waiting for a telephone line to be installed.
Cost
The cost of Internet access in Africa makes it a medium of communication, which is out of reach for the majority of people. According to Burnheim (1999), "its outreach is largely confined to an educated and affluent elite living in the major cities" (section 4). Where countries have retained traditional, monopolistic telecommunications policies, people outside the major cities have to make a toll call to log onto the Internet. The African Development Forum (1999b) suggests that individual countries can introduce policies that enable all Internet calls to be at the cost of a local call. However, it is the very cost of local calls that constitute the largest part of the expense of maintaining Internet connectivity (section 5). It states:
In many countries where local calls cost upwards of US$4 per hour (in some countries as high as $10/hr), and for anyone dialling long distance, usage is usually restricted to email. There are numerous examples in Africa of organisations provided with an Internet connection that has lapsed due to lack of budget to pay the phone bill or usage charges. (ibid.)
Subscription charges by Internet Service Providers (ISP) constitute another barrier to Internet access and "for most people in Africa it is still prohibitively expensive to use the Internet" (ibid.). In 1998, the average cost of a low-volume Internet account in North America was under $20 per month compared to $65 per month for the lowest services in Africa. With the cost of local calls added, this figure is more than $100 (Panos, 1999, section 2.3).
A further cost, which limits access, is the high price of hardware and the import tax which apply to ICT equipment in most African countries. In some cases, peripherals such as modems are taxed at an even higher rate (African Development Forum, 1999b). Burnheim (1999) also notes that the cost of an average computer is 15 times the per capita GDP of Ethiopia (section 4.1).
IT Expertise
A lack of IT expertise, from maintenance to policy, is another limitation to access. Maintenance, repair and software troubleshooting is a major problem, especially in rural areas, where skilled IT technicians are scarce or non-existent. Jensen (1999) reports that many computers are old and often poorly maintained. Numerous computers are not repaired and therefore sit unused. The following quote is from a survey conducted in Mali: "Because it's a new technology in Mali, the equipment isn't repairable. Our modem is broken right now...there's no one to repair it" (Harcourt, 1999, p. 112). Banks (quoted in Lund, 1998) similarly reports "that recent political events in Sierra Leone had rendered the University's system 'completely inoperable', because the system's operator had fled to nearby countries" (p. 34).
This lack of access for the majority of Africans makes the Internet a medium of little direct relevance to most individuals.
3. Benefits?
The benefits of the Internet to Third World countries have been assumed by many organisations and agencies involved there in aid and development. Colle (1997) reports that in 1997, 69% of the World Bank's projects had "information components" (p. 1). Very large sums of money as well as expertise have been either lent to, donated or invested in ICT related projects by Western organisations. One may question whether it is altruism or commercial imperatives that drive the World Bank in its activities. In the BBC's annual Reith lectures, broadcast 28 May 2000, it was claimed that for every dollar invested in the Third World by the World Bank, the West makes three dollars. Schech and Haggis (2000) argue that development as a concept of the past has been absorbed by the globalisation process. They say that "privatization, free markets, and globalization of the economy are now seen to be the solution to problems of poverty and development" (p. 53). Panos (1998), however, suggests that "the Internet may have a greater social impact in developing countries than anywhere else" because many Non Government Organisations (NGOs) have provided low-cost networks there. The Association of Progressive Networks, for example, has "25 member networks [providing] vital links to over 50,000 NGOs, activists, educators, policy-makers and community leaders in 133 countries" (ibid.). This has meant that local organisations campaigning for democracy, social equality and protection of the environment have been amongst the best informed.
It appear, therefore, that benefits from the Internet so far arise mainly from its use by key people and groups more than by individual citizens.
