News Out of Africa

Today is Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day, and I’ll be joining people worldwide to write about a pressing human rights issue. The topic I’ll be blogging on is the Right to Education. 

Before I begin, some food for thought:

• More than 100 million children are out of school. (Source: UNFPA)
• 46% of girls in the world’s poorest countries have no access to primary education (Source: ActionAid)
• More than 1 in 4 adults cannot read or write: 2/3 are women. (Source: ActionAid)
• Universal primary education would cost $10 billion per year. That’s half of what Americans spend on ice cream. (Source: ActionAid) 

Hopefully those stats piqued your interest, because now it’s time to get into the nitty gritty.

Article 28, Section 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on November 20, 1989, observes, 

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;

(c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means;

(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children;

(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

It is a sad reality that the principles enshrined in this article are not yet realized in many areas of the world. There are still multiple barriers that impede access to education for children. Amnesty International highlights some of the most prevalent:

• they are made to work,
• they are recruited into armed forces,
• their families do not have the means to pay for schooling,
• discrimination and racism undermine their chance to receive an education,
• they face violence as they pursue their education.

While I can’t speak to all of these problems, I do know a thing or two about school fees. While teaching in Ghana, a country that lacks free primary education, I saw many families struggle to make the payments (the school matron took money daily and recorded the fees in a ledger at each house. It was embarrassing and nerve wracking for most parents). When the payments came late or stopped coming, the child was kicked out of school. It was heart wrenching to stare at an empty desk, and know that a child was missing an education. It was somehow even worse when the parents had to decide which child or children to send because they were running out of funds. It is a situation that should never have to happen.  

If all of this seems depressing, there is some cause to hope. Within the past decade, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) put the dream of universal primary education back in the spotlight. As described on the United Nations Development Programme website, 

The MDGs represent a global partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets established at the world summits of the 1990s. Responding to the world’s main development challenges and to the calls of civil society, the MDGs promote poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, and aim at combating child mortality, AIDS and other diseases.

Set for the year 2015, the MDGs are an agreed set of goals that can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part. Poor countries have pledged to govern better, and invest in their people through health care and education. Rich countries have pledged to support them, through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade.

I don’t agree completely with the way that the MDGs are being implemented, but that’s a story for another time (for an interesting analysis of the goals from an insider at the UN, read Race Against Time by Stephen Lewis). In any event, the second MDG seeks to ensure that all children complete a full course of primary schooling. 

2008 marks the midway point on the journey to reach the MDGs, and the United Nations has released a report tracking progress. Their findings relate that while there has been a definite increase in primary school enrollment since the late 1990s, there is still a long way to go. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 30% of children are still absent from school.  

It’s my hope that there will be a continued focus on universal primary education, and that that concentration will extend into secondary studies. I also hope that as the ranks of children receiving an education swell, quality services are provided. I fear that in the rush to enroll every child, the standard of education offered may be diminished. Only time will tell. 

Just when you think it would be impossible for reality television to get any trashier, writers and producers manage to take it to the next level. And that level is called My Super Sweet Sixteen-Exiled. The show is the sequel to MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen, a raunch-fest that revels in the outrageous behavior of super-rich teens. A typical episode follows a wealthy adolescent as she and her family plan an incredibly over-the-top sixteenth birthday party. Drama inevitably creeps onto the scene when a certain rap artist can’t be booked for the after-party or the parents aren’t sure they want to shell out for a fully loaded BMW. 

Exiled hasn’t premiered yet, but a preview appeared on MTV last night. What I saw in the preview lacked any semblance of taste. Some of the girls from the original Sweet Sixteen series are now being ‘exiled’ to ‘remote’ regions of the globe by their parents. They will be filmed as they live with rural host families, and struggle to adjust to a lifestyle that is typical for most members of the human race.

The girls are being exiled by their parents under the guise of a caring attempt to teach them to appreciate the wealth and opportunity they take for granted. In reality, these forays into the global south are just reality television’s latest attempt to exploit truly poor people, and use them as the backdrop for wealthy people’s adventures in introspection. I could only cringe and ball my fists as I watched one girl moan as she was told she would be living in Kenya with the cattle herding Maasai tribe.  

