On July 6 2011, the world’s diplomatic elite flocked to one of the globe’s most underdeveloped regions to bask in the warm glow of the birth of a new nation. That South Sudan’s struggle for independence had claimed the lives of an estimated 2million people, and that the majority of its inaugural citizens had been displaced by decades of war, ensured that the Juba inauguration was all the more remarkable – brimming with the promise of peace, and the fruits of freedom. Now, in an act of apparent economic suicide, South Sudan has literally turned off the taps of their economy. “This is a matter of respect,” Pagan Amum, the South’s chief negotiator with Khartoum asserted, “We may be poor, but we will be free.” By shutting down 90% of the country’s oil production Juba seems willing to entirely forego 98% of the government’s non-aid related foreign currency earnings. How did we get here?
The Two Sudans
Weekend Special /July 1, 2011
* Damien Ma, at The Atlantic, blogs about a story on a Chinese website on “the growing phenomenon of Chinese men marrying African women, as Chinese presence in Africa continues to expand.” The post and comments are replete with insights and stereotypes; most of it not Ma’s fault. Here’s the caption on the original for the photo above: “The son of a wealthy Sichuan Chinese businessman who married last year’s Miss Kenya!!!Strongly recommend!!!” Here.
* ‘ “This is Africa,” says the lover, and pulls her to safety, leaving the sweaty soldier in the too-tight boots to shoot the already bleeding man.’ No comment.
* I’m bored by the the political writing coming out of South Africa (whether its mainstream media or few political blogs). The real problem in South Africa we learn is not a mix of racism, inequality, unemployment, state inaction, etcetera, but a bombastic, media savvy ANC “youth leader” who baits the defensive local press and whites. Among the exceptions are The South African Civil Society Information Service. I’ve linked here to pieces by Jane Duncan (on the Democratic Alliance), Lennie Gentle (on the symbiotic relationship between the ANC and whites) and now Richard Pithouse along those same lines. Sample lines: “… The havoc that Malema is wreaking is not because he has a political genius for articulating the aspirations of the masses. And it’s not because there are not perfectly articulate grassroots activists all over the country. It’s because amidst all his buffoonery he is giving a name to a truth that has up until this moment been largely repressed in most of our interlocking elite publics. That truth is that our celebrated deal has failed most of us. The goose that has been so assiduously protected is still laying, but those golden eggs haven’t been shared out.”
* Over on the Mail & Guardian’s Thoughtleader Blog (actually the page of Zimbabwean Tendai Marima), Sophia Azeb (she’s with us) and Sonja Sugira (who I hope will feel the need to blog again here; we miss her) join bloggers Konwomyn, Khadija Patel and Tolu Ogunlesi, to discuss Sudan, social media, Arab-Africans, Michelle Obama, Clay Shirky, and Paul Kagame, among other topics. Here are Parts 1 and 2. Part 3 is apparently on its way.
* While Africa correspondent (most publications have one correspondent for all 53, soon to be 54, countries) is probably on the border of Sudan and South Sudan, Omar Al Bashir goes to China. Maybe it can achieve what his international PR campaign may not.
* Basil D’Oliviera was a celebrated case, but many more damn fine black cricketers were prevented from playing for South Africa because of their skin color. Like Krom Hendricks more than 100 years ago. And no Kevin Pietersen you are not a victim.
* A lot of time and energy are spent on the conundrum of whites in postapartheid South Africa. Books, seminars, blogs, court cases, asylum in Canada, newspaper editorials,”civil society” organizations (I see you Afriforum and Solidarity), etcetera. Now’s this essay by Rhodes University (in South Africa) academic Samantha Vice. Read it.
* Michelle Obama had lunch in this neighborhood. Ah, the smell of gentrification.
* What happened to that film about Precious McKenzie? You should know him. Muhammed Ali did.
* Finally, CNN held its annual Journalism of the Year awards for African journalists in Johannesburg. It was sponsored by Coco Cola. A Kenyan journalist won the top award. Smile.