4. Issues
"Two-thirds of the world's children have never used a phone." World Economic Forum 2000
Education
The Internet 'application area' that is of most interest to development agencies is education (Wild & Sibthorpe 1999, section 4), where the single biggest problem is enrolment at the primary level. It has been said that a child, whose mother has received 5 years of primary education is twice as likely to survive to age five than a child, whose mother who has not been to school. Watkins (2000) states that
In the midst of the information revolution, nearly a billion adults, one-sixth of humanity, are unable to read or write, and the numbers are growing...In sub-Saharan Africa, where more than half of adults are illiterate, countries with some of the world's lowest primary enrolment rates spend more on subsidising loss-making state-enterprises and higher education for the rich than on primary schools for the poor. (p. 23) The World Bank (1998) also reports that "240 million Africans live on less than $1 a day, have no access to safe water, and do not know how to read or write."
With this scenario, how can the Internet benefit education in Africa? Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computers, said, "I've come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What's wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology" (Panos, 1998, section 4). However, many organisations have already developed numerous projects using ICT to support education in Africa, mostly in post-primary education. Examples include the 'World Links for Development' project, which aims to link 1500 schools around the world electronically; the 'African Virtual University,' a $1,2 million World Bank project; and partnerships between several African universities and Western universities. The cost and benefits of such projects is questioned by an Ethiopian academic, who argues that many African professors at their salary of US$4,000 per year could have been employed for the amount such projects are costing (Panos, 1998, section 4.1). He adds, "in the end it is only Africans who can solve African problems" (ibid.).
Lund (1998), who investigated Internet access within universities in the developing countries of the Commonwealth, argues that
"...these technologies could present a considerable threat to developing country HEIs [Higher Education Institutions]. If they are not able swiftly to gain access to these communications, teaching and research tools, there is the danger that the North-South gulf between HE systems will grow even wider. (p. 1)
Lund found that Internet access within universities did not always constitute the kind of access now expected at universities in the West. Her research revealed, for example, that access at several institutions was "limited to the library and the Vice Chancellor's office" and that "29 of the 72 institutions with Internet access were using analogue telephone lines which severely limited their speed of access to data and the communications potential" (ibid., preface). At a university in Nigeria, Lund reports that "members of the university community are expected to type their message on diskette and give them to the system operator who then sends the messages. Incoming mails are also copied on diskette and printed. The mails are then sent to the recipients" (p. 34). Few academics in the West would consider this an acceptable form of communication for a number of reasons, including privacy and confidentiality concerns and the protection of intellectual property rights.
While the benefits of Internet use in education in Africa is limited to the few, there are examples of wider benefits, for example the possibility of reducing the dependence on imported training materials that do not meet local needs (African Development Forum, 1999a, section 3.1.3); providing distance education (ibid.); informing Africans about research findings in Africa ("Education in crisis," 2000); and allowing access to information and teaching resources otherwise not available. It has also been suggested that "the Internet has the potential to stem Africa's 'brain drain' by providing people with professional and educational opportunities at home" (Burnheim, 1999, section 2.2.2).
Literacy
Benefit to be derived from the Internet would seem to be dependent on ones ability to read and write. As mentioned above, Africa is the area of the world with the greatest number of people who cannot read and write sufficiently to be functionally literate. While the WWW increasingly includes images, the Web's ability to tell a story depends on the bandwidth available to the user. Bandwidth is a big problem in Third World countries, none more so than Africa. If access to receiving WWW content by satellite becomes widely available, it may make image-rich WWW content more generally accessible.
Email, which is the most readily accessible Internet function, is entirely text based and therefore of little benefit to those who are not literate. It is, however, the least expensive and most immediate means of communication for those who can read and write.