A preview of the series can be viewed at the linked website above (I’m having trouble embedding). I urge everyone to show MTV what they think and opt out of this series.

[President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa with President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe today at Harare airport. Alexander Joe/Agence France-Press/Getty Images]

I’m filing this picture under completely egregious and unbelievable. That’s all I have to say. 

From around the web…

• What would you pay for a three-headed coconut tree? Scientists in Ivory Coast think their hybrid plant is worth $1 million. They say the hybrid tree “could substantially boost the tropical nut’s yield.” For that price I hope they’re right. 
• In Zimbabwe, you can now show a certificate to prove that you’ve had the beating you deserve. As usual, the ruling party (ZANU-PF) seems completely unconcerned about covering their tracks. They are issuing signed statements to victims of attacks, so that they will not have to endure more than one beating. How thoughtful. 
• Last weekend, thieves broke into the official residence of South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki. They scaled the roof and stole between R20,000 and R30,000 of aluminum. Contractors had been installing the aluminum to protect against lightening. You would think that there would be great security at Mahlambandlovu, but apparently not.

Weird and ignorant:

• A baby African antelope born in a Lancashire zoo has been given the name Kamili. The newspaper article entitled, “Baby Antelope’s Name Just Perfect,” explains that Kamili is the “African word for ‘perfection.’” Since when is African a language? Last time I checked, kamili translated from Swahili as ‘exactly,’ so I’d love to which language this translation comes from. 

Kamili or something like that

I could not stop grinning as I read a brief human interest story posted by the BBC today. A South African woman who is in the process of divorcing her husband, is trying to shame him for his infidelity by posting a sign on her car that lists his indiscretions. She is hoping that her former spouse will be shamed into paying the maintenance (alimony) that he owes.

The poster on the boot of her car reads:

If my soon-to-be-ex-husband thinks he can: 
bed down cheap women, 
buy them underwear, 
wine and dine them in the best restaurants, 
take them on five-star holidays, 
take ‘excite’ tablets for erectile dysfunction, 
go out boozing each night AND not pay me my maintenance as ordered by court,
and think I will take no action, he has another thing coming.

You go girl! The woman, who remains unnamed for legal reasons, commented to the Die Burger newspaper,

I decided to make a peaceful point for women everywhere who struggle to get their maintenance.

That takes some ovaries! Nice work!

If you’d like to the know the basic story of Robert Mugabe’s life but don’t feel like wading through one of the many biographies, view the two part series “Dealing With Mugabe.” The film is written and narrated by Mark Anderson, and is conveniently available on YouTube. I’ve posted parts I & II below. The total run time is about seventeen minutes, and I highly recommend watching. 

• Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe by Martin Meredith
• Paperback 244 pages
• Published in the United States by PublicAffairs (2002, 2003, 2007) 
• Previously published under the title Our Votes, Our Guns
• My rating: 2 out of 5 chapatis

About a month ago I went to my local bookstore in search of a particular tome on Sudan. While perusing the shelves, I came face-to-face with Robert Mugabe. His wizened visage stared out at me from the cover of Martin Meredith’s recently updated biography, practically mocking my ignorance of his no-doubt fascinating life. What an excellent opportunity to learn more about the man holding Zimbabwe hostage, I thought. I grabbed the book off the shelf and headed for the cash register (I never did find the book I was originally seeking. I was too excited to head home and dive into my new find). 

Well I dove in all right, but I could tell almost immediately that Mugabe wasn’t the gem that I thought it would be. I should be up front and state that I had certain expectations when I bought this book. One of them was that I would be educated in some detail about Robert Mugabe’s early life, educational background, and career as a freedom fighter. Meredith’s book did not give me the level of detail that I was looking for at all. I can understand if copious information is not available about Mugabe’s youth since many of the people who educated him may well be dead, but I’m sure that there must be people around to interview that could provide background on the time he spent in prison, as well as Ghana and Mozambique. After finishing the sections on Mugabe’s early life, I felt like I was left with a very rough sketch of what could have been a fantastic portrait. 