It’s also Independence Day in Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia today. So once the Music Break is up we’re done till Monday. See you then.
Stakes is High*
I struggled to make sense of Jane Dutton’s underwhelming performance this morning on Al Jazeera English trying to discuss what’s happening in Sudan’s disputed, oil producing region, Abyei. She could not contain two party hacks (from the North and South respectively) as well as an expert in Beirut. In contrast, I found this fact sheet by Andrew Heaven and David Cutler of Reuters, way more helpful:
* WHY ABYEI?
– Abyei sits on Sudan’s ill-defined north-south border and is claimed by both halves of the country. In many ways it is a microcosm of all the conflicts that have split Sudan for decades — an explosive mix of ethnic tension, ambiguous boundaries, oil and age-old suspicion and resentment.
– Northerners and southerners fought hard over it during decades of civil war and have continued to clash there even after the 2005 peace deal that ended the war and set up the referendum.
– Abyei contains rich pastureland, water and, after a recent re-drawing of its boundary, one significant oilfield — Defra, part of a block run by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium led by China’s CNPC.
– It also has emotional, symbolic and strategic significance. A number of leading figures from the south’s dominant party the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) hail from the area. Many southerners see the fight for Abyei as an emblem of their long struggle against perceived oppression.
– For several months a year, Abyei is also used by Arab Misseriya nomads — a well-armed group that provided proxy militias for Khartoum during the north-south war.
– The Misseriya claim centuries-old rights to use the land for their livestock and Khartoum will have to back them to the hilt if it wants to keep them as allies. Abyei’s Dinka Ngok tribe, with its ethnic links to the south, also claims its own historical ownership rights.
* CURRENT STATUS:
– Under the 2005 peace deal, Abyei had a special administrative status, governed by an administration made up of officials from the SPLM and President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s northern National Congress Party (NCP). On Saturday, state media reported Bashir had removed the two heads of the Abyei administration and dissolved the administrative council, without giving further explanation.
– Abyei was also supposed to be watched over by Joint Integrated Units made up of northern and southern troops and police. In reality those units remain far from integrated and soldiers from both sides have been caught up in the fighting.
* SETTLEMENT EFFORTS:
– Abyei proved so intractable that it was left unresolved in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the north- south civil war.
– The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague came closest to solving the first in 2009 by re-drawing Abyei’s boundaries, ceding several other key oilfields to the north. The SPLM and the NCP accepted the ruling but the Misseriya rejected it saying it still put too much of their pastureland inside Abyei. They have resisted official efforts to demarcate the new border.
– The Dinka Ngok and Misseriya also remain at loggerheads over who gets to vote. The Dinka have said only that a handful of settled Misseriya tradespeople count as residents. The Misseriya were demanding equal voting rights to the Dinka.
* FIGHTING RESUMES:
– South Sudan voted to become independent in the January 2011 referendum agreed to under the 2005 peace deal but tensions have built up in the oil-producing Abyei region where both sides have built up forces. However President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had said last month that Abyei would remain part of the north after the south secedes in July.
– Last week North and south Sudan’s armies accused each other of launching attacks in the contested region, marking an escalation of tensions in the countdown to the south’s independence in July.
– Khartoum sent tanks into Abyei town on Saturday, the United Nations said and the next day seized control. North Sudan said it had sent in the troops to clear out southern soldiers that it said had entered the area, breaking the terms of earlier agreements.
* With apologies to De La Soul.
A road accident doesn’t make a revolution
Recent demonstrations in Sudan’s capital Khartoum over road conditions and traffic signals have led some observers in the West to speculate about the possibilities of a Egypt-style revolution there (see FT, BBC and Al Jazeera English, for example; Sudan-specific blogs, like Making Sense of Sudan, are silent on the protests). For our sake, I asked a friend in Khartoum–who wanted to remain anonymous–his opinion. Below I print his response:
Traffic and the control thereof are diabolical in Khartoum, and the populace have developed a pretty mental informal code for dealing with things (a combination of subtle physical nudging of cars, flashing lights, flicker use, and the morse code of horn signalling) so I’m not suprised there is risidual or constant anger relating to that issue. But a road accident doesn’t make a revolution.