Censorship
The Internet has been hailed for its potential for democratic empowerment and the unobstructed flow of ideas and information. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) states that everyone should have the right to freedom of expression and access to information (Burnheim, 1999). The right to free speech is considered fundamental to democracy, but some political structures still see knowledge as a threat. In Africa, some countries have attempted to introduce restrictions on the use of the Internet. Most recently, the government of Zimbabwe introduced a new bill, the 'Postal and Telecommunications Bill', which gives the government wide-ranging powers to regulate what information is available via the Internet. The bill enables the government to issue licences, which require information on WWW sites to be submitted to the government for monitoring in the interest of 'national security' and 'law and order'. Under this legislation, ISPs can be fined up to NZ$9,000 or two years in jail. ("Mugabe," 2000, p. 19). It should be remembered that governments in the West also have attempted to control the Internet, something which is fiercely resisted by the Internet community.
Other Issues
Surprisingly, the literature makes almost no reference to the need for a reliable power supply for computers to run. Nor does the effect of heat, dust and humidity on computer hardware get any mention. In addition, where computers are operated in very hot (as well as in very cold) conditions, this is usually in an air-conditioned environment. These practical factors present a substantial barrier to Internet access in Third World countries, which are for the large part situated in the tropical and subtropical areas of the world.
5. Discussion & Conclusion
"One of the biggest challenges the global community faces as it enters the next century is to ensure that the benefits of the Internet and the information economy are more widely shared around." World Economic Forum 2000
Discussion
So far, practical and pragmatic issues such as access to and benefits from the Internet for developing countries have been discussed. The Internet has been treated a culturally neutral technology. Ihde (1992), however, argues that ICT is both culture-laden and asymmetrical. Schech and Haggis (2000) agree and go a great deal further. In their discussion about development and culture, they question what development is and in whose favour it operates. Using the work of Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, they argue that development is not a means by which global inequalities and power differentials can be addressed (p. 72). They assert that, in fact, it does the opposite: it produces "massive underdevelopment and impoverishment, untold exploitation and oppression" (ibid., quoting Escobar). The development discourse itself is rejected and a 'post-development' discourse sought, "a discourse which will emerge outside of, and importantly, in resistance to Western modernity, to embrace the knowledges, ways of living, and aspirations of those 'objects' of development discourse the poor and dispossessed of the Third World" (ibid.).
Conclusion
This essay has demonstrated that any benefits from the Internet to the poor or disadvantaged anywhere is dependent on their access. It has depicted Internet access and the benefits that can be derived from it in Africa as a complex issue of interest to many organisations within and outside of Africa. It has also suggested that the 'development', from which Internet access largely stems, is seen by some as a new form of colonisation. An outside observer may wonder if the vast sums of money spent on ICT in Africa is warranted in the face such sorely lacking basic human needs as clean water and food. While the 'tinkering' by the West is not likely to solve the problems of Africa, it is suggested that the Internet can indeed benefit the people, for example through the work of those NGOs, whose aim it is to support and empower the people to present their own stories to the world.
The last word is left to an African, Thapisa (1996), who asserts that
"Africa should not dread the encroachment of the Internet....It should enter the global information facility on its own terms...by carving out a niche for itself as a user and provider of information. It should give and take. That is, it should give to the world that which is uniquely African that is if there is still any left, and take what it needs. (p. 77)
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Available:
http://www.weforum.org/centres.nsf/Documents/Home+-+Centres+-+Global+Digital+Divide+Initiative.
Wresch, W. (1998). Information access in Africa. The Information Society, 14,
p. 295-300.
[
http://web.mit.edu/africantech/www/articles/cycle.html]
African Technology Forum. All rights reserved. This article appeared in Volume 7, Number 3 of ATF.
The Cycle Trailer in Ghana: A Reasonable But Inappropriate Technology
Mohammed Salifu *
Women, in addition to performing their elaborately defined household chores, also constitute the backbone of agricultural production in the rural areas of Ghana. But a large percentage of their time and effort is spent on transportation because they have few alternatives to the strenuous practice of headloading. Some recent programs have been developed to equip women with appropriate technologies that alleviate this transport burden.
This article discusses the experience of the cycle trailer technology which was designed to reduce headloading. Factors thought to have contributed to the failure of the technology to win popular recognition are discussed and measures recommended.
