Part 2

2006-07-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

the decline in african fortunes since the 1960's has no better summary than this one by charles onyango-obbo of the nation media group in nairobi, kenya ...

For African states, ending graft is like committing suicide

By Charles Onyango-Obbo

There are African presidents who, occasionally, break with the mould and speak the plain truth. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni used to be a great one for that.

These days, you can expect some refreshing performances from Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, and even Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. But, most particularly, Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade.

Last week Wade, one of the crafters of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), said it had failed miserably. Under Nepad, Africans leaders agreed to adopt higher standards of managing their countries’ affairs; stop stealing the people’s money and oppressing them; and allow their peers to review the way they were running things. In exchange, the donor countries would increase their development aid support; and write off the foreign debt of the nations that made the grade.

Wade said nothing had come out of Nepad partly because lousy managers had been appointed to run it, and very few countries had submitted themselves to peer review. Though aid and debt forgiveness came, there was little to show for it. "Nepad has not built a single mile of road," he said. He promised, however, that the problems that have plagued it would be fixed. That said, any new efforts might still change Africa’s corrupt ways only marginally, if at all.

One reason is that corruption today forms the building block of nearly every African political enterprise. Something happened on this fair continent when the euphoria of independence began to fade at the close of the 1960s and the commodity export economies started collapsing in the 1970s. In the 1980s, most African countries were buried and only started to resurrect in the mid-1990s. Some, like Somalia, still remain in limbo.

The economic crisis into which most countries plunged eroded the ability of governments to win legitimacy and support through offering public goods like new schools, hospitals and roads.

Because bankrupt governments could no longer win popularity through things like provision of services, the architecture of patronage changed.

Governments’ main resource was no longer, for example, how many jobs they created, but how many of the existing jobs they could give out to cronies.

Where previously a government would build a road to a county and then top it off with a dispensary, it now moved to picking out a few people from the tribe living in that area and feeding them on "behalf" of their tribe.

Several governments succeeded remarkably at this. Corruption and nepotism came to serve a representational purpose. To this day, delegations come from upcountry to many African State Houses not to demand a road or electricity for their district, but to complain that the president hasn’t appointed their "son" to a plump job.

But for corruption to become as entrenched as it has, it needed something else to fuel the culture of unaccountability. That partly came through the donor money that was poured into some of the basket cases.

Donor funds were seen either to be free, or were viewed as strangers’ money; therefore, the kind of guilt that people feel at stealing from a neighour was absent when they looted it.

In this way, many African countries plunged into the Catch-22 morass they are in today. Because they are poor, corruption thrives. And as long as their governments remain corrupt, they can’t deal with graft – one of the key factors entrenching poverty.

No African country has been able to deal effectively with corruption through conventional reform. In those that have made some successes, like Rwanda, the old state and extraction networks first had to collapse and dissolve in the war and genocide of 1994.

The moral of this tale is very scary.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group’s managing editor for convergence and new products.

E-mail: cobbo@nation.co.ke

Comments\Views about this article

2006-06-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

... we live in interesting times.

2006-05-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

the grandeur that was rome ... that is the verdict on the new georgia aquarium. it is massive!! with massive exhibits ... especially liked the beluga whales and the whale shark (king of fish). however, as anyone that has visited the nearby tennessee aquarium would attest, this georgia thing, all $300 million of it, doesn't hold a candle to the tennessee one. there is something intimate about the tennessee aquarium, something that makes you feel you are getting your money's worth ... not so with the georgia aquarium. hopefully georgia aqua will come up to speed and improve the exhibits ... cause if others go my route and decide the place ain't worth a second visit, they may be in trouble. but then again, schoolkids will always be there ... and they stand to benefit the most from the project.

