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 fimbo writes:
Story by Evan Mwangi
Publication Date: 6/18/2006
Title: You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir
Author: Wole Soyinka
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2006
Prof. Wole Soyinka 
A new memoir by the first African winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka endorses Kenya’s armed
struggle for independence, discusses the use of the World Cup madness by people with a dictatorial mindset to win political
mileage, and salutes the role of Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o in the struggle against dictatorship.
In the memoir, entitled You Must Set Forth at Dawn and to be in stock soon at Bookpoint, Nairobi, Soyinka explains why he
could not visit Ngugi in
detention in the 1970s, and details the role a writers’ association he was involved in requested actor and insurance magnate
Femi Johnson to come to Nairobi, under the guise of attending an insurance brokers’ meeting, to secretly give money to
Ngugi’s family and find out about the writer’s condition in detention. Femi, who acted in Soyinka's Madmen and Specialists,
and later built the only other skyscraper in Ibadan, accomplished his mission with assistance from Micere-Mugo.
"Even more important than immediate monetary relief was the need to establish contact, to get a message to Ngugi that we were
not simply sitting on our hands, indifferent to his predicament," writes Soyinka.
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 fimbo writes:
By Dan Okoth
The recent acquittal of former South African President Jacob Zuma shows an emerging pattern of vice-presidents engulfed in the mire of political backstabbing and raw ambition.
African presidential deputies are not an enviable lot. In Kenya, former Vice-Presidents Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Josephat Karanja, George Saitoti and Musalia Mudavadi drank from the cup of sorrows, and it still overflows.
But the colourful mosaic of anguished vice-presidents and presidential challengers is evident in Africa’s other big names, including South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Sudan and Nigeria.
There is a link between VPs’ woes, extensions of presidential terms and the battle for survival by in*****bent presidents. Sometimes, it also involves former presidents extending their hands from political oblivion.
In other cases, a conspiracy of silence, "higher authorities" and "fate" has helped to keep the Number Twos in their place better than any wily president could imagine.
In Kenya, President Kibaki has not said a word about the accusations of corruption against Vice-President Moody Awori. The allegations relate to the infamous Anglo Leasing scandal, in which Kenya is said to have lost billions of shillings in dubious security procurement tenders.
Botswana’s Festus Gontebanye Mogae is also silent about cries by MPs about vice-president Ian Khama’s authoritarianism. He recently threatened to dissolve Parliament if MPs did not endorse Khama’s presidential bid. Khama is also the minister for presidential affairs in charge of communications, the Botswana Defence Forces, police, the media and the civil service, leaving other ministers with little to handle.
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fimbo writes:
Olusegun Obasanjo - President of Nigeria  Publication Date: 06/02/2006 - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo’s backers had placed much hope on the international community’s support for his third term bid because of his economic reforms and his central role in resolving conflicts in Africa. But what he got was opposition every step of the way, writes Tony Eluemunor
Surprise! That is the word to describe the killing of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo’s bid to prolong his tenure on May 16. Weeks after the bid died, Nigerians are still asking the question: “How was it killed?”
Granted that the President and his pointmen in the third term project that had heightened tension in the country had appreciated the fact that they lacked the two-thirds majority votes in the National Assembly to advance their bid, yet, such little matters made them even more determined to employ state powers to win legislators to their side.
It was for the lack of the required number of votes that the President’s supporters suspended, as it were, the administration’s much-touted anti-corruption stance and reportedly began to shell out bribes of over US$357,000 to each member of the House of Representatives and US$500,000 to each Senator. The true picture of the magnitude of the alleged bribery would only be appreciated if one considers that Nigeria’s House of Representatives has 360 members while the Senators are 109.
Where would the President’s men have got such a large war chest with which to prosecute this bribery war? No, the President did not need to raid the Central Bank of Nigeria, or to divert the proceeds from the excess crude oil revenue (whatever accrues to the nation that is above the budgeted figure. For the 2006 budget, the benchmark expected revenue is $33 per barrel, but oil has hovered around the $70 mark).
Observers point out that the first task President Obasanjo embarked on was to reward loyal business tycoons with concessions that would make their bank accounts overflow with money. Since 2003, Nigeria has been seized by a privatisation frenzy in which a favoured “loyalist” would bag a choice enterprise at a give-away price, or if he did not want the hassles of running a business, he would just shop for investors and walk away with tons of dollars as commission. It is also not unheard of for an oil block to be farmed out to the highly connected in Abuja these days. So, whenever the President needed cash, he would just beckon the business community.
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 Fimbo writes:
By Arthur Asiimwe
Reuters, April 17, 2006
Rwanda Genocide Victims.  Picture - People pay their respects in front of dozens of coffins containing the remains of more than 600 victims of the 1994 genocide, during a commemoration in Kigali, Rwanda April 7, 2006. Three films in two years about Rwanda's genocide have shocked Western audiences with the scale and savagery of the slaughter, but many survivors in the tiny central African nation are unimpressed with the big-screen's wrong depictions of the carnage. Picture taken April 7, 2006.
Three films in two years about Rwanda's genocide have shocked Western audiences with the scale and savagery of the slaughter, but many survivors in the tiny central African nation are unimpressed.
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Fimbo writes:
....... Europe's New "Benevolence"
There is now an appealing new school of thought spreading in Western Europe which, on the surface, would make any well-meaning African jump with joy to embrace the dawn of salvation. But it contains more ominous implications.
This new "edict" on Africa, coined by the English and their Dutch cousins, stipulates, among others, that the basis of aid, from now on, must be demonstrative good governance, freedom from corruption and the establishment of democratic credentials. This, in itself, is a laudable position in view of the current wave of mediocrity and mass theft instituted by individuals calling themselves leaders. The problem is the criteria Europe is adopting and some of the reasons given for Africa's sad state of affairs.
British Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain summarized Britain's new African "edict" as one geared towards "rooting out corruption" and denying aid to countries whose leaders "siphon off profits into their pockets." He said other colonial powers such as the Dutch, France and Italy, have indicated they will dance the British African music.
In a White Paper on Africa filled with "benevolent" intentions, the Dutch are more specific:
"Good governance is absolutely vital not only in order to attract foreign capital, but also to ensure that ...funds are properly allocated and that there is higher ratio of domestic savings and investment. The key features(in their policy) are the integrity, efficiency and effectiveness of the civil service. Control of the government (including the armed forces), legal certainty for the population and participation administrative processes are all essential aspects..."
Among successful candidates for Dutch aid in the coming years, "Africa's success stories", are Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire,( no way knowing what will follow after this shinning star slipped off track with a recent coup) Burkina Faso, Mali, South Africa, etc. The Hague and London believe these deserve more money because they have shown seriousness towards economic reforms and democratization. If so, ( and one must use "economic reforms" and "democratization" guardedly when dealing with Africa) why should anyone complain? Why should victims of heightened corruption and terror in Africa complain when aid is denied thieves and killers masquerading as leaders around the world's poorest continent?
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