Rural transport of goods in Ghana is predominantly by headloading. Much effort is spent daily in the basic domestic requirements of carrying water and fuel, and visiting the farm and grinding mill. A substantial part of this burden falls on women, who not only are responsible for some seventy percent of total time and eighty percent of all effort spent on transportation, but constitute the backbone of agricultural production in rural area.1 To enhance these women's efficiency, and save time and effort for participation in equally important social and recreational activities, there is an urgent need to equip women with appropriate technologies to alleviate the transport burden.
The cycle trailer was one such "appropriate technology" response to the rural transportation problem. It was designed as an attachment to the bicycle, because the latter is best suited for the "footpath economy" of the rural areas, is relatively affordable, and has a proven record of versatility as an intermediate means of transport in northern Ghana.2,3
Implementation of the Technology
The cycle trailer technology began with the Intermediate Means of Transport pilot program, sponsored by the International Development Association of the World Bank. The primary objective of this project, which was implemented between 1981 and 1991, was to provide an alternative to the burdensome practice of headloading prevalent among women in most parts of the country. To this end, IDA undertook to develop "a two-wheeled Cycle Trailer to increase the load carrying capacity of bicycles for use by rural households and for goods, delivery, and collection in urban areas."4
Following field trials of two prototypes of the vehicle, one was selected for improvement, mass production, and distribution mainly to women of identified groups to demonstrate and promote the technology. Organizations involved in the exercise were the 31st December Women's Movement and Amasachina Self-Help Association, both NGOs with branches in Tamale, the main city of northern Ghana, and Agents of Development for Rural Communities (ADRCOM) of Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. The Department of Feeder Roads, a government agency, was also involved. Cycle trailers and new bicycles were supplied in bulk quantities to these organizations for distribution. The conditions of payment for, and eventual ownership of, the trailer and bicycle were deliberately generous to encourage patronage. At this stage, the mood of participants was generally ecstatic as more and more people were keen to take part in the exercise.
Two engineering workshops in the Tamale Municipality (Goodman and Sons Ltd. and Fatawu Bicycle Co. Ltd.) were subsequently commissioned to start commercial production of the cycle trailer to cater to the anticipated high demand. With little or no financial credits, these workshops have managed to build respectable stocks of the cycle trailer, but to their complete disappointment, are yet to receive any firm orders for their product.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is possible to surmise that the high enthusiasm of participants in the demonstration and promotion exercise was induced more by an ulterior motive--to take advantage of the liberal payment conditions to own a bicycle--than by real confidence in the cycle trailer technology. To some extent, it may also have been the excitement of experimenting with something new. But more importantly, there were compelling objective reasons for the stifled demand for the cycle trailer.
Why it Failed to Catch On
In northern Ghana, where bicycling is popular and exists side-by-side with the equally prevalent but highly strenuous practice of headloading, it would seem logical that any real solution to the problem posed by the latter would be bicycle based. To this extent, it may be said that the cycle trailer technology was a commonsense solution to headloading. That the technology failed to achieve the desired objective was perhaps the first indication that its appropriateness for the task was questionable. Sampled views of individual participants and officials of the NGOs and other agencies involved in the demonstration and promotion of the cycle trailer revealed that a number of factors combined to render the technology inappropriate and unusable. These factors are discussed below.
Financial Considerations
It was ironic that although the cycle trailer was priced in 1991 at cents31,000 (US$100), a new bicycle was being sold at and average price of cents27,000 (US$85). For most cyclists, it costs a fortune to acquire a bicycle, so to be asked to pay more than this for the cycle trailer, which can only work in tandem with the bicycle, is to ask too much of them even if the price were the sole determinant of patronage. In fact, most prospective users of the cycle trailer indicated that it would only begin to make sense if priced anywhere below one-half and one-third the cost of the bicycle.