2006-04-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

so, jm coetzee wins a nobel prize for lit and of course there is such a
brouhaha because he is a white writer writing about africa, and white
europe colonized black africa, and therefore his work, especially in so
far as its protagonists are white, cannot be anything but a return of the
colonial & postcolonial misadventures of white europe. further, even
contemplation (by a white writer) of black protagonists exercising their
existence in africa falls under the purview of said misadventures.

and then i picked up disgrace and later waiting for the barbarians.
and those arguments took on a most spurious shade after i had the
opportunity to peruse these works. Disgrace is mostly about how south
africa has become a world of pitiless retribution and hard moral choices
(esp. for whites, but the black masses are not faring that much better
either). the gangsta film tsotsi picked up on this theme as well.

waiting for the barbarians, on the other hand, can rank as one of the
best novels ever. it is about a white man who is a judge at an anonymous
outpost of empire that gets relieved of his post by some smart-asses
from the capital. the judge is relieved of his post for about a year, and
the story is told during this period, as the judge comes face to face with
the barbarian in the hearts of men.

towards the end of the novel, the smart-asses are overwhelmed by the
savage, low-tech "barbarians" native to the lands at the frontier of the
empire. The smart-asses retreat back to civilization and the judge can
assume once more his command of the outpost. read as a metaphor for
life, it places the present at the frontier outpost, the past at the capital,
and the future at the world beyond the limits of empire, the land of the
barbarians.

written in 1980, the story anticipates the independence of south africa
by more than a decade. granted, some of the charges leveled against
conrad (esp. characterization) are valid against coetzee too in waiting for
the barbarians, except that many of coetzee's characters in the work are
developed only in a functional sense (even the main character). this, in my
opinion, only adds to the story's appeal.

so, what's not to like about coetzee? at the rate i'm going, i'll soon read
more of his works than i have of ngugi wa thiongo, david maillu, chinua
achebe, wole soyinka, nadine gordimer, naguib mahfouz, and barbara
kimenye. perhaps someone can shortcut me to the one book of his that
really pissed black africa off (if it exists). and for the record, i enjoyed
the heart of darkness tremendously, and have joyfully absolved conrad
of many of the charges leveled against him in the second half of the 20th
century. except for participating in the colonial venture, off course.

2006-03-06T00:06:00.000-08:00

for the first time in a bit, the folks at the academy awards have awarded oscars to a movie and an actress that i think are pretty good: "crash" and rachel weisz.

i did not see all the oscar-nominated movies for 2005, but i watched "crash" and it was the best movie i'd watched in a long while. doesn't rattle as much as "the passion of the christ" but it does rattle all the same (doesn't bite like GoK, though). highly recommended if you haven't watched it.

rachel weisz is famous for movies where she rewinds the weary theme of european misadventures in africa ("mummy 1 & 2", "constant gardener"). nonetheless, i like her work in "about a boy" and "the shape of things" very, very much. i've seen her in supporting roles mostly, hope she will move on up to big things and anchor a major motion picture some day.

2006-03-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

To the Commander of the Golden Heart: A Protest

We are pained and shamed at the horrors of the night
We are crazed and maimed by the tremor of the sight
We decline to disillusion on the clamor of these shouts
King of hearts respond to this: who are the gods routs

- On the raiding of the Standard Newspaper Offices in
Nairobi, Kenya. March 2, 2006.

2006-02-25T17:59:00.001-08:00

"Teachers have killed poetry and the corpse they present to students in secondary schools invokes fear and dread. " - Egara Kabaji

I rarely agree with this guy but I concur with the above statement. Check out the link to the full article ...

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=37003

2005-10-09T02:50:00.000-07:00

bananas and oranges: these are the terrifying symbols held up by a country where food is a luxury to justify its philosophy of history.

posterity will note - perhaps correctly - that the agricultural revolution was a power struggle between bananas and oranges. before bananas arrived in east africa, the power struggle was only between oranges. after the bananas arrived, they set in place a process of accumulation that increased their power while denying oranges any rights to accumulation thus diminishing their power. although there must have been others before him, waiyaki wa hinga is the first recorded "orange" having earned this credential in 1892. other famous oranges include mekatilili wa mwenza, ezekiel apindi, and koitalel arap samoei. these ancestors inspired the agricultural revolution, which started with the formation of tribal associations (and trade unions) some of which coalesced into national parties in colonial times. it then progressed into a still-birth multi-party democracy with FORD in 1992, gained momentum in 1997 with the IPPG, scored a significant victory in 2002, & reached its greatest height as a devolving peasant democracy following the referendum of november 2005. the agricultural revolution has been in kenya for at least 110 years.

