African Blog Roundup
African Bullets and Honey (http://bulletsandhoney.blogspot.com/) reports on a Times of London article on “The Love Affair Between the Maasai and the English!”.
The language of the article is blatantly racist and mimics something out of a 19thCentury travel journal through “darkest Africa” to serve the tables of Victorian Britain in the construction of race and racism!
“The Masai embodied everything the English yearned to believe about primeval Africa; they were tall and slender and handsome, noble savages who looked the part, brave to the point of foolishness, peerless hunters and trackers...The only mammalian bipeds allowed to walk through the vigorously wardened spot are the Masai, who follow their bony cattle to waterholes and salt licks, lean ruminatively on their lion-killing lotus-bladed spears, and generally pretty up the place in their red togas, muddy punk hairdos and elaborate jewellery.”
Ghanaian blogger Life of David (http://davidmends.blogspot.com/) exposes corruption and misdeeds by the British government’s Department of International Development (DFID) in which some £18million in aid to Ghana was “blown” away.
Sticking with the theme of “corruption”, Nigerian blogger Grandiose Parlour (http://grandioseparlor.blogspot.com/) reminds us that corruption in Nigeria is still alive and kicking this time in the form of Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
"…Nigeria Vice President Atiku Abubakar broke the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on December 1, 2000. This is one and a half years after becoming the Vice President of Nigeria. On that day, he and his wife, Jennifer, bought a mansion in Maryland for $ 1,750,000. The house, a two storey building was constructed in 1988. The land area is about 2.3 acres. Today, that house is valued at over two million dollars.”
The VP has since had his home in the US searched by FBI agents but of course he is already denying any wrong doing saying:
"You see, I went to the US when I was in exile, when Abacha hunted us out, when we asked him to handover to a civilian government, then I have been having a home in that place and of course my wife has been having a home in that place since 1994. So what are you talking about?”
Nothing much has changed then has it?
A refreshing story from Inside Somaliland (http://insidesomaliland.blogtales.com/) on Somali music and instruments in which she focuses on “Dararamle, a very well known Somali singer/composer in the country”. Some great pictures here as well.
Exactly one year ago 10 people died in an explosion at a Sasol petrochemical plant in Secunda, South Africa. Mzansi Afrika (http://mzansiafrika.typepad.com/mzansi_afrika/2005/08/sasol_watch.html) reminds us the multinational Sasol, has done everything in its power to hamper the enquiry into the murderous blast.
“For one thing, the petro giant has refused to make their own internal inquiry into the accident public, for another they have paid minimal compensation to the families of those killed or injured. Many of those affected by the incident were contract workers, and because they were not directly employed by Sasol, the corporation was able to avoid paying any compensation other than covering hospital bills and funeral costs.”