My feelings of dissatisfaction continued as I became further engaged in the book. Major events such as the 2005 Murambatsvina campaign (better known to foreigners as the episode where Mugabe razed urban slums leaving around 700,000 people homeless)  garnered only five pages of discussion. Similarly, there was minimal analysis of Zimbabwe’s involvement in Congo’s war or the horrifying Gukurahundi campaign. Nevertheless, I slogged through this book because it does provide some crucial insights (mostly in the form of Mugabe’s own quotes) into how such a promising man went so very bad.

Meredith’s quite simple thesis is that Mugabe is a man obsessed with power. He writes, “Power for Mugabe is not a means to an end, but the end itself.” He argues that Mugabe might have become a teacher (his desired profession) if not for the oppressive colonial regime under which he was born. While in prison Mugabe determine that the best course of action was to overthrow the whites and replace them with a one-party Marxist military regime. Mugabe never did get his forced victory over the white population (a negotiated settlement was reached), but he worked diligently to institute the one-party state that he had dreamed of for years. As I write, he is still working to achieve this goal. 

I majored in African Studies okay? Okay?!!! 

Maybe I’m a little defensive because people can’t seem to figure out what my degree means or how it will be useful to me in my future pursuits. 

While my shiny new BA in African Studies hasn’t brought forth tantalizing job offers from the plethora of DC-based non-governmental organizations working in the arena of African affairs, it has without fail provided a conversation starter at any and all events I attend: 

• At the airport, on my way home: I’m asked if I’ve done any mission work in Africa. The people inquiring were missionaries, and were also convinced that they could help me to walk again, if 1. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior 2. I allowed them to lay hands upon me. I declined their kind offer.
• Filling in at my father’s office building: A client asks my college major, and upon finding out, launches into a horrible racist diatribe about local resettled African refugees. I politely disagreed with him, and he later called back to apologize. 
• At the social service agency where I volunteer: blank stares, long pause, and then something along the lines of, “mmm. What are you planning on doing with that?” 
• At my grandparents house: My grandfather kindly reminds me that I can still switch to a career in banking. He was disturbed by my professed desire to work at one of those “low paying NGOs.” 

I happen to LOVE the fact that I majored in African Studies. I am positive that it was the right decision, and I know that I’ll find the career I want, even if I end up getting paid in wooden nickels. In the meantime, I try to enjoy the absurd conversations that I have with people, and remind myself to use those times as ‘teachable moments.’  

Poking around the web recently, I found myself on Dibusse Tande’s blog Scribbles From the Den. Tande’s site covers his “personal views on people, places, issues and events in Cameroon, Africa and the world.” Scrolling through the posts, I found one that caught my eye: “Where’s the Outrage? Video on “Breast Ironing” in Cameroon. Before viewing the attached video, I did not know about breast ironing. It turns out that I’m not alone in my ignorance of the practice. Many people who left comments on Tande’s blog expressed shock that this was occurring (most were from Cameroon).   

Personally I’m really sad that breast ironing happens. At the same time, I think I can see why mothers are engaged in the practice: they love their daughters and want them to be successful. But that’s just my opinion. If you want to see a diversity of viewpoints on one topic from people all over the world, visit the comment sections on these sites:

Current.com; Breast Ironing

Scribbles From the Den: Where’s the Outrage?

Feministing: “Breast Ironing” in Cameroon 

Today many Zimbabweans moved a bit closer to their dream, only to be knocked back again. The presidential poll results were finally announced, confirming what everyone already knew: Morgan Tsvangirai took the day with 47.9% of the vote. Unfortunately, Mr. Tsvangirai did not pass the 50% majority needed to win outright. Zimbabwe’s dream is deferred again, and the candidates will most likely stand in a run-off vote.

A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

-Langston Hughes