Walking The Nile, by Levison Wood (2015)

Levison Wood is a British explorer and travel writer who set out to become the first person to walk the length of the Nile River. His book is engaging and informative. The narrative combines personal emotion, natural description, historical overview and cultural observations. I enjoyed learning about the history and culture of Uganda:

On the forty-seventh day of our journey [Wood travels the first leg of with a gregarious Congolese man named Boston], Kampala came in sight. We were up before dawn, walking through the pitch black, past lay-bys where lorries were emblazoned with banners declaring 'God is Great, God is Good, God is Everywhere!' and along a road where the traffic police kept demanding to know what we were doing ... Kampala is a teenager of a city - boisterous and messy, contradictory but naive and growing fast ... in this city of a more than a million people there are a great number of different cultures existing side by side. 

Although the Buganda, the local ethnic group, make up more than half the population, the city's ethnic mix is truly diverse. As in most modern countries, the growth of the urban economy has seen people flock to the capital - but Kampala's expansion has been driven by political factors too. During the rule of Idi Amin, and Milton Obote - who was overthrown by Amin and then restored to power following Amin's deposition - many Ugandans from the native northern tribes were brought into the city, to serve in the police and army and to shore up the government's other, more shadowy security forces.

I've heard of Idi Amin. He resides in my consciousness as an intimidating, scary dictator of my youth (alongside Pol Pot and several others), but I think I placed him in southern Africa instead of properly in the north. I wonder whether he was supported by American and/or European governments, as a misguided attempt at maintaining "security" in a post-colonial world.

Wood's uplifting, fascinating narrative takes a dramatic and depressing turn when an American journalist arrives to write a portrayal for Men's Journal. Matt Power was 39 years old when he arrived in Uganda to write the story. An intense heat wave settled over the group, and Power died of heat stroke very soon after the initial onset of symptoms. I researched Power's story through the Times and other outlets. Reading this portion of the book was a vivid reminder of the fragility of our lives - a reminder that I often re-visit in August when I think about Sherri King's tragic death in 2014.

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I am very glad to have started reading Walking the Nile. I can tell that it's a book that I will re-visit from time to time, and I appreciate that it will help me learn more about the culture and history of certain parts of Africa, at least as that culture and history are seen through the eyes of one Western explorer.

Senegal and the Challenges of Rapid Urbanization

Sub-Saharan Africa is the most rapidly urbanizing place on Earth.

An article in this morning's Post (here) focuses on Senegal. Danielle Paquette writes that President Macky Sall has prioritized construction and that leaders there hope to cash-in on its budding reputation for beach tourism.

Dakar and other cities are growing so quickly that there are few outdoor places where children can play:

What politicians cast as progress can feel suffocating to children in rapidly developing nations, who tend to live in cramped homes and yearn to roam. They don’t have smartphones or iPads. Adults occupy televisions with soccer matches or Indian soap operas dubbed into the local language. Playgrounds are scarce.

This is causing the children to head to the beach, where there are few lifeguards. Last year, 50 people drowned.

The article explains that economists used to believe that children in rural areas were worse off than those in cities. However, urbanization is happening so quickly in the developing world -- without the necessary government policies accompanying it -- that urban kids now face more problems.

629. Which country is growing fastest right now?

630. I watched part of a Netflix documentary about Brazil this week (The Edge of Democracy). The film includes a clip of President Obama embracing Lula and describing him as the most popular politician on Earth (at the time, he was overseeing tremendous expansion in Brazil, which I described in a 2009 post). Right now, which politicians are the most widely supported in their countries? Who is viewed as providing the best kind of leadership that serves the broadest segment of their population?

This is a photo from the article, by Jane Hahn.

Elephants in Botswana

The Post's long form reporting continues to be exceptional.

I love the range of topics and issues that the newspaper is exploring. I have mixed feelings about Jeff Bezos and his impact on the American economy, but there's no doubting that his ownership of the Washington Post -- and his willingness to pay for good reporting and deep stories -- has been a huge plus.

Today there's an article (here) about elephants in Botswana. I had to remind myself of the country's location, which is shown on the map below. The population of Botswana is approximately 2 million.