Some attempts were made to lessen this financial burden. A promotional price of cents20,000 ($65) was offered to participants together with very liberal payment terms during the demonstration and promotion exercise. The Department of Feeder Roads experimented with a group purchase system for some employees on its labor-intensive road construction projects. Monthly installments were deducted at source from employees' salaries. But this scheme, like others operated by the NGOs, had to be discontinued as the salaries themselves were paltry and commitment of participants started to waver.
Technological Factors
The advantages offered by the cycle trailer technology were marginal and therefore could not reasonably justify its introduction. A close observation of bicycle transport in the Northern Region of Ghana reveals that considerable experience has been gained over the years in the use of the flat bicycle carrier for goods transport. It is used to carry loads ranging from water, grains, and farm inputs to firewood (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The flat carrier takes the load.
For most cyclists, the flat carrier manages loads which are within the limitations of the human effort required to move them and they see the cycle trailer as a rather clumsy and redundant addition to the bicycle. In several cases, cycle trailers which were supplied together with bicycles were detached and conveniently parked away to collect dust while the bicycles were being hired out to pay back the cost.
Available evidence suggests that the projected maximum load of 200kg to be handled by the cycle trailer was over-optimistic. Broken wheel spokes, which may suggest excessive loading, were widely reported, and some cycle trailers collapsed instantly after being loaded with two maxi-bags of maize with an approximate total weight of 200kg. It is reckoned that, perhaps, the provision of a mechanism to reduce the human effort required to move large loads could have enhanced the image and proper use of the technology. Such mechanisms could have prevented the use of the cycle trailer as a hand cart, as was the case in some isolated instances (Figure 2).
Figure 2: The cycle trailer being used as a hand cart.
Socio-Economic Considerations
The problem of headloading was rightly identified as essentially the "rural women's burden," but the proposed solution was completely out of tune with the immediate economic, social, and cultural environment of the rural Ghanaian woman. Consequently, the problem was unaffected and continued unabated (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Headloading continues unabated.
The socio-economic disposition of the average Ghanaian woman has ensured that she does not own any means of transport except her feet. Thus, notwithstanding the prevalence of bicycles in northern Ghana, women do not own any, nor do they ride. This male-dominated society is only now beginning to grudgingly accept the few women who venture out on the bicycle. Against this background, it was clearly unrealistic to expect women to patronize the cycle trailer, since the minimum precondition to this is at least to be able to ride, let alone own, the bicycle.
Because of the conservative Islamic dressing style of the northern Ghanaian woman (see Figure 3), a "woman's bicycle" would have been a better choice (Figure 4).
Figure 4: A woman's bicycle.
This is of medium height without a crossbar, but this type of bicycle was not available, even though the cycle trailer was supposed to meet the needs of women, first and foremost. Paradoxically, the bicycle used for launching, demonstrating, and promoting the cycle trailer, was too high and had a crossbar (Figure 5).
Figure 5: A man's bicyle with crossbar.
This presented considerable mounting problems to women and was therefore effectively beyond their use.
Conclusions
The cycle trailer was conceived as an appropriate technology solution to a rural transport problem--headloading. But this objective was not achieved. The technology failed to win popular recognition because it was unaffordable and not entirely relevant to the needs of its intended users.
Even though the project identified women as the target group, the packaging of the technology completely ignored their vulnerable socio-economic status and the virtual absence of any "bicycle culture" amongst them. At the same time, given the demonstrated capacity of the flat bicycle carrier, the predominantly male cycling population was not particularly keen to invest its hard earned extra income in the cycle trailer. In fact, with the elaborate division of labor between males and females in Ghanaian society, it is difficult to imagine how a favorable patronage of the technology by male cyclists could have affected the incidence of headloading in any significant manner. It would take thorough socio-cultural changes to reverse or influence these roles. Until this is done, technologies designed to address women-related problems, such as headloading, need to be specifically tailored to suit their direct use.
