Today is a good day to be in Africa. Sitting in a bus leaving Mbale district on my way to the small rural community of Bulambuli, in north eastern Uganda, it strikes me how really true it is that “Africa is richest continent in the world”.

Sun ripened banana trees in this God-endowed rain-abundant country of golden (cheap!) fruits and tall sunflowers greet me as the bus speeds by. Rolling hills, deep ripe river-studded valleys and green expanses as far as the eye can see meet my gaze wherever I turn. The surrounding Elgon Mountain range, circling the entire Mbale region, offers the perfect backdrop to this idyllic scene. Men coming out of round-shaped mud huts, women bent cultivating between cotton rows and youth cycling away go by as if this was the most natural scene in the world. The beauty of the green-tree lined imposing mountains, the green healthy fields, the green insides of happily fed goats and cows lazily chewing on greens pastures… the beauty of the green everywhere against the radiant clear blue of the sky is indescribable. A feast for the eyes.

A wide smile spreads over my face at seeing a child, half naked trotting on his two tiny feet to chase a duck at the daily market, under the watchful eyes of his mother.

Not long after, another heart-warming scene, a man meticulously pounding on a pile of rocks breaking one rock at a time into small pieces, sweat beginning to soak his brow. He sits beneath a sheet of cloth suspended using 4 long sticks pinned to the ground, but it hardly helps. There are about five more stone piles behind him. You can just tell he plans to be there until lunch, when his wife calls him in perhaps.

I close my eyes and can almost see the other invisible villages, off the road, nested at the foot of the beautiful mountains, their residents also carrying on with their daily lot, their children playing in the rich red sand, old men sitting under the large tree drinking tea, bearing any hardship faced in their stride.

News of Colonel Moamar Ghadaffi’s death just came in. On the local paper this morning, we saw pictures of the boy who shot the president for life or so he thought Ghaddafi. Pictures of his blood-soaked corpse are shocking, but that is the fate of men who thought themselves eternal. I hope his friend Museveni here, along with all the other tenacious dinosaur presidents across Africa (Wade, Biya, Mugabe and the Bongos), see the writing on the wall. And leave while the restlessness from within and impatience for change is still containable. The Arab spring is at Every African country’s door.

Right next to me on the bus, the hearty laugh and heart-felt smile of my Ugandan neighbor, fellow African child of this rich land, privy to its simple beauties and lived sorrows, brings me off my cloud and out of my reverie, inspired by the scenery around me. Every thing in him invites me to his world. A new friend awaits to be made.
Today is a good day to be in Africa.

Tribute to Patrice Emery Lumumba, Thomas Isidore Sankara and all our courageous forefathers who still upheld their beautiful vision for what Africa could become, against all odds. They were 50 years too early. Is now the time for Africa?

This month’s AfroOptimism page is dedicated to the memory of this illustrious AfroOptimist, who gave the ultimate sacrifice for his belief that Africa could be prosperous and free: his own life. His entire life was dedicated to this vision which he made his mission on Earth, at the expense of his family life and life as a regular man, husband and father to his only daughter Juliana.

I invite you to revisit Lumumba’s life, words and vision through the video links below, and be inspired anew to work for the advancement of Africa. Then please join in the discussion of this month: “60 years after Lumumba: is the time for Africa now?”

Let us make Lumumba’s vision a reality, so that he may be smiling down from heaven with the reassurance that his sacrifice was not in vain.. RIP Congo’s Afro-Optimist.

Videos

Lumumba proclamant l’indépendance du Congo libre, le 30 juin 1960, et apportant la rétorque historique aux belges (FRENCH)

More context & background on Lumumba’s June 30 1960 Independence speech (English):

Exclusive historical footage of Lumumba live before his assassination

I can’t believe this is really all on tape!! so far back, yet so very recent.. (courtesy of Raoul Peck)

Discussion

60 years after Lumumba: is the time for Africa now?

Perhaps Lumumba, Sankara and all the visionaries at Africa’s Independence, our first missed turn, were 50 years too early. Colonial interests (la Françafrique, Belgafrique, UKAfrik, whatever you wish to label it) were then too strong, too tenacious for our first revolutionaries to win their struggle for true freedom, social justice and prosperity for Africa.

Today though, one can assert that the continent, in many of its parts at least in its urban centers, today experiences more transparency. The CIA can no longer just abduct an acting elected . The true evil role of former colonialists is now an accepted fact. The new word of the day is Partnership à la américaine, and no longer Paternalism. One can purport that in this context of waning colonial grips on the continent, there are better chances today of Africa taking off its development project, and delivering on the vision of our independence day revolutionaries, making their dream then a reality now

Does Africa have better chances today?

What new odds, opportunities and constraints, different from those at Independance day, are we confronted with today? Relative to those of the 1960s, do these new odds augur of a brighter or a darker future possible for the continent?

Is the time for Africa ripe today? Or is the time not yet ripe? Why and why not?

This is the discussion theme of the month. Afro-Optimists: let the comments galore begin!

My 2 cents

The odds that Lumumba, Sankara and co. faced are starkly different from the ones our generation of Afro-optimists face. The evil. Globalization can be used as a force for good to generate income in our income-deprived rural areas, and open up opportunities

But still tenacious is the mental colonization of our people, evident in the psyche and choices our governors make, perpetuating former extractive illegitmate institutions (Aimé Césaire’s nightmare of “black imperialists replacing the white ones” has unfortunately become reality); evident in even the most minute yet alarming practices of our people, who bleach their skins off its melalin and straighten the beautiful kinks that God has endowed us with, dying them blonde even sometimes.

These deeply-entrenched self-hate practices, the fruit of a century of foreign domination preceded by 4 other centuries of slave trade, will take a while to uproot. But seeing young girls, the new generation, in Nairobi’s upbeat streets brandishing their Afros high, and a new wave women leaders such as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , our newest Peace Nobel Laureate, taking center stage; then I lose my fears and have hope renewed that we will get there. We will be free, one day, soon.

I’ll end my 2 cents with the following thought:

Knowledge of your history is a burden. Once you know where you’ve come from, and all of the past sacrifices and lives laid down on the way to where we stand today, you can no longer remain passive. You have no option other than to take on the historic mission of making Africa’s advancement a priority, and carry on the struggle for a prosperous and bright future for the looted martyr continent.

-afrooptimist

Green Thursday in the Life of the Nation of Senegal: The Day everything Changed & Ticking bomb finally exploded

The Nation of Senegal came out in all of its flying colors today to defend the Republic and express its full sovereignty over its destiny

Green for the color of hope, green for the color of renewal, green in opposition to the oppressing claw with which the ruling party of PDS (the Parti Démocratique Sénégalais) had reigned over the country of Senegal for the past 11 years of rule–whose color of representation was blue, once the symbol of SOPI, or change, when PDS’ leader Abdoulaye Wade was elected to power in 2000 toppling a 40-year regime.

Today all across the country, flags and party houses of the PDS were burnt down in the streets, along with stoned cars, government buildings and houses of deputies known to be lieutenants in the ruling party.

Thursday June 23 was indeed a historic day in the life the Nation that we the youth of Senegal will never forget. The Nation came out, in all of its glory and fury, men and women, youth and old, poor and rich, swift politicians and lay common men/women, and took to the streets together as one to contest a law proposal orchestrated by the Presidency that was to change the rules of the electoral game to enable an easy reelection for Abdoulaye Wade for a third 7-year term in the upcoming February 2012 election –halving the minimum percentage of voters required to win at the 1^st round from 50% +1 vote to 25% of all votes expressed, and furthermore instituting  a vice-presidency, without any consultations or consensus with the people, a logical pre-requisite to such a sweeping constitutional change.

However the people of Senegal today did not just come out to contest, legitimately, the nth makeover of their constitution. They came out because this was the act too much, the drop that made the full vase tip over.

This explosion that took the form of hundreds of thousands of Senegalese men, women and youth, marching to besiege the National Assembly and the main streets of Dakar, as well as those of all regional capitals across the country (Thies, Diourbel, Kaolack, Fatick, Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor), demanding that the law proposal under examination at the National Assembly be repealed and fighting armed policemen with their bare hands and stones screaming to the top of their lungs “Y’en a marre” (We have had enough!), was the explosion of a bomb that had been ticking in my sense for the past 5years. Indeed during the 5 years past since the contested political re-election of Abdoulaye Wade in 2007, the 80+ year old president of Senegal had been lining up politico-financial scandal after politico-financial scandal, which made his once soaring popularity scores plummet. To name but a few of these: the billions of the Muslim Summit Organization squandered and mismanaged by his own son; the millions of the partial privatization of the national Electricity company, Senelec, and more recently of the Telecommunication concession leased to a less competitive third party different from “Orange” the largest telecom provider but with whom the president had struck a back-table deal; the privatization of the National Port to a private Dubai company to whom Wade’s son was connected; the ransacking of an anti-government broadcasting company’s offices by one of Wade’s lieutenants who never went to trial for it; an unpopular gargantuan statue built using public funding but 35% of the proceeds of which went to Wade’s personal foundation; more recently the purchase of a multi-billion CFA home in the posh side of town by the president who paid for this in cash, destabilizing financial markets with such a dumping of CFAs onto the money market; multiple reported thefts of millions of CFAs in his ministers’ homes, making people raise eyebrows about how these public officials had so much money sitting in home vaults in the first place and not in public banks; the parceling and sale of the public utility lands of the National Fair which was a prime resettlement site for victims in the advent of a humanitarian crisis; the parade of brand new luxury cars in the brand new streets of the corniche linking the airport to the presidential palace while the majority of the population labored for hours in a defunct public transportation system to get to work from the cheaper housing neighborhoods of the banlieue to their workplaces in central Dakar; the housing bubble; the general air of impunity and witch hunt against anyone who dared make money outside of the president’s intimate circle; the repeated creation and dismantling of government ministries, institutions and national agencies as needed to give “a piece of the cake” to faithful followers and PDS militants, etc. The litany of scandals stretches endlessly.

The most insufferable scandal however to the Nation of Senegal –a country, it is important to note, that has had multiparty elections since 1974 when it was only 14 years of age as a country free of the colonial yoke –was the de facto grooming by Wade of his son to inherit the Republic, a rumor at first which the Senegalese people could not believe, having elected Wade through the ballot only a mere 7 years back, but which became increasingly corroborated by the series of acts posed by President and son over the past 5 years. Yet the Nation gave Wade and son a final warning still, clearly saying NO to the personalization of the State and Wade’s covert plan of a monarchic devolution of power during the 2009 legislative elections, when Abdoulaye Wade’s son, who does not speak even one of the national languages of Senegal as a descendent of French mother who lived all of his life in France, yet positioned as a headliner in PDS’ ballot list, was defeated even in his own voting center in Point E, a strong signal to the democratically-elected president to reform his ways. But Wade did not pick up on the signals and failed to read the writings on the wall. Also he could not fight off the increasing accusations of enriching himself and his family on the backs of Senegalese people and grooming his son to inherit him.

On Thursday June 23, after having suffered in relative silence months of intensive power outages in a country that had never know them, even under the most austere years of structural adjustement (Senegal after all is not Nigeria), 5 years of general gloom where Abdoulaye Wade and his parliamentary majority in the National Assembly reigned with an arrogant political fist (an error of the opposition that had boycotted the legislative rounds in 2007 over calls of electoral fraud by Wade to win his second mandate) throttling the country and brazenly appropriating all of its assets (lands, deeds, natural resources, inflowing aid) getting richer and richer, while the majority excluded from the “goody basket” of the State met only shrinking opportunities, rising prices, long nights without power and “no thank you”s to the limited number of jobs still available but to which hundreds of desperate job-seekers fresh out of Senegal’s first-rate universities and professional schools lined up for. That angry youth today mostly, jobless, broke, lost in its quest for values, with nowhere to turn to, and hungry for change, is the one that took to the streets to state loudly that they were fed up of a regime that no longer served their interests, but is own.

The People of Senegal took to the streets today to decry the hijacking of their country by a band of self-interested politicians –from all across the spectrum- and of their freewill by the same occasion.

What took place in Senegal today was most of all a reclaiming by a People of a voice they thought they had a lost, and a dignity even themselves had forgotten they had.

What was most touching to me today watching this day of uprising that shook the young Nation jolting it awake was the diversity of the people who took to the streets –it started yesterday with a handful of determined youth from the movement “Y’en a Marre” (urban rappers and disillusioned youth for the most part) and opposition leaders, of whom a few took dramatic steps to awaken the dignified spirit of the Senegalese people, such as Cheikh Bamba Dieye, mayor of Saint-Louis and minority deputy in the national assembly, who singled himself out by chaining himself to the gates of the National Assembly 2 days before the vote to symbolize how this new law, if passed in assembly on Thursday, would render the condition of the Senegalese man, chained forever to Wade’s dictatorial regime. However by yesterday, eve of the fateful National Assembly vote, men, women and youth from all walks of life were out on the streets.

This morning- the riots had reached their paroxysm. The rallying order was to all assemble at Place Soweto, in front of the gates of the National Assembly, and let the voice of the people be heard that the people of Senegal did not want this Law. It was anti-democratic and would give full powers to Wade to implement his foul scheme of devolving power to his son by naming him vice-president –before taking off on a golden retirement paid by our public dimes. Given that the National Assembly deputies, from the PDS ruling party by large measure, no longer represented us, it was time to let them hear us- and loud. In the wee hours of the day, the prior day rioters who had gone home to revive their forces posted out on Place Soweto forming a human barrier against the deputies trying to enter the National Assembly. By 10am, a thousand university students left the University Cheikh anta Diop on the corniche and ran in thirty minutes the ten kilometers separating them from Place Soweto, doubling in size on their way picking along anyone who could join the struggle. The national board examinations for 6^th graders in progress were disrupted as marching students took the examiners out of the classrooms forcefully –encouraging them to join the Revolution. I was very touched to see what happened then: the well-to-do bankers, government officials, NGO workers, back office workers, private company bosses, established colleagues and heads of households all across Dakar who had all to lose, all left their offices all at once with the outcry “when the day of death has arrived those who continue to live are not men!” (translation of an old Wolof proverb sang in praise to warriors before the day of reckoning). What was most fantastic was that the women were the first on the streets. They had declared their intent the day before at a planning meeting led jointly by the opposition leaders and civil Forum where one woman took the microphone and stated” if you the men want to stick to meeting rooms and are too afraid to take to the streets, we will” and they formidably did, in all of their anger and determination. And we know that whatever women start will not end until they prevail. It literally gave me the goose bumps as I saw the image of a veiled young woman –symbol of obedience and passivity –who found a way through the middle of the agitated mob on Place Soweto brandishing a large stone in her hands and sent it crushing down back the head of a National Assembly Deputy who was trying to enter the Assembly to vote in favor of the law.

As the day of protest continued, people from everywhere –apparently buses on end sent in from Saint-Louis and Kaolack pouring in more people onto the streets of Dakar- joined in, filling the ranks of the fast thickening mob in front of the National assembly and all across the capital. In Medina, Sacré-Coeur, Niari Tali, Thiaroye, Pikine, Guédiawaye, all of the streets pulsed with thde anger of the citizens, with the heart of the mob at Place Soweto pulsating energy and volition through the city’s main arteries in an interlinked chain of anger and determination. Pandemonium broke loose with police forces being fast overwhelmed, not knowing what front to fight off as hundreds of foyers of dissent opened simultaneously all throughout the city, and the country.

But the people who did not come to Dakar also marched in their regions- in Diourbel the entire PDS party house was ransack and burnt down to ashes. Not a single bench was even left behind for future PDS members in that impoverished town in the center of Senegal to sit and orchestrate further lootings of the region’s resources.

Being in Senegal today was like seeing scenes from a movie one thought could have never been possible in this peaceful stable country of West Africa, once hailed as the beacon of democracy on the continent and a haven of stability amidst its warring despotic neighbors in the sub-region. All across the country, people marched on, unwavering, firing stones at the police and running back strategically when the policemen fired back with hot water hoses poured in from large towering tank onto the mob and tear gas to will. Blood of civil victims and police officers alike lined the streets, mixing with stone detritus and heavy tear gas fumes fogging the air. It was a guerilla fight- one led by ordinary citizens who turned into street fighters for the day with the war cry “We have had enough!”.

The people marched on through the day harangued by their conviction and knowledge that now that the bomb had finally erupted, there was no turning back. In unison all across the country people chanted and wore the slogan “Y’en a Marre”, and placards could be seen waved by many, written over makeshift cardboards with felt pen or quickly printed over A4 paper, stating “Touche pas à ma constitution!” (‘Don’t touch my Constitution!), “Wade dégage” (Wade Get out!), or again “La police ne tirez pas sur le people, nous défendons la meme cause” (Police officers, don’t shoot on us we defend the same cause). Spontaneous citizen volunteers went to buy megaphones to direct the flow of the mob, cooked food, provided shelter, water and support the retreating street fighters.

This was an unprecedented formidable demonstration of spontaneous popular freewill that nothing, no-one was able to hold back.

By the afternoon when the people’s mobilization was not decelerating but rather going crescendo, Wade, advised by all of the country’s religious, military, and diplomatic figures, even lieutenants in his own party sitting in the National Assembly defending the law proposal but fearful for their lives, finally commissioned one of his majority Deputies to announce in Assembly that he was repealing the Law proposal.

The country then exploded in one outcry of joy. We the people had won! Democracy had prevailed! The voice of the people in all of its supremacy had been asserted.

Many in the mob wanted to remain on, waiting to ambush the exiting “Deputies of the people”, others wanted to continue the march to depose the president at his palace, true to the proceedings of Tahrir Square in Tunisia. But discouraged by leaders and more concerned with freeing the arrested comrades whom the Police got to lay hands on, the mob marched on to the central Police Station of Dakar instead.

Green was the feeling in the air of the day as People celebrated.

Green for the color of hope, green for the color of renewal, green in opposition to the oppressing claw of the ruling party of PDS that that has reached its ending, through the will of the people, who had elected its leader to power in the first place 11 years ago, and today demonstrated its ability to depose him from power if it so willed.

The tragedy of the end of 11 years of PDS reign represents however a new beginning for a nation that FINALLY came out of its stupor to contest its endemic atmosphere of economic morbidity, injustice and impunity, and in the end prevailed. Green Thursday indeed in the life of the young West African Nation.

Today the People of Senegal enabled their transition to a new era for their country, and Africa’s democracy: it is the era of Civil Society. The small country of Senegal has demonstrated once more the grandeur of its democracy, and the maturity of its Nation.  I believe Senegal will never be the same after this historic day. 2 dead and 145 gravely injured was the bitter price to pay. But never again is the song sung by all the hearts as people go to bed in Senegal tonight.

Arame Tall

PS from the author: Today more than ever I
am proud to be Senegalese. We have won and prevailed over the antidemocratic
forces of Wade and his despotic regime. Congratulations to the People of
Senegal for your bravery! Congratulations on standing up as one man to fight
for your dignity throwing all fear away! All of you who took to the streets
yesterday, and all those of you who harbored and supported the street fighters
from your homes, I salute you! It is the victory of freedom over injustice
today, of democracy over oligopoly, as the voice of the People was re-asserted
today across all the towns, cities, and streets of the Republic through the
bare hands and sheer bravery of ordinary citizens who took to the streets to
express their self-determination.

Today Senegal is a different country. Gacce Ngalama to all the street fighters
of yesterday! You have my deepest respect, and I am today very proud to be a
citizen of Senegal, once again. I thank you for having reinstated the Dignity
of our Nation.

Worlwide bloggers are contributing their two cents and their optimism, as the UN dedicates a whole page to the event [http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/social/intldays/IntlDay/index.html], as it has every year since the inception of this commemorative day on October 17 1987, but as we acclaim and celebrate and infuse renewed hopes to “Make Poverty history” on the world stage, in countries such as Senegal where this change is supposed to take place no-one knows of World Poverty Day, and making Poverty History is certainly not on the agenda. At least, not as of yet.

Indeed the headlines of this day, a regular day in the life of the land are: “Abdoulaye Wade son’s, Karim Wade, secures inflow of significant funding for road investments”, “Minister X defends the achievements of Karim Wade”, “Abdoulaye Wade has achieved since his accession to power more than the previous regime ever did, purports the National Assembly head”, “In the holy city of Touba, the citizenry movement Yamale collects a few more hundred signatures from the Kalifr” “Fashion: A new trend has women hoisting their breasts to increase their sex appeal”…

“The gap between the smallness of our politics and the magnitude of our challenges is what troubles me” wrote Barack Obama in his Audacity of Hope.

When is Ending poverty ever going to be a priority in the countries concerned where poverty is seen as second nature, the norm? When is it ever going to get on national agendas as a priority issue, one vociferously pushed forward by citizens and diligently put to practice by their governors? Most of all: One felt urgently as the central moral challenge of our age as Koffi Annan simply described it?

WHEN?

These are the questions that are rattling through my brain on this World Poverty Day 2010 spent in Dakar, Senegal, one of the world hotspots for this poverty that the world seeks to eradicate.

Happy celebration nonetheless to all, A Happy World Poverty Day! May rescourse come, and come fast, so that Making Poverty History can become a real priority on the ground, put on the agenda by the governors and citizens .

Content courtesy of: Prof. Ibrahima Sene

—
L’agriculture au Sénégal
par Ibrahima Sène

Agro-économiste, responsable du département Economique et social du comité central du Parti de l’indépendance et du travail (PIT – Sénégal).

Ibrahima Sène est agro-economiste, secrétaire du Comité Central du Parti de l’Indépendance et du Travail du Sénégal (PIT-SENEGAL), responsable du Département Économique et Social du Comité Central.

En Afrique, la question de la promotion de l’Agrobusiness est présentée comme la voie royale pour l’avènement d’une agriculture moderne, productive et compétitive, tournée vers l’exportation, considérée un puissant stimulant pour les investisseurs.

L’exportation et l’investissement sont, dans ce cadre, considérés comme les deux vecteurs principaux d’une croissance forte et durable pour sortir nos pays de la pauvreté.

C’est dans cette optique que le Gouvernement du Président Wade avait élaboré un Projet de Loi d’orientation Agricole.

Ce projet de Loi se donnait comme un de ses objectifs majeurs, la mise en œuvre d’une réforme foncière, axée sur l’option d’octroi de titres privés sur les terres du Domaine National, pour promouvoir un marché foncier rural et développer le crédit hypothécaire destiné aux agriculteurs.

Ce marché foncier, assis sur la création des conditions d’une plus grande sécurité foncière, est présenté comme un cadre judiciaire indispensable à la promotion de l’investissement dans la production agricole, pour attirer le Privé dans le développement des bases de l’Agrobusiness dans notre pays.

Le Gouvernement, de concert avec les Institutions de Bretton Woods, a souvent déclaré qu’il existe au Sénégal un problème foncier causé par certaines dispositions de la Loi de 1964 du Domaine National qui bloquent l’investissement privé dans l’Agriculture et l’Industrie, par conséquent la promotion de l’Agrobusiness.

C’est dans ce cadre que l’Agence pour la Promotion des Investissements et des Exportations (APIX) avait soutenu, que « le problème de l’accès à la terre qui se pose risque d’hypothéquer 25 milliards d’investissement disponibles »

Ce cri d’alarme de l’APIX devait permettre de démarrer la phase de préparation psychologique nécessaire pour faire accepter par l’opinion, le projet de Loi d’Orientation Agricole comme la solution au blocage de la modernisation de l’agriculture sénégalaise, confondue par les tenants du Pouvoir avec la promotion de l’Agrobusiness.

Le climat de flou ainsi crée et entretenu, à propos de la question de la sécurité foncière, de la modernisation de l’agriculture et de la promotion de l’Agrobusiness, a été exploité par le Gouvernement pour publier son projet de Loi d’Orientation Agricole en 2003.

C’est ainsi que les Sénégalais ont appris que les meilleures terres du Domaine National seront recensées et gérées par une nouvelle Agence chargée de l’espace agricole qui va être créée, pour permettre au Chef de l’Etat de signer des contrats d’occupation des terres avec des exploitations commerciales et agroalimentaires, moyennant une redevance annuelle qu’elles devront verser à l’Etat, pour une période de 15 ans au moins et de 50 ans au plus.

Le Chef de l’Etat est aussi autorisé par le projet de Loi, à vendre aux investisseurs les terres gérées par l’Agence de l’espace agricole.

Ce projet de loi abolit ainsi les compétences de gestion et d’affectation qui étaient dévolues au Conseil rural sur ces terres, par la Loi sur le Domaine National et les textes de la Décentralisation et de la Régionalisation, tout en rendant encore plus difficile, l’accès à la terre aux exploitations commerciales et agroalimentaires, qui va perpétuer les freins à la promotion de l’Agrobusiness.

En effet, le versement de redevance annuelle auquel elles sont assujetties par le projet de Loi d’Orientation Agricole, rend plus onéreux leurs coûts d’installation et d’exploitation de ces terres par rapport aux dispositions actuelles de la loi sur le Domaine National qui ne prévoient aucun versement de redevance.

En outre, les terres qui n’intéressent pas l’Agence de l’espace agricole vont rester dans le domaine de compétence de Communautés rurales, qui vont disposer de dix ans de délai pour établir des plans d’occupation et d’affectation des terres, pour rendre payant le droit d’usage de celles ci par les exploitations agricoles familiales, qui peuvent par la suite, en payant à l’Etat, transformer le droit d’usage en titre foncier privé.

Mais le Projet de loi reste muet sur le fait que les exploitants agricoles, qui ne seront pas en mesure de payer la redevance à la Communauté rurale pour conserver leur Droit d’usage, ou pour rembourser le crédit hypothécaire, seront purement et simplement expropriés des terres qu’ils cultivaient de génération à génération.

Il traduit ainsi, sans équivoque, une volonté politique de liquidation de la petite exploitation agricole familiale, au profit des grandes exploitations, dont l’accroissement des superficies moyennes est explicitement visé dans le projet de Loi, pour leur créer les conditions foncières nécessaires à leur transformation en Agrobusiness.

De même, en fixant la durée minimale du contrat d’occupation des terres à 15 ans, et maximale à 50 ans, le Projet de loi restreint artificiellement le recours aux contrats d’occupation des terres, alors que la loi sur le Domaine National donne aux exploitations commerciales et agroalimentaires la flexibilité nécessaire pour ajuster leur investissement sur une période de 99 ans pour mieux rentabiliser leur coût.

Ainsi, avec ce Projet de loi, on exclut tous ceux qui veulent exploiter une opportunité sur cinq ans ou dix ans, ou qui veulent s’installer définitivement avec l’espoir de transmettre leurs affaires à leur descendance.

Cette restriction artificielle de la durée d’occupation des terres est contraire à l’option déclarée dans le Projet de Loi qui vise la création de conditions de plus grande sécurité foncière pour l’investissement privé par rapport à la loi sur le Domaine National.

Il met ainsi toutes les catégories d’exploitation agricole, quelles soient familiales, commerciales ou agroalimentaires, dans des conditions qui les obligent, pour utiliser la terre, à payer une rente foncière (les redevances) ou à l’acheter (titres privés).

Mais, à l’analyse, ces restrictions ne sont pas fortuites, car elles créent les conditions pour que l’investisseur privé opte pour l’achat des terres auprès du Chef de l’Etat, plutôt que de signer un contrat d’occupation des terres si restrictif avec les Collectivités locales, comme en dispose le projet de Loi sur le Domine National.

En outre, le Gouvernement compte sur la possibilité qu’offre ce Projet de Loi de transformer le Droit d’usage en titre foncier privé, pour faire croire à l’exploitation agricole familiale, qu’elle aura ainsi, dans dix ans, les moyens de recourir au crédit hypothécaire avec son titre foncier, pour satisfaire les besoins de financement de ses activités.

Ce sont certainement les perspectives de n’avoir droit à un titre foncier pour les exploitations familiales que dans dix ans, et le Droit réservé aux Chef de l’Etat de vendre des terres du domaine de l’Agence de l’espace agricole, qui ont dressé les organisations paysannes, les plus représentatives, pour rejeter le volet foncier de ce Projet de loi.

Elles veulent, au contraire, que le projet de Loi autorise, sans délai, que le Droit d’usage soit transformé en titre réel négociable dans des marchés fonciers locaux, pour, croient-elles, éviter la spéculation foncière, préserver l’exploitation agricole familiale contre les appétits fonciers de l’Agrobusiness, et pour promouvoir une plus grande équité entre les ruraux et les urbains en matière d’accès à la terre.

De cette manière, croient-elles naïvement, sera levée l’insécurité foncière comme obstacle à l’investissement et à la modernisation de l’exploitation agricole familiale.

Cependant, si cette option peut mettre fin à la spéculation foncière de la part des Pouvoirs Publics Locaux Décentralisés dans les collectivités locales, elle permet, par contre, aux exploitations agricoles les plus aisées et aux détenteurs de capitaux privés de devenir les nouveaux acteurs de la spéculation foncière en milieu rural.

Les victimes et les bénéficiaires potentiels de cette option de réforme foncière, dite « alternative » au projet de Loi, proposée par ces organisations paysannes, peuvent, d’ores et déjà, être identifiés, en analysant l’état actuel de l’occupation foncière en milieu rural, et les obstacles réellement rencontrés à l’investissement et à la modernisation de l’exploitation agricole familiale, qui freinent la promotion de la productivité et de la croissance dans nos pays.

Pour ce faire, le Recensement National de l’Agriculture de 1998-1999 a été analysé comme l’instrument le plus pertinent puisque le plus récent qui donne une vision complète de la situation des exploitations agricoles au Sénégal.
I. L’état actuel de l’occupation foncière.

En 1998-99, les surfaces totales emblavées ont été de 1.877.684 hectares (ha ) avec 437037 exploitations agricoles familiales, soit 4,3 ha en moyenne par exploitation.

Mais cette moyenne cache mal une répartition très inégalitaire entre les exploitations agricoles.

C’est ainsi que

* 21% des exploitations agricoles ont entre moins 0,5 ha et moins 1 ha et cultivent 2,4% des terres emblavées ;
* 30% des exploitations agricoles ont entre 1 et 3 ha et cultivent 13,3% des terres emblavées ;

Donc, 51% des exploitations agricoles ont moins de 3 ha et cultivent 15,7% des terres emblavées.

A ces exploitations agricoles se pose un véritable problème de terre pour réunir les conditions minimales de 3 ha, dans l’ancien comme dans le nouveau bassin arachidier, pour rentabiliser la culture attelée équipée de semoir et de houe ,qui est le premier stade de la modernisation de l’exploitation agricole familiale dans notre pays.

C’est cette technologie à traction asine (âne) ou équine (cheval) qui a permis à nos ruraux d’entrer dans la modernité avec le passage historique du travail manuel, pour les semis et le sarclage, à la mécanisation de ces travaux fastidieux .

En outre, le recensement a montré que 31% des exploitations agricoles ont entre 3 ha et 7 ha et cultivent 34% des terres emblavées.

A cela, s’ajoute aussi un véritable problème de terre pour réunir les conditions de surface minimales de 8 ha et accéder ainsi au second stade de la modernisation. Les conditions d’une intensification de la production agricole, avec la traction bovine équipée de Polyculteur ou d’Ariana, seraient alors réunies. L’utilisation de la charrue permettrait un travail plus profond du sol, l’enfouissement de paille, de fumier ou de compost pour améliorer les qualités productives des terres, avec une plus grande capacité de rétention de l’eau qui est capitale pour les cultures sous pluie en zone sahélienne.

Ainsi, pour des raisons de manque de terre, 51% des exploitations agricoles ne peuvent pas entrer dans le premier stade de modernisation de l’exploitation agricole, et 31% éprouvent les mêmes difficultés de terre pour accéder au second.

Pour ces 82% des exploitations agricoles, le Droit d’usage transformé en titre réel négociable ne leur ouvre pas la porte de la modernité pour insuffisance de terre, du simple fait que la modicité de leurs revenus agricoles ne leur permet pas de rentrer en compétition avec les grosses exploitations et autres détenteurs de capitaux dans un marché foncier devenu subitement spéculatif. Ce handicap foncier leur ferme toute évolution vers l’agrobusiness, qui ne peut prospérer sur ces terres qu’au prix de l’expropriation massive de ces exploitations agricoles familiales.

Par contre, pour les 18% des exploitations agricoles restantes, qui ont entre 7 ha et plus de 20 ha et qui cultivent 50,3 % des superficies emblavées, l’absence de Droit foncier est un réel frein à leur accès à la motorisation comme troisième stade de la modernisation de notre agriculture, ce qui crée les conditions de leur entrée dans l’Agrobusiness.
Le piège des titres réels négociables pour l’exploitation agricole familiale.

La réforme de la Loi sur le Domaine National, pour permettre à ces 18% des exploitations agricoles les plus grandes, de sécuriser les terres qui leur sont attribuées, est une nécessité pour qu’elles puissent accéder au crédit pour financer les investissements dont elles ont besoin pour la motorisation de leurs productions pour leur transformation en Agrobusiness.

Donc, ce sont les 18% des exploitations agricoles qui cultivent 50,3% des terres emblavées, qui vivent un véritable problème d’insécurité foncière, comme principal obstacle à l’investissement pour leur modernisation et leur transition vers l’Agrobusiness.

Mais, pour les 82% des exploitations agricoles qui cultivent 49,7% des terres emblavées ,le véritable obstacle à leur modernisation est le manque de terre ,compte tenu des exigences foncières des technologies les plus appropriées qui leur sont proposées, et n’ont aucune perspective à se transformer en Agrobusiness, dont la promotion suppose leur expropriation massive.

Il est donc illusoire de croire que l’octroi de Droit réel familial à 82% des exploitations agricoles, sans la résolution préalable de leur problème de terre, puisse leur ouvrir la voie à la modernisation de leurs productions agricoles et à leur transition vers l’Agrobusiness.

Cette illusion devient une véritable arnaque, dès que l’on associe ces Droits réels avec leur négociabilité dans des marchés fonciers locaux tels que proposé par ces organisations paysannes.

En effet, les acheteurs potentiels de ces titres réels négociables seront les agriculteurs les plus fortunés issus des 18% des exploitations agricoles qui cultivent déjà 50,3% des terres emblavées qui veulent agrandir leurs exploitations dans le cadre de la motorisation de leurs productions, et des investisseurs venant hors du secteur agricole qui cherchent à s’implanter en milieu rural.

Par contre, les vendeurs potentiels seront issus des 82% des exploitations agricoles que l’étroitesse de leur assise foncière tient en dehors de toute perspective d’investissement pour leur modernisation, et qui seront soumises par le projet de Loi à l’obligation de payer une redevance pour continuer à cultiver une terre qu’elles ont exploitée gratuitement depuis des générations.

Sous les effets conjugués de l’absence de perspectives et de la pression des besoins croissants, nombreuses seront les exploitations qui vont brader leur terre ,de la même manière qu’elles ont procédé durant les deux décennies d’Ajustement Structurel des années 80 et 90, avec le peu de matériel agricole qu’elles avaient acquis sous le Programme Agricole des années 60 et 70, sur la base d’un crédit agricole subventionné dans le cadre d’un système coopératif paysan de commercialisation des produits agricoles et d’acquisition des facteurs techniques de production .

La négociabilité de ces Droits réels va donc ouvrir la voie à la spéculation foncière et à l’expropriation massive des exploitations agricoles les plus pauvres ,et à leur prolétarisation, si l’on tient compte du fait que 44% des ménages ruraux étaient déjà en dessous du seuil de pauvreté en1994-95, et qu’ils sont 52% en 2002 au moment où le projet de Loi fut adopté en Conseil des Ministres.

Les organisations paysannes qui proposent donc une telle réforme ne remettent pas en cause l’option fondamentale du Gouvernement de transformer la terre en marchandise, vendable sur le marché, au même titre que les engrais ou le matériel agricole.

Ce qu’elles semblent remettre en cause véritablement, c’est le Droit de vendre les terres du Domaine National à des Investisseurs ,que le Projet de Loi d’Orientation Agricole veut octroyer au Chef de l’Etat, en lieu et place des Conseils Ruraux et des exploitations agricoles familiales elles-mêmes.

La non négociabilité des Droits réels fonciers du Domaine National est donc une condition incontournable pour enrayer toute spéculation foncière en milieu rural, mais aussi pour préserver les chances, pour le plus grand nombre des exploitations agricoles, de créer les conditions d’accès au second stade de la mécanisation et à la motorisation de leurs exploitations agricoles.

Une telle option n’est pas une discrimination des ruraux par rapport aux citadins, puisque dans le Domaine National en zone urbaine, les Droits réels sur la terre sont appelés « Droits de Superficie » qui ne sont pas négociables, mais permettent à l’attributaire d’une parcelle d’accéder à des conditions d’habitat assainies et modernes.

Donc, ces organisations paysannes sous le contrôle des couches moyennes, semblent oublier que ceux qui, en milieu urbain, détiennent des titres fonciers issus du Domaine National sont une minorité de privilégiés.

Ainsi, voir dans la non-négociabilité des Droits réels de l’exploitation agricole familiale un manque d’équité vis à vis des ruraux, c’est plaider, en fait, la cause des grosses exploitations qui constituent 18% du total, et celle de ceux qui rêvent d’étendre la spéculation foncière urbaine en milieu rural.
L’investissement privé et le Projet de loi d’orientation agricole

La rente foncière, que va instituer le Projet de Loi, a toujours joué un rôle de frein au développement de l’investissement privé dans l’agriculture, dans tous les pays du monde où elle a existé.

Elle a toujours aussi été considérée comme une entrave à la compétitivité de la production agricole.

C’est pour toutes ces raisons que la suppression de la rente foncière par la nationalisation de la terre a été historiquement une revendication de la classe des investisseurs privés appelés capitalistes, face au monopole féodal sur la terre.

Aujourd’hui, les conditions d’accès facile à la terre, qu’exigent les bailleurs de fonds dans les pays en développement, pour attirer l’investissement privé, sont une manière d’exonérer l’investisseur de toute redevance foncière.

Cette exigence des bailleurs de fonds est donc une traduction moderne de la revendication historique de la classe des investisseurs privés de suppression de la rente foncière.

De même, les entrepreneurs agricoles occidentaux, qui trouvent, aujourd’hui, dans la délocalisation de leurs activités en direction de nos pays, une réponse à l’exigence de plus en plus forte, de réduction, voire de suppression des subventions agricoles dans leurs pays, souhaiteraient un accès plus facile et souvent gratuit aux bonnes terres, avec une main d’œuvre peu coûteuse en terme de salaire et de sécurité sociale.

C’est dans ce cadre que la Compagnie Sucrière Sénégalaise (la CSS) et la SOCAS avaient obtenu, depuis des décennies, gratuitement les terres qu’elles exploitent dans la vallée du Fleuve Sénégal et la jouissance à perpétuité de leur droit d’usage sur ces terres, sans en avoir de titres fonciers privés.

Donc, le Projet de loi d’orientation agricole, en instaurant la rente foncière, rend le Sénégal moins compétitif pour attirer ces délocalisations, contrairement à la loi sur le Domaine National, qui rend gratuit le droit d’usage des terres pour les exploitations agricoles familiales, comme pour l’investissement privé.

Le Gouvernement compte sur l’expropriation massive de la petite exploitation agricole familiale, pour créer un immense marché de main d’oeuvre bon marché afin d’attirer l’investissement privé.

Mais la rente foncière et la précarisation des droits d’usage des terres sous contrats d’occupation, risquent d’obérer largement l’attrait qu’une masse de main d’oeuvre bon marché peut avoir chez l’investisseur privé.

Le Projet de loi d’orientation agricole conduit donc à des résultats contraires aux objectifs proclamés par le Gouvernement qui sont :

* l’attrait de l’investissement privé dans l’agriculture
* une plus grande compétitivité de l’agriculture sénégalaise
* la réduction de la pauvreté en milieu rural

Les problèmes de modernisation de l’exploitation agricole familiale

Le projet de loi d’orientation agricole est construit dans l’ignorance évidente, de ses concepteurs, des causes historiques du blocage de la modernisation de la petite exploitation familiale.

En effet, dans les années 60 et 70, la petite exploitation agricole familiale avait entamé un véritable processus de modernisation axé sur la traction animale, avec la substitution du travail manuel par l’équipement en matériel agricole (semoirs, houes) et l’utilisation de l’engrais dans le cadre d’un Programme Agricole.

Ce début de modernisation n’était pas subventionné par les autres secteurs de l’économie nationale. Au contraire, c’est bien l’agriculture qui s’auto subventionnait, à travers le Programme Agricole, et subventionnait, à travers la Caisse de Péréquation, les autres secteurs de l’économie nationale, tout en pourvoyant à l’Etat de recettes fiscales substantielles.

Pour financer l’accélération de la modernisation de la petite exploitation agricole familiale par l’intensification de la production, il fallait au moins que l’agriculture cesse de subventionner les autres secteurs de l’économie et de servir de recettes fiscales à l’Etat, afin d’utiliser tous ses excédents à cet effet.

D’où les revendications des agriculteurs pour obtenir la restitution à la production agricole de toutes ses péréquations positives et la défiscalisation de tous les facteurs techniques qui concourent à la production agricole et à la transformation de ses produits.

C’est ainsi que l’Union Nationale des Coopératives Agricoles du Sénégal (l’UNCAS) fut créée en 1978 pour porter ces revendications en faveur de la poursuite de la modernisation de la petite exploitation familiale par le biais de l’intensification de la production.

Ce sont les programmes d’ajustement structurel des années 80 et 90 qui ont brisé ce début de modernisation de la petite exploitation agricole familiale, en obligeant l’Etat à se détourner de la satisfaction de ces revendications, et à accentuer la ponction des revenus des ruraux par la confiscation même de la partie du revenu arachidier qui servait à financer le Programme Agricole, afin d’augmenter ses recettes pour mieux faire face à ses obligations de remboursement de la dette extérieure.

C’est dans ce but que l’UNCAS fut politiquement domestiquée par le Gouvernement de l’époque, et sa lutte émancipatrice et modernisatrice fut dévoyée par des politiciens affairistes imposés à sa direction par l’Etat.

Mais avec l’Alternance, suite à la ruine des filières arachidières et du riz local après trois ans seulement de règne, le Projet de Loi d’Orientation Agricole, que le Gouvernement a initié, va sonner le glas à la petite exploitation agricole familiale.

En effet, ce Projet de loi va parachever la liquidation de la petite exploitation agricole familiale, en s’attaquant à son dernier rempart que constitue le Droit d’usage gratuit à perpétuité de la terre, que devrait garantir une réforme de la loi sur le Domaine national mise en œuvre par le Conseil rural.
Conclusion

L’étroitesse foncière que connaît la grande majorité des exploitations agricoles n’est pas insoluble au Sénégal qui ,avec un potentiel de terres cultivables en zone pluviale de 3.800.000 ha n’ emblavent en moyenne par an que 2.500.000 ha ,soit une réserve foncière de 1.300.000 ha.

En zone irriguée ,le potentiel est de 228.000 ha dans la Vallée du Fleuve Sénégal, dont 75.000 ha aménagés et 45.000 ha seulement cultivés ;dans la Vallée du Fleuve Casamance, le potentiel est de 70.000 ha irrigables,dont15.000 ha aménagés et 9.000 ha seulement cultivés ; dans la Vallée de l’Anambé, le potentiel est de 8000 ha irrigables dont 600ha aménagés et 300 ha seulement cultivés.

Donc ,il n’est nullement nécessaire de créer des conditions d’expropriation massive des petites et moyennes exploitations agricoles familiales, pour réunir les conditions foncières par exploitation nécessaires pour la modernisation et l’intensification de l’ Agriculture au Sénégal, et pour qu’elle soit rentable pour l’exploitation familiale et compétitive sur le marché mondial.

Car il faut au maximum 668.667 ha pour doter de 3 ha minimum les 51% des exploitations agricoles concernées ;pour les autres 31 % qui ont entre 3 ha et 7 ha ,il faut un maximum de 524.444 ha pour les doter de 4 ha supplémentaires par exploitation pour réunir les conditions foncières de leur intensification. Il faudrait donc au total utiliser 1.200.000 ha sur les 1.300.000 ha de réserves foncières cultivables.

En zone irriguée ,la marge de manœuvre est encore plu grande pour mettre l’exploitation agricole dans des conditions de production intensive et rentable. Il suffit pour cela de doter chacune d’un minimum de 1.5 ha aménagés.

Ainsi, la transition vers l’Agrobusiness présentée comme la forme moderne d’une agriculture intensive, productive et compétitive, n’ »implique pas nécessairement la création de conditions d’expropriation massive des petites et moyennes exploitations familiales, particulièrement dans les pays sahéliens, pour laisser la place aux plus grosses et aux détenteurs de capitaux nationaux ou étrangers.

Il est possible d’opter pour une autre transition axée, d’une part :

* sur une réforme foncière appropriée qui permet de résoudre les contraintes foncières des petites et moyennes exploitations familiales vis-à-vis des exigences foncières des technologies à leur disposition, et d’autre part,
* sur la promotion d’un puissant mouvement coopératif paysan sur des bases démocratiques authentiques, qui lui permettent de renouer avec sa fonction historique d’émancipation des petits agriculteurs par une prise en charge adéquate de ses fonctions traditionnelles d’approvisionnement du monde rural en équipement, en matériel, en facteurs techniques modernes de production, en denrées et services de première nécessité, tout en assumant la commercialisation, l’exportation,voire la transformation industrielle de la production agricole en produits finis pour maximiser la Valeur Ajoutée Agricole du pays.

Dans ces conditions, l’exploitation agricole familiale peut massivement entamer sa transition vers l’Agrobusiness, qui est la forme moderne d’une exploitation agricole hautement compétitive.

See and hear Kenya’s PM statement, Raila Odinga, on new Constitution by clicking: here (courtesy of Capital FM Kenya)

See NY Times story by clicking here: Kenyans Approve New Constitution

Kenyans approve New Constitution

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN (Courtesy of: NY Times)
Published: August 5, 2010

NAIROBI, Kenya — With a new constitution overwhelmingly approved by voters, Kenyan politicians are now talking excitedly about their country’s golden future.

“Kenya has been reborn,” declared Kiraitu Murungi, the energy minister, shortly before final results were announced on Thursday showing that the new constitution had passed, with 67 percent of Kenyans behind it.

No doubt, the new constitution and the remarkably peaceful way in which the referendum was conducted on Wednesday was a much-needed boost of self-confidence for the country.

It showed that Kenya can run a clean election without a violent aftermath, that the losers can graciously accept defeat, that their supporters can move on peacefully and that the police and security forces can be deployed to maintain stability throughout the country. It was a stark contrast to the last election, in 2007, which erupted in ethnically fueled tumult that claimed more than 1,000 lives.

On Thursday, President Obama called the vote “a significant step forward for Kenya’s democracy,” while the nation’s president, Mwai Kibaki, held a boisterous victory rally in Nairobi, telling a crowd of thousands that the new constitution would be “our shield and defender as we strive to conquer poverty, disease and ignorance.”

“I see a great people ready to build a new and prosperous future,” he said.

But the voting patterns from the referendum also show that even at this crucial turning point, Kenya is still dogged by its old political maxim: follow your leader.

“I’m really relieved that everything has been peaceful, but I have this little feeling in my stomach,” said Maina Kiai, a former human rights official in Kenya who now runs his own civic education organization. The results, he said, prove “that it’s still all about group-think and tribal affiliations.”

“Look at the figures from Nyanza,” he said, pointing to the lush province along Lake Victoria where Kenya’s pro-constitution prime minister, Raila Odinga, is from. “It was completely, overwhelmingly “yes.” I wonder how many of these people knew exactly what was in the constitution. It’s a bit worrying.”

Kenya has a long legacy of ethnic rivalries. It has more than 40 different ethnic groups and the British colonizers shamelessly type-cast them: the Maasai were the guards; the Kikuyu the farmhands; the Luo the teachers; the Kamba the bureaucrats; etc.

After independence in 1963, Kenya’s ethnic divides were exacerbated under a winner-take-all political system that vested enormous powers in the presidency — and led to staggering levels of corruption. Kenya’s new constitution aims to fix this by devolving more power to local governments; giving Kenyans a bill of rights; and paving the way for land reform.

Yash Pal Ghai, a constitutional scholar in Nairobi who has been working for years to help get a new constitution passed, said that this election showed ethnic identities held more sway than religious ones. One of the most divisive issues in the new constitution was a clause that says abortion is not permitted except in a few circumstances, including if “the life or health of the mother is in danger.”

There are millions of anti-abortion Catholics and evangelicals across Kenya, and Kenyan church leaders implored them to vote down the constitution, saying it would pave the way for “abortion on demand.”

But as Mr. Ghai observed, Catholics and evangelicals in the Luo and Kikuyu areas mostly ignored that call, while Catholics and evangelicals in the Kalenjin areas voted against the constitution. The reason: Most Luo and Kikuyu leaders were urging their people to vote “yes,” while the most influential Kalenjin leaders told their people to vote “no.”

“This was largely an ethnic vote, but not absolutely,” Mr. Ghai said of the referendum. “Kenyans are getting more conscious of these things.”

After the violence of 2007, many Kenyans strove to de-emphasize the importance of ethnic identity. Still, , Kenyan analysts say that voters are likely to continue voting in blocs, and that to win the presidency in 2012 a candidate must carry at least three of what many Kenyans call the “big five” ethnic groups — the Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin and Kamba. That is now where the political focus is shifting.

“These guys are already putting their heads together and beginning to play their games,” Mr. Kiai said of the nation’s politicians.

The referendum feeds into this. No one benefits more from the constitution sailing through, analysts say, than Mr. Odinga, a loquacious, colorful, career politician, full of contradictions, including the fact that he comes from a Marxist-leaning family and named his son Fidel Castro but is also one of the richest men in western Kenya.

While other politicians equivocated for months, Mr. Odinga embraced the new constitution early — and passionately, leading rallies dressed head-to-toe in green (the color of the “yes” camp). In 2007, he ran against Mr. Kibaki and claimed he was cheated out of winning the presidency, which set off the fighting. But now the two are chummy, having worked together on the constitution. Mr. Kibaki, a Kikuyu, cannot run again for president because of term limits, and if he threw his support behind Mr. Odinga, many analysts believe the presidency would be Mr. Odinga’s to lose.

Another factor: Mr. Odinga’s top two rivals — William Ruto, a Kalenjin and the leader of the “no” campaign, and Uhuru Kenyatta, a Kikuyu and Kenya’s finance minister — are both widely believed to be top suspects in the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the previous election violence. Mr. Ruto is suspected of instigating the first wave of killings, Mr. Kenyatta of organizing reprisals. The International Criminal Court may issue indictments by year’s end, but supporters of the two men have vowed not to let anyone touch their leaders.

“If the I.C.C. asks us to hand them over, whoa, that’s going to be a critical moment,” said John Githongo, one of Kenya’s most prominent anti-corruption activists. “That’s when we’ll stare the beast in the eye.”

TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE STAKES OF THIS REFERENDUM, SEE BELOW:

“The destiny of Africa is going to be determined by Africans… Africa’s future belongs to its Young people: Yes Youth Can!”

It mostly took me right back to a Leopold Sedar Senghor quote we were asked to comment on in essays time and time again by our French literature teacher in high school (beloved M. Diop), namely: “L’emotion est negre, tout comme la raison est hellene…“

But is Africa really only Emotion? and Reason (including efficiency) a domain safeguarded for Europeans or peoples of European descent alone?

For me this begs the question: today, at the dawn of the 21st century, who are we as Africans? what are the fundamental characteristics that set us aside from the other peoples of the world? in short: what is today our contribution to humanity?

I will not resign myself to accepting that we are only known for our wars, tribal hatreds and blood-drinking primitive tribes (as featured in a recent TF1 TV series called “bienvenue dans ma tribu“/”welcome to my tribe” by the way,,,). I, and all of you who care enough to visit this site, KNOW that Africa’s much more than that.

But what much more exactly? Let’s unpack this for a moment!

I think we can all agree on the following traits that characterize us :

- We are black. I think we can agree on this. Save for the white minorities in the lately decolonized countries of southern Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia) most of us who call ourselves Africans are black, have big flat noses (or some version of that), are born with kinky hair (regardless of what we grow up to do with it!) and have what we could label as “African features”.

- We have this “Emotion” that the Senghor quote relates, or “Spirit” as my SA friend labeled it that is really unique to Africa and people of African descent: it’s the loud thunderous laugh that you can hear all the way from the doorway when you enter an African home, the energy with which people interact, tell stories and haggle at the market, the strength of the mother who will continue to sell at her stall until she has enough to feed her children, …

- We carry within us wherever we go what I could label cardinal African values, that seem to be shared among all our countries: the habit of greeting one other, respect for our elders, sense of responsibility/duty towards parents and younger siblings, the gusto for DRESSING UP GOOD (or maybe that’s just francophone africans, colonized as we are to the spine!), the emotional dependence on the family, the love of good food and good living, the resilience in the face of adversity.

But what else guys can we agree is fundamentally African? Anything BIG that is missing form this list attempting to define what distinctly identifies us as Africans ?

Or is this in itself a futile attempt? and there is no such thing as an “African identity” that sets us apart from others?

For sure at the rate uncontrolled and un-sieved globalization is penetrating our countries, whatever remnant of Africa identity is left may be phagocyted very soon!

Would it be possible in all honesty, without it being a dissonance, to rephrase my friend’s statement as: “African spirit, new-generation African efficiency?”

Food for thought…!

afrooptimist

Answer Key

A1: An estimated 2,000 languages are spoken in Africa. While Africa makes up about 16% of the world’s population, fully one quarter of the world’s languages are spoken only in Africa. This makes the continent one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in the world! (Nigeria alone has 250 languages!)
Some of the more common languages spoken in Africa include Hausa, Swahili, and Yoruba. Others, including Dahalo, Laal, and Shabo, are less common and only spoken by a few hundred people. While many of the African languages are quite unrelated to one another, the majority of the languages spoken in Africa fall into one of four language families: Afro-Asiatic, Khoisan, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Saharan.

The Afro-Asiatic language family generally covers the languages spoken in North Africa, East Africa, and Southwest Africa. Nearly 400 languages spoken by over 250 million people are represented by this language family which is largely comprised of Semetic languages. Some Afro-Asiatic languages are Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Hausa, Hebrew, and Tigrinya. Also included in the Afro-Asiatic family are the now extinct lanuages of Akkadian and Ancient Egyptian — two languages considered to be the oldest in the world.

The Khoisan (or Khoesaan) languages are generally spoken in the southwestern part of Africa, namely Angola, Botswana, and Namibia. What is probably most unique about the 50 or so Khoisan languages is that they are tonal and use clicking sounds. The largest Khoisan language is Nama which is spoken in Namibia. Other Khoisan languages include Haillom (Namibia) and Sandawe (Tanzania). The Khoisan languages as a whole are generally thought to be dying out.

The Niger-Congo language family is comprised of the greatest number of languages spoken in Africa. This family has over 1500 languages and is spoken by more than 500 million people. Some of the most common languages spoken in Africa that fall within this family include Igbo (Nigeria), Swahili (Tanzania), Yoruba (Nigeria), and Zulu (South Africa).

Approximately 200 languages fall into the Nilo-Saharan language family, and well over 10 million Africans speak a language within this family. Nilo-Saharan languages are mainly confined to the center of Africa and is represented by over 15 nations including Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Some of the major Nilo-Saharan languages include Dinka (Sudan), Kanuri (Nigeria), and Luo or Dholuo (Kenya).

A2: No it is not Lucy! In 2009 a team of american archeologists unearthed a more ancient cousin of Lucy’s: ARDI, 4.4 million years old! (Ardipithecus ramidus by her full name).

The Ardipithecus ramidus fossils were discovered in Ethiopia’s Afar desert at a site called Aramis in the Middle Awash region, just 46 miles (74 kilometers) from where Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, was found in 1974. Radiometric dating of two layers of volcanic ash that tightly sandwiched the fossil deposits revealed that Ardi lived 4.4 million years ago.

Older hominid fossils have been uncovered, including a skull from Chad at least six million years old and some more fragmentary, slightly younger remains from Kenya and nearby in the Middle Awash.

While important, however, none of those earlier fossils are nearly as revealing as the newly announced remains, which in addition to Ardi’s partial skeleton include bones representing at least 36 other individuals.

Whether Lucy or Ardi, science remains uncontested on the fact that Africa is the birthplace of Human species, which developed there about 5 million years ago.

A3: The Nile is the longest river in the world, flowing through Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt – if all the bends in the river were straightened out, it would flow from the Equator right up to the Scottish Highlands!

A4: The banjo as we know it originated from a single-string, gourd-bodied African lute (sometimes called the “hodu”) which the Griots of West Africa played to accompany storytelling. Now, bet you feel better for knowing that!

A5: The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace prize winners is in Soweto, South Africa. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both have houses in Vilakazi Street.

A6: Africa is almost an island. Its only connection to other land is the tiny Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

A7: With the inclusion of the disputed Western Sahara territory and the island nations off the continental coast, there are a total of 54 independent nations in Africa.

A8: Africa is the second largest of the earth’s seven continents and makes up approximately 22% of the earth’s total land area

A9: The most populated city in Africa is the Egyptian capital of Cairo with an estimated 17 million residents in the metropolitan area

A10: Not Egypt, gees! While Egypt is most well known for its pyramids, the Republic of Sudan actually has 223 of its own pyramids, double the number of pyramids in Egypt. Smaller and steeper than their Egyptian counterparts, the pyramids of Sudan are not nearly as famous

A11: Africa contains the world’s largest desert, the Sahara, which makes up an area greater in size than the entire continental U.S!

There’s more to K’naan than just the “Wavin’ Flags” song however, and definitely more to that song even than the version you hear on the radio..

For this month’s edition of “Afrooptimists in Action” I invite to discover  K’NAAN, the man, what he stands for, his dream for his homeland Somalia, a dream that resonates for the Continent as a whole.

The following article is courtesy of: Good News Africa

Orirignal article can be found here

Wavin’ a flag for the Horn of Africa

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

On the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, an official kick-off concert was held at Soweto’s Orlando Stadium with a mix of local, African and international artists. As one of the highlights of the concert, the Somali-born rapper K’naan took to the stage to sing the song “Wavin’ flag”, an uplifting song about celebration and overcoming the odds that had become a global hit and one of the anthems of the 2010 World Cup.

K’naan, born Kanaan Warsame in Mogadishu, escaped Somalia at the start of the civil war in 1991. The artist, now based in Toronto, sang the song while waving the blue flag with a five-pointed white star representing a united Somalia. This added a whole new dimension to the lyrics of the song that had at that point mostly been associated with Coca-Cola’s World Cup campaign: “When I get older, I will be stronger, they’ll call me freedom, just like a waving flag.”

Ismail Abdi Adan, a young Somali who lives in Durban, South Africa, says that Somalis, scattered all over the world by civil war, were joined again in that extroadinary moment “to see their beloved flag flying” at an important World Cup event.

“He (K’naan) is the first Somali singer to show the Somali flag in the eyes of the world,” said Adan. “(Because of him) we are feeling as if we are among the great nations and teams in this competition.”

Little reason to celebrate
The Horn of Africa country is one of a third of African countries celebrating 50 years of independence this year, but has had little reason to celebrate. After the country fell into civil war in 1991, Somalia has seen an endless succession of tribal clashes and militia attacks, with an estimated 200 000 Mogadishu residents having fled their homes since the beginning of this year alone as fighting between government forces and al-Qaida linked militias have intensified.

A summit of East African leaders this week decided to send 2 000 additional troops to support the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM), after an urgent plea for help from Somalia’s President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

The country has been voted top of the Forbes list of Most Dangerous Destinations, above Iraq and Afghanistan, and according to K’naan’s facebook page, “the name alone conjures up images of unbridled destruction, merciless warlords and ruthless terror.”

A nation of poets
But belying this image of Somalia constantly transmitted to the world is the famous words of British traveller Richard Burton who spent six months in Somalia in 1954, and described Somalia as a country of poets.

It is this part of Somali history and culture that K’naan has helped re-introduce to the world, with a pedigree linking him to this legacy of poetry. His maternal grandfather, Haji Mohamed, was a well-known Somali poet and his aunt, Magool, a famous singer in their country.

K’naan himself has on more than one occasion referred to Somalia as a nation of poets and artists. He has been making a name for himself as an artist since 2001, when he met and worked with well known Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour on a collection of songs by musicians with refugee backgrounds. His music mixes hip hop, reggae and traditional music with lyrics that have been said to reflect his background in war-torn Somalia and his longing for home as an immigrant.

Music and football
Although watching the World Cup is forbidden by Islamic militants in parts of Somalia as un-Islamic, along with music, Somalis living in South Africa have been relishing the football World Cup and the unlikely link to the historic event that music has provided for them.

Ismail Abdi Adan, like K’naan, escaped war torn Mogadishu as a child. Adan now lives in South Africa, and has been following the World Cup from the beginning and supporting African teams. In a country where Somali refugees have had to deal with sporadic outbursts of xenophobia, Adan feels that K’naan could contribute to changing the way South Africans see Somalis and help them learn more about the country.

“South Africans don’t know much about Somalia, most don’t even know whether it’s in Africa, Asia or America,” says Adan.

Another young Somali living in South Africa, Ahmed Saqa, agrees that K’naan could contribute to changing many negatives in the way the world views Somalis into positives.

“Many people think that Somalis only know how to fight and that’s all,” says Saqa. “He let the world know that Somalia does not only produce gunmen, but shining stars like K’naan.”

Saqa says that, as Somalis, K’naan is their hero. “We love him and are proud of him and we are happy about his success. He really made us feel like we are part of the World Cup – this is the first time that Africa hosts the World Cup, and we’re a part of it,” said Saqa.

“Wavin’ flag”, originally associated with a Coca-Cola advertisement about