About one-third of Africa's elephants live in Botswana, and the number of elephants has increased dramatically: from 80,000 in 1996 to 130,000 in 2014. The reason is that the government committed to strict anti-poaching policies, with a goal of building a thriving eco-tourism industry.

The policies succeeded, and now there is a backlash among black Botswanans. They claim that the elephants (and accompanying tourism) are benefiting whites but harming them. In particular, the animals wreak havoc on the crops and land of small-scale black farmers.

I just did a bit of research about elephant poaching at the World Wildlife Fund website. The tusks are the most sought after part of the elephants, with the ivory being used for ornaments and jewelry (it's especially popular in China).

Botswana's new president is Mokgweetsi Masisi. He was appointed last year and stands for election this fall. This is the fascinating part of the Post's article: Masisi argues that Botswana needs to re-balance its approach towards elephants. He believes that they are “far more elephants than Botswana’s fragile environment, already stressed by drought and other effects of climate change, can safely accommodate." In addition, Masisi views the elephants through the lens of race, and he wants to ensure that the economic benefits of tourism are shared more broadly.

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This is a fascinating article. Wildlife conservation is generally seen as an unqualified good, but the article is a reminder that even the most well-meaning policies can harm some people while helping others.

This is an aerial view of Chobe Enclave in Botswana.

This is a woman whose husband was killed by an elephant in 2014.

South Sudan and Oil Pipelines

South Sudan became an independent country in 2011.

534. What was the newest new country prior to South Sudan? Is Kosovo an independent country yet?

In yesterday's Post (here), Sudarsan Raghavan and Andrew Higgins wrote about China's role in Sudan and South Sudan -- in particular, its difficulty in navigating the countries' disputes about oil located in the south but transported via the north:

At the center of the struggle between the two Sudans is oil, which until last summer was controlled by Khartoum but which now lies mostly within the borders of the world’s newest state, the Republic of South Sudan. China is the biggest player in the oil industry on both sides of the frontier: It holds big stakes in the main oil fields in the south and in pipelines and other infrastructure in the north.

535. Is oil the most important resource in the world, if "importance" is judged in terms of how significantly people's lives would change if we suddenly did not have the resource? By that definition, water and food are both more important. Excluding those two things, is oil tops? What else would be on the list -- wood, coal?  Which minerals are most crucial to our lives?

536. A few years ago I read about the large lithium reserves in Afghanistan.  Are the Afghans developing their lithium-extraction industry?

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Back to South Sudan: the Post article states that South Sudan pays Sudan for the right to ship its oil through the pipeline, and that these fees are a major source of the tension:

The south has refused to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties for using Sudan’s pipelines, saying that the fees were exorbitant. Sudan responded by seizing oil tankers carrying South Sudanese crude and imposed a blockade on the export of the oil. Last month, South Sudan shut down its oil production, roughly 350,000 barrels a day, after accusing Sudan of stealing $815 million worth of its oil.

As a remedy, South Sudan is planning to construct an alternate pipeline through Kenya.

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This makes me think about the American controversy about the Keystone pipeline in Nebraska. Here's the Wikipedia summary of that project: "The Keystone Pipeline System is a pipeline system to transport crude oil and diluted bitumen from oil sands in Alberta, Canada to multiple destinations in the United States, including ports along the gulf coast."

This goes to show that mining and moving resources is a major political issue the world over.

537.  What is bitumen and where would it rank on my hypothetical list of the most important resources?

Jacob Zuma

Jacob Zuma is the President of South Africa. 

South Africa has been much in the news this summer because of the World Cup being played there; in today's quarterfinals Germany crushed Argentina and Spain beat Paraguay.  This means that even though four Latin American countries made it to the quarters, only one (Uruguay) goes on to the semis.

Here's my post from last August about Hillary Clinton being enthusiastic about Zuma's change-in-approach (from that of Thabo Mbeki, his predecessor) towards fighting AIDS.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault has a profile of Zuma in this week's New Yorker.  Hunter-Gault's article, and some of the TV coverage I've seen in connection with the World Cup, make it sound as though South Africa is an incredibly divided society: if no longer racially so, then economically. In contrast to Mbeki, Zuma portrays himself as a populist and a defender of the poor, but most analysts say that he's doing very little to actually improve their plight. During Zuma's Presidency, the unemployment rate has reached as high as 25%.

Hunter-Gault illustrates his lack of an agressive economic policy by focusing on a neighborhood called Orange Farm, which sounds like a large slum area outside of Johannesburg.  The residents of Orange Farm are disappointed that Zuma has not focused more on infrastructure or jobs development for their area.

Zuma is a polygamist; he has five wives and defends the practice to Hunter-Gault by saying that many men practice a sort of covert polygamy by having affairs; his way, argues Zuma, is more honest.

Zuma's term as President runs until 2013.  Interestingly, his primary potential rival is a man named Trevor Manuel (the0 head of the National Planning Commission), and Hunter-Gault says that Manuel may be practically prevented from ascending the Presidency because he is mixed race.

Here's a picture of Trevor Manuel.  He was South Africa's Finance Minister under Mandela and Mbeki.

DJ Rowbow and Ghetto Radio in Nairobi, Kenya

Bono has an op-ed in this morning's Times ("Africa Reboots," here) in which he describes a recent goodwill/cultural/economic mission that he went on with a group of "activists, entrepreneurs and policy wonks." Bono's take-away is that he is optimistic about the directions that a new generation of Africans is leading people there.

Bono writes about DJ Rowbow, a Kenyan DJ who is using radio and music to invigorate the society and democratize the politics:

DJ Rowbow's Ghetto Radio, was a voice of reason when the volcano of ethnic tension was exploding in Kenya in 2008. While some were encouraging the people of Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa, to go on the rampage, this scary-looking man decoded the disinformation and played peacemaker/interlocutor. On the station’s playlist is Bob Marley and a kind of fizzy homespun reggae music that’s part the Clash, part Marvin Gaye.

I've just spent some time on the Ghetto Radio website (http://www.thisisafrica.me/), which is definitely full of life -- lots of enthusiastic journalism and commentary. I particularly enjoyed a video by a group called Bisso na Bisso; unfortunately I wasn't able to find their music on iTunes.

The site also has a story about Lagos, Nigeria, which evidently was recently named the world's "worst city." The writer makes the point that -- notwithstanding its problems -- people are flocking to Lagos in huge numbers.

430. How much international music does iTunes have in its catalog?

Tom Friedman has a piece in this morning's Times (here) about a medical device start-up (Endostim is the name of the company) whose inventors, financiers and board are a diverse smorgasbord of people from all over the world. He argues that the company's story illustrates his "flat earth" thesis, and after looking at the Ghetto Radio site - from which I can get a live stream of radio from Kenya (!!) - it's hard not to agree with Friedman.

Guinea-Bissau and Drug Trafficking

James Traub has an article in last Sunday's New York Times (here) about the increasing extent to which countries in west Africa are a mid-point in the flow of drugs from South America to Europe. The scope of the problem: the UN estimates that "40 tons of cocaine, with a street value of $1.8 billion, crossed West Africa on the way to Europe in 2006."

Traub focuses on Guinea-Bissau. GB's population is 1.6 million and its per capita GDP is about $480. It was once part of the empire of Mali.

About two years ago, I read an article about the west African drug trade phenomenon; that piece also emphasized Guinea-Bissau. It sounds like the problem has continued to worsen. Traub analogizes GB and other African states to Afghanistan in terms of their providing ungoverned havens for criminal activity.

Here's a really well-written paragraph from his article that clearly summarizes the issue:

"The dynamic before which Guinea-Bissau and its neighbors along the West African coast are truly helpless is globalization, which ensures that producers will find a way to deliver all things insatiably desired, whether good or bad. West Africa, which neither produces nor consumes significant quantities of cocaine, is a victim of changes in global supply and demand. Partly because of heightened American and South American efforts in recent years, the flow of cocaine to the United States diminished. Traffickers increasingly turned to Europe, where cocaine use grew significantly over the last decade. European law-enforcement officials responded by cracking down on air and maritime routes from South America. And the traffickers in turn adapted by establishing the West Africa connection."

Zimbabwe: Morgan Tsvangirai Announces an End to Cooperation

According to Celia Dugger in the NYT (here), Morgan Tsvangirai and his party (the Movement for Democratic Change) have announced they will begin a boycott of cabinet meetings because of their continued frustration with President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai are currently governing Zimbabwe together (with Tsvangirai as Prime Minister) through a power-sharing agreement.

Tsvangirai is specifically angry that Roy Bennett - who is white and is Tsvangirai's nominee for deputy agriculture minister - was subjected to allegations of terrorism.

Dugger says that Tsvangirai is, more generally, motivated in part by a desire to "wake-up" regional monitors and in part by discontent within his party:

"Mr. Tsvangirai’s strategy appears to be in part an effort to get senior political leaders in the African Union and the Southern African Development Community — guarantors of the power-sharing deal — to put pressure on Mr. Mugabe to act in a more conciliatory manner.

But the move also reflects rising anger in the ranks of the Movement for Democratic Change. Mr. Tsvangirai, who outpolled Mr. Mugabe in elections last year but withdrew from the runoff after an onslaught of attacks on his supporters, has sought to put a good face on the deal in recent months. He had argued that the country and its devastated economy had stabilized."

United States Attack in Somalia

Last week the US military announced that it had killed Saleh Ali Nabhan, a 28-year old Kenyan of Yemeni descent and leader of al-Shabab, a group tied to al-Qaeda. The picture to the left, of Nabhan, is from The Guardian website.

Nabhan was alleged to have been involved in the Mombasa attacks in 2002. The Economist describes the US attack as follows:

"The American commandos flew in daylight in helicopters from a naval ship off Somalia's coast, attaching Mr. Nabhan and a score of other foreign and Somali fighters as they drove in two lorries across the desert."

The Economist goes on to say that American forces were "on the ground in Somalia, albeit briefly," but it does not explain the statement -- the prior description makes it sounds like the entire operation was carried out by ship and helicopter.

304. My understanding is that American officials opposed to increasing troop levels in Afghanistan argue that we could use these kinds of "targeted operations" against al-Qaeda there. Those opposed, however, say that the Clinton Administration was unsuccessful when it tried to fight al-Qaeda from afar. Who's got the better of this argument? Where do the current military leaders, including Petraeus and Mullen, stand?

305. If US forces were on the ground, what's the legal authority for the incursion? Is there still broad-based "war on terror" authority from the Bush Presidency, or has the Obama Administration asserted a different basis for attacks against al-Qaeda allies?

Here's a map of the Horn of Africa, from the Economist's website:

Algeria: Immigration to Europe

Algeria's population is 35 million. The President is Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was first elected in 1999 and reelected this past April. Its population is very young - the average age is 26. The country's economy is dependent on fossil fuels: it ranks 14th in oil reserves and 8th in natural gas reserves. 25% of the population is employed in agriculture, and they raise a significant amount of wheat, barley and oats.

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In an article in this morning's Times (here), Yasmine Ryan reports on efforts by European countries and the Algerian government to stem the tide of emigration across the Mediterranean. Notwithstanding those efforts, "Algerians are attempting clandestine migration to Europe on a scale unseen in recent years" (Algerian and other North African governments claim that many of the immigrants are crossovers from sub-Saharan Africa, but Ryan reports that the number of actual Algerians has also increased).

In March of this year, Algeria criminalized the act of attempting to emigrate without permission.

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When I was in southern Spain with Olav in 2001, several people described to us the phenomenon of northern Africans attempting to cross the Mediterranean (in whatever small boats or rafts were available). There was a cemetery in one of the towns we visited devoted to the unnamed immigrants whose bodies had washed up on shore. One Algerian who reached Sardinia, on his third attempt, only to be deported, described his motivation thus: "I’m facing growing old without ever having had a life."

Hillary Clinton in South Africa

Hillary Clinton is currently on her extended visit to Africa. Over the weekend she was in South Africa and met with President Jacob Zuma.

The NYT reported that Clinton is making an effort to rejuvenate the US/South Africa relationship after it suffered during Thabo Mbeki's presidency because of Mbeki's belief that HIV does not cause AIDS. The US spends about $550 million on treatment and testing of AIDS in South Africa.

In addition to being enthusiastic about President Zuma's different stance on AIDS, Clinton is pushing him to be more assertive in condemning Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe for his crackdown on opposition politicians and media.

In Cape Town, Clinton visited a community housing project that she'd visited twice when Bill was President (the Times reports that Clinton has an impressive aversion to jet lag and is filling her days in Africa with tons of activities and meetings).