FACT:
the agricultural revolution originates from individuals and groups that gain their credentials to "oppose" appointed governors/elected dictators by being excluded from the orgy of accumulation that is the true character of the polity once known as british east africa, the kenya colony and protectorate, and, since 1964, the republic of kenya. the dimensions (and stakes) of the revolution expanded dramatically after independence in 1963, since kenya not only retained some expatriate bananas, but had also "inherited" the capacity to develop its own insidious "home-grown" orange-resistant bananas.
END of FACT:

the british were bananas that succeeded at growing coffee and tea. kikuyu land was confiscated to grow coffee and tea so they formed a hard-scrabble militia of oranges known as mau mau. kenyatta went to britain because he was an orange determined to become a banana. jaramogi never became a banana because he believed the orange revolution was a historical inevitability. jm was killed because he was an orange that threatened bananas by simply being a very good orange. mboya and ouko were killed because they were oranges destined to become bananas. moi started politics as an orange without bananas but finished as a banana with oranges. kibaki preferred white cap to either bananas or oranges but now we hear he ONLY eats bananas.

bananas, oranges ... anyone?

no thanks. i just need a good constitution to wrap my nyama choma.

2005-09-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

the duke and yogi bear:

when the vaunted duke of kabeteshire pronounces that because the anglican church is becoming increasingly Evangelical (stato style) in practice, it therefore ain't what it used to be ... what are we supposed to conclude but that we've been raised as a generation of africans ignorant of their english heritage?

2005-09-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

on telecommuting:

fimbo ya mbali inaua nyoka kabisa

2005-09-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

a review: worst classes of all time ...

come to think of it, after hitting 8-4-4 for 16 years, it's time to nominate the worst class of all time.

it's easy.

colle:

econ was the worst class, just plain stupid with its insistence on assumptions that just don't fly. which human being does anyone know that is "rational"? if there are folks out there that make decisions based solely on profit maximization, then the word for them is not rational; rather, it is heartless (or unemotional). isn't this the reason we condemn the "gold digger"?

seco:

physo was the worst class in seco. period. antique lab equipment and instructors that could not relate theory to real life. when it came to languages, k.i.e was "nyuma kama engine ya volki (beetle)" insisting on teaching the rules of grammar while doing very little to show how those rules have been applied (in literature) and how we could apply them to our own work. k.i.e also failed to engage us seriously by ignoring the english/swahili creole languages that city kids from eastleigh to westlands spoke and identified with. k.ie.'s worst crime was to murder literature by insisting that we learn to "analyze" it in the structural sense (plot, characterization, themes, etc). i tend to think that academics are the only people that get excited by the structure of a story, most wananchi simply don't care. k.i.e had no right to shove that nonsense down our throats, and they still do it!

primo:

hands down, art & craft and home science take the cake or the crown (pick your fantasy) in this category. my apathy towards these subjects was such that i refused to go to school one day because the art & craft teacher had planned for us to go down to the river to collect clay and make bricks with it. my argument? making bricks was not a prerequisite for secondary school.

2005-09-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

we used to sing this song in primo:

mama jamila
jamila malaya
alinitukana
kumamamayo!

and this one was a chant from seco:
(i think it was published in one of the school
magazines; the yellow, sensational kind).

ndao
the kao
he had a pao
he went to tao
in a borrowed trao!

Also another chant (at rudge games):

my friend man Bernie
he went to carni
he took his honey
in a nissan sunny!

ale ale in a boom shi shi mo!
ale ale in a boom shi shi mo!

we had dirty, twisted minds in primo; and in seco we played the ethnic card shamelessly

i have no idea what the origin of that song from primo is ... would be interesting to know ...

