Guess I wasn’t the only one who noticed the political minefield into which a Ugandan junior minister stepped when he suggested Kampala might arrest Bashir during an upcoming visit. Read the Daily Nation article here.
Africa
Would Museveni arrest Bashir?
An article in Uganda’s Independent yesterday suggested that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir could face arrest if he visits Kampala for the 2009 Smart Partnership Dialogue. (This happened while International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo was in town, so maybe it’s just lip service.) What I found interesting, though, is that a country that has beef with Sudan over matters totally unrelated to the charges agains Bashir–charges over his involvement in the Darfur conflict–might be in a position of arresting the Sudanese leader. As the article puts it rather innocently: Continue reading
Obama is handling Darfur
In August 2007, at the commencement of the Dream for Darfur torch relay, Mia Farrow and an 8 year old Darfurian refugee walk into a sandstorm near the Sudan-Chad border. By the Genocide Intervention Network, used with a Creative Commons license via flickr. (See my comments on this photo at the end of the post!)
Visit the Save Darfur website these days and it’s hard to tell what the coalition thinks of Obama’s approach to Sudan. The news stories the site highlights on the left seem to be chosen to show the president’s inaction; the blog posts that the SDC folks author seem to cautiously praise him. Overall, I’ve sensed frustration with Obama emanating from the SDC camp — despite Obama’s appointment of Scott Gration as special envoy to Sudan, per the coalition’s request to appoint an envoy. It seems like the coalition doesn’t think he’s been bold enough.
The History Channel’s horrible new show about Africa
I only had to see five minutes of the History Channel’s new “reality” show, Expedition Africa, to know something was seriously wrong. The show sends four Americans to follow in the steps of 19th Century explorers Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone, who opened up the interior of Africa to European exploitation.
The first episode opens with a montage of the four American adventurers whom the show follows through “wild Africa” exclaiming their enthusiasm for traveling in the footsteps of Stanley, who they say was a “hero” and the “the ultimate explorer.” Their goal is to “resurrect the spirit of Stanley.” These clips are spliced with scenes of African animals and (in another segment) clips of a couple of tribespeople. Then, the narrator takes us to “the exotic island of Zanzibar” with “its clear beautiful water and dark past … as the Mecca of the Arab slave trade.” (Cue image of dusky woman in a niqab and statues of Africans chained together by their necks. Then more shots of crocodiles and snakes.) Continue reading
Music Break: Asa
The self-titled debut album of Nigerian singer Asa (pronounced ASH-ah) came out in 2007, but her hit record “Fire on the Mountain”‘s mere 2,800 views on YouTube tells me that, like me until a month ago, you probably haven’t heard of her.
That’s a shame, because Asa’s beautiful melodies and clean, fresh song-writing are some of the best I’ve heard in a while. Her music is R&B meets Hip Hop meets folk, and she sounds like a cross between Bob Marley, Traci Chapman and, at times, Lucinda Williams. Have a listen/watch:
In praise of Prendergast
After I wrote the Huffington Post piece on the John Prendergast-Mahmood Mamdani debate, I sort of felt like pro-Prendergast bloggers thought their man was under attack for no reason. It’s not that he always gets everything wrong, though–and that wasn’t the point of my article. For example, I like this CSM column on being a conscious electronics consumer so you don’t inadvertently contribute to conflict in the Congo. Continue reading
In the shadow of the Third Mainland Bridge
Marco Werman of PRI’s The World: Global Hit sent this audio postcard from Lagos a few weeks ago. He took a boat trip from the slums on the edge of the lagoon to the Third Mainland Bridge, the notoriously clogged freeway that connects Lagos’s mainland to the islands, and which I drove over every day while there. But Werman had a much more relaxing experience there than I did…
The best review of Saviors and Survivors so far
Only Alex de Waal could write such a thoughtful review of Saviors and Surivors, Mahmood Mamdani’s book about Darfur. He manages to praise Mamdani for his unparalleled critical insight, while also questioning some of the more conspiracy-theory-sounding aspects of the analysis. Take a look at “‘Save Darfur’: Emancipatory American Exceptionalism?”
Mamdani Prendergast debate: the video footage
So glad this is (finally) up! If you’ve got a spare few hours, you can check it against my Huff Post article.
This is not how the Prendergast/Mamdani debate went down…
I had to share this post from change.org since it refers to my Huffington Post piece.
This change.org post is not a very good description of the debate. It sounds like what Prendergast would’ve written had he been allowed to write a press release rather than actually debate Mamdani.
I agonized over the Huffington Post piece — I didn’t want to paint an overly critical picture of Prendergast’s performance just because I admire Mamdani’s critical thinking. And I don’t think I did a bad job — unlike other bloggers out there, I made no mention of Prendergast’s clothing, hairstyle or any other comments irrelevant to the debate. On the other hand, I also did not dwell on the people in the question-and-answer session who attacked Mamdani for a couple of reasons: (1) they seemed to be speaking with an agenda — not necessarily a bad thing, but their comments did not respond to what Mamdani had actually said and (2) in at least a couple of cases the questions were ugly personal attacks against Mamdani that he did not deserve. Speakers accused him of being a liar, a bad Muslim and basically complicit in the killings in Darfur. Whatever else you may say about him, Mamdani certainly does not deserve that kind of slander. I do not think it would have been valuable to repeat those things in my Huffington Post piece. Continue reading
Eamon Kircher-Allen 