Africa News Briefs

Feb. 14 (GIN) – An Iowa school has backed out of a project that was regarded as a massive land grab in Tanzania. Over 160,000 small farmers would have been evicted under the plan.

 

In its announcement on Feb. 10, Iowa State University said it was tired of defending its role in the African project and its partnership with AgriSol Energy, a U.S. company run by a major university donor.

 

AgriSol Energy had called the project involving 800,000 acres ‘an effort to bring modern farming methods, machinery and high quality seeds to the region.’ But critics saw it as a plantation-style land grab.

 

“This land has been feeding many families,” said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute which first spotted the controversial deal.  “The proposed large-scale commercial agriculture is mechanized - it does not create jobs for these small-holder farmers… At best some might become share-croppers, some might become plantation workers, at most. But it's going to deny them food security,” she said.

 

The Oakland, California-based Institute gave credit to campus and media activism for the turnaround at the university. “I sincerely hope we can keep the pressure on and have a just outcome,” Mittal said.

 

In addition to their Tanzanian partner, Serengeti Advisors Ltd, the project was endorsed by the U.S.  ambassador, Alfonso Lenhardt, a retired U.S. major general, graduate of the FBI National Academy, the National War College,  and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Supervisors Program.

 

AgriSol’s investor plans show the company and its business partners would invest $100 million over 10 years, and estimate making $350 million the first year, Mittal said.

 

Feb. 14 (GIN) – A U.N. official allegedly aiding the opposition prior to important elections this November has left the country, cutting short his stay in the West African nation by a year.

 

Both the U.N. and Pres. Ernest Bai Koromo have denied that Michael van der Schulenburg was pushed out of his job. But in a leaked internal U.N. letter, van der Schulenburg complained that "…The decision by (President Koroma) to force my early departure will be seen - rightly or wrongly - by virtually every Sierra Leonean as an effort to remove a potential obstacle to Koroma’s  re-election and as opening the door to manipulating the election outcome in his favor."

 

Elections in Sierra Leone this November come a decade after the end of a brutal civil war. President Koroma will be challenged by about ten people, among them former military leader, Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, his main challenger.

 

In his letter, the former U.N. envoy also reportedly warned that the world body risked losing the opportunity to claim Sierra Leone as "our success story".

 

Van der Schulenburg, who worked in the U.N.’s peacebuilding division, had been critical of the Koroma administration for failing to make progress fighting youth unemployment, for corruption and inadequate enforcement of mining contracts, and for the failure to address the spread of ethnic-based tensions which he predicted will impact votes for parliament, the presidency and local offices next fall. w/pix of Pres. Koromo

 

Feb. 14 (GIN) – As Washington state and New Jersey officials voted this week to legalize same-sex marriage, Uganda again turned its forces against the gay community, raiding a conference organized by Freedom and Roam Uganda, a group founded by prominent Uganda gay rights activist Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera.

 

Minister for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo, flanked by police, reportedly burst into the gay rights meeting claiming the gathering was illegal and said activists had to vacate the building or force would be used against them.

 

The incident comes days after the reintroduction of the country’s notorious ‘Kill the Gays’ bill to Parliament last week. An MP re-introduced the controversial anti-gay bill which would increase penalties for homosexual acts, which are illegal, from 14 years in jail to life.

 

Elsewhere, a documentary film entitled "Call me Kuchu," about the Ugandan gay community, premiered this week at the Berlin Film Festival. It documents the last year in the life of Ugandan gay activist David Kato before he was murdered in January 2011, and also features other activists. Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall, from the US and UK respectively, are the filmmakers of "Call me Kuchu."

 

In a press interview, Wright said: “While the LGBT community certainly suffers under Uganda’s harsh state-sanctioned homophobia, many of the “kuchus” (gays) we met were not simply 'victims.' David Kato and his fellow activists worked hard to change their own fate through every means possible: the Ugandan courts, the United Nations, the international news media. As a result, Call Me Kuchu is a nuanced story of empowerment as much as persecution.” w/pix of David Kato

 

The trailer for the movie can be seen at: http://callmekuchu.com/trailer/

 

Feb. 14 (GIN) – Former President Bill Clinton expressed distress at the depth of poverty in Nigeria, and warned that it would fuel the spread of religious violence now tearing the nation.

 

In a speech Monday night in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, Clinton said he was “really worried’’ about the security challenges in Africa’s most populous nation. “You can’t just have this level of inequality persist. That’s what’s fueling all this stuff,’’ said Clinton who was attending the annual award ceremony of ThisDay, a media house run by newspaper magnate Nduka Obaigbena. He was refering to the deadly attacks by the group Boko Haram, an Islamist faction.

 

A new study by the West African nation’s National Bureau of Statistics, paints a grim picture. According to their latest figures, the number of Nigerians living in poverty rose to nearly 61 percent from 53.7 percent in 2004.

 

In Nigeria’s northwest and northeast, regions besieged by Islamic insurgents, about 75 percent of the people live in poverty. Absolute poverty is measured by those who can afford only the bare essentials of shelter, food and clothing.

 

Almost 100 million people live on less than a $1 a day, despite economic growth, the statistics show.

 

Referring to the widening divide between Christians and Moslems, Clinton called for Nigerians to embrace their similarities, while also asking the government to speed public works projects such as providing electricity to a nation whose people are long accustomed to running their own generators for power.

 

It is almost impossible to cure a problem based on violence with violence, Clinton said. “You also have to give people something to look forward to when they get up in the morning.’’

 

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer but the sector has been tainted by accusations of corruption.