Recommendations
In spite of the poor implementation in this case, bicycles have the potential to ease the burden of headloading, and must be allowed to play this role. To do so, the following important prerequisites must be met:
Improve the holding capacity and load stability of the flat bicycle carrier.
A long term strategy to promote cycling amongst women to enable them take advantage of the bicycle and ease the headload. This will involve education to change current attitudes towards women cyclists, ensuring that bicycles suited for use by women are widely available and affordable, and putting in place measures to uplift the socio-economic status of women.
______________
* Mohammed Salifu is a Research Officer at the Building and Road Research Institute, Traffic and Transportation Division, P.O. Box 40, UST, Kumasi, Ghana.
References
1. Harrison, P. and J. Howe. "Measuring the Transport Demands of the Rural Poor: Experiences from Africa." GATE: Questions, Answers, Information. No. 1/89 May, 1989. pp. 3-6.
2. Salifu, M. "Bicycle Safety--Sustaining Mobility and Environment." IATSS Research. Vol. 17 No. 2, September 1993. pp. 60-66
3. Barbara, G. K. "Bicycles for Mobility." GATE: Questions, Answers, Information. No. 1/89 May, 1989. pp. 35-36.
4. Technology Consultancy Centre (UST). "Transport Rehabilitation Project--Intermediate Means of Transport Pilot Project." Final Report. August 1991.
African Technology Forum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ssatp/comp.htm
"The Long Walk" BBC World Television Focuses on Rural Transport
What is it?
What's it about?
How can I watch?
What is it?
BBC World will broadcast a half-hour documentary "The Long Walk" about transport in rural Africa which will be repeated several times between March 18 and 23. The original broadcast was pre-empted for coverage of the September 11 events."The Long Walk" will appear as part of the BBC World series "Earth Report." "Earth Report" is produced by the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE). This documentary is sponsored by the RTTP and ILO/ASIST through funds allocated to those programs by DFID. The RTTP and ILO/ASIST worked together to suggest themes and shooting locations. The International Forum for Rural Trasport and Development (IFRTD) was also important in developing the original idea to sponsor a broadcast program on rural transport in Sub-Saharan Africa.
What's it about?
The documentary is about aspects of rural transport in Africa, not about the RTTP or ILO/ASIST as such. It covers some key rural transport issues in four countries: Senegal, Guinea, Malawi, and Tanzania. The overall themes are lack of access to adequate transport, intermediate means of transport (IMT) solutions (donkeys, bicycles), and rural road maintenance. The themes are presented almost entirely via stories of local people.
The story starts in Guinea, in the market town of Kindia. The theme in this section is the availability (or lack of) good roads and transport in this area, and the costs of this lack to the poor. The costs include not just distances and time involved getting to markets for goods and services, but the actual (high) transport costs - a ride in a truck can cost half the daily income for the poorest households.
The theme of IMTs explores donkey programs in the Tanzanian villages of Kinyenze and Luale, and bicycle programs in the village of Paos Koto in Senegal and in Malawi.
Projects or programs for road building and maintenance are covered by examples from Guinea (Telemele district) and Malawi.
Returning to the theme of availability of roads and transport, the program goes to Tanzania, to the villages of Mbambara (which does not have good roads) and to Tanga (which has a few problems that come with improved roads).
How can I watch?
BBC World broadcasts "Earth Report" several times a week. The broadcast time in your location will depend on whether BBC World reaches you via a parabolic antenna (a "dish") receiving the London broadcast, or through local cable or broadcast. If you have a parabolic that receives the London broadcast, "Earth Report" is on at (Greenwich Mean Time) Mondays (22:30), Tuesdays (09:30 and 14:30), Wednesdays (02:30), Saturdays (19:30). Broadcast in local markets through cable or other means can have different schedules, which may not even include "Earth Report." Local cable/broadcast schedules for most countries can be obtained for the coming week from the BBC World website [
http://www.bbcworld.com] Information about "Earth Report" can be found on TVE's website page [
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