2005-08-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

maze hiyo hurricane inaitwa katrina imeharibu new orleans ...

shakespeare alisemaje: a rose would smell as good even if it had another name.

jina katrina lapendeza sana, lakini hurricane yaweza haribu hata
ikibatizwa, hata kama inaitwa rose.

2005-08-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

kifo cha garang:

yenyewe garang, wewe uliwasili katika kiteto cha uzalendo.
vile cool james aliwika, "uwe hapa, uwe pale, safari yaendelea".

mwenyezi atapumzisha moyo wako mahali pema hapo peponi.

2005-08-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

a capitalist's creed:

i can do all things through dollar that strengthens me.

2005-07-03T17:04:00.000-07:00

live 8, jo!

yenyewe ni hard:

baada ya mse kufanywa slave ati ndio apate "work ethic"
baada ya mse kufanywa ukoloni ndio akuwe "civilized"

baada ya haya maafa ...

yenyewe ni hard kuona vile kuentertainiwa itaimprove
ile "standard of living"

yenyewe ni hard, ni hard, jo!

2005-06-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Kaparo inabidi tumwahi congrats vile alisema the obvious regarding parliament ya kenya. mtu yeyote anayetaka kucheki statement yake in full anaweza cheki daily nation ya 06/25/05. Lakini statement yenyewe si origi, kila mtu anajua mabunge na makarao wa jamhuri wako na rep mmoja mbaya kama ile ya wagondi.

2005-06-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

'zilizopendwa', yaani zile ngoma za kenya za 70s na 80s siku hizi zinapewa compe deadly na kabila ingine ya ngoma inaitwa 'mahewa'. hii ngoma mpya imeinfluenciwa na hip-hop ya oteto, kama vile 'zilizopendwa' au 'genge' ziliinfluenciwa na ngoma za country ya 50s na twist ya late 60s/early 70s. ile kitu mimi binafsi hupenda kuhusu 'zilizopendwa' na 'mahewa' ni vile wanamziki wetu wameweza kudevelop lyrics noma za kisure. rhythms zinaweza diffuse from wherever lakini risto zetu ziko kwa lyrics - until wananchi waproduce classicals! - na opinion ya kwangu ni ati quality ya lyrics zetu imekuwa above par kutoka tene.

2005-06-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

siku hizi hapa atl tunapata wasee wanataka kujidedisha lakini wanainvolve kila mse kwa
kifo chao ... ni kama assisted dying yaani euthanasia. hii maneno imenikumbusha risto ya
seko iko related kiplani. beste fulani mnatty alikuwa karibu kuhandwa na udijo - alikuwa
amehandwa before - lakini hii roundi akasema resistance lazima. akapanda stairs za
administration block, hadi gorofa ya first (chambele wanasema ya second), kisha akasema
ataruka kama udijo atainsist kumhanda. risto huclaim ati udijo hakushughulika na hizi
drastick tactics, aliangalia juu akasema, "kijana, jump! we'll be waiting for you!" beste
hakuruka, akateremka stairs, akahandwa deadly. hivyo ndivyo wasee wanafaa kufanya
watu wakilete siasa namna hizo.

2005-06-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

nime enjoy sana hiyo risto ya Mbeki kudismiss Zuma job. yenyewe maprezzo
wote afrika wanafaa wafuate mwendo huo huo ... hizi aibu ndogo ndogo hatutaki!

2005-06-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

maze nilikuwa nataka kutumia jina "sheng" lakini kuna mse alikuwa ameishikilia.
hata kama hajauma patent hakuna haja ya kumhanda ... kwa hivyo nitatulia na hii
jina ingine inaitwa "part 2".

2005-06-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

ni vile bob marley aliwika:

"we're blogging
i want to blog it with you
we're blogging, blogging
i hope you like the blogging too ..."

from now on it is sheng and sheng all the way.