Clooney in Africa
The media buzz (including blogging, tumbling and retweeting, as well as Facebooking) around Newsweek magazine’s ridiculous cover story of film actor George Clooney (title: “On the ground with a new kind of statesman”) highlight the titilating; i.e. Clooney’s sexual conquests of “way too many chicks”). Too bad, since the piece is really about how Clooney has the access and time to jet off to be a presence in nations that may not need him.
In January alone, he’s balanced the rigours surrounding the Academy Awards, hanging out on Mexican beaches with his Italian model/actress-of-the-moment, and giving face-time to South Sudanese. There he is in Sudan (above), method acting Marlow by the river of his destiny.
Bwana Saves Africa
Today’s New York Times Magazine carries a fawning profile of John Prendergast, the force behind the Enough Project (reference: Congo, Darfur and now southern Sudan). Prendergast is described by reporter Daniel Bergner as “America’s most influential activist in Africa’s most troubled regions.” A former Clinton White House official, Prendergast probably wrote the book on how to utilize celebrity diplomacy. (Actors George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Don Cheadle’s status as foreign policy experts originate with the Enough Project.) At best the article is interesting as a how-to manuel on influencing US foreign policy on Africa. At the same time reporter Bergner also undercuts his own thesis by conceding it is difficult to measure exactly Clooney and Prendergast’s importance in the recent surge of US public focus on Sudan. For the profile Bergner followed Pendergrast to southern Sudan where a referendum on the south’s political independence from the north is planned January 2011. Much of the information in the piece won’t be new to people familiar with Prendergast or developments in Sudan. Some readers may get a chuckle out of Bergner’s man-crush on Pendergrast. Bergner writes that Prendergast has “… wavy gray hair that fell to the shoulders of his T-shirt. The hair, along with the unshaven scruff on his chin, made for a look of dashing flamboyance that was undercut by bursts of boyish energy.” We also learn that Prendergast has no time for critics of his methods or his grasp of the issues, that he “has devoted all of his adult life to Africa,” and discovered “human suffering” when he saw scenes of Ethiopia’s 1985 famine on TV. Prendergast can’t stop himself from describing a first trip to Sudan in the 1980s as “… a bit of ‘Apocalypse Now’.” Not surprisingly, we also learn that he has been betrayed by Africans whom he has admired. Etcetera, etcetera.
Anyway, Howard French, former New York Times West Africa correspondent, best summed up the piece in a tweet: ”Bwana saves Africa. Part 3,276. Barf. Will we ever get beyond such stories?“
Do you know Omar al Bashir?
I recently ask students in a graduate class I teach on ‘media, culture and international affairs’ to do an experiment: take a camera, go outside (really downstairs on the New School ‘campus’) and test people’s knowledge of Darfur and Eastern Congo. Quick context: We had been reading and discussing Mahmood Mamdani’s Saviors and Survivors as well as viewing the film, “Darfur Now.” (The contrast between the two texts could not be more obvious of course. Mamdani’s book is a takedown of Save Darfur, while the film is essentially a fundraising and recruiting tool for the American activist group and its supporters.)
Anyway, we figured we should target students about their knowledge about Darfur (and Congo) since organizations like Safe Darfur (and the Enough Project) claim to have had the most success with young people. It also made practical sense.
Vote Sudan
Sudanese voters go to the polls from Sunday, 11 April through 13 April. The election results seems a foregone conclusion. Omar Al-Bashir will probably win given his control of state media, opposition parties are boycotting the elections and one of the opponents with a decent chance of challenging Bashir, the Southern Sudanese Yasir Arman, can’t make up his mind about running or not. But on a bright side: I like the way young people are responding to the process. Like the Girifna Movement working to get the vote out. As in this song by Alsara featuring Oddisee made to promote Girifina’s work. (The video uses images of Girifna members being arrested by police.)
Here’s a transcription of the lyrics (which are partly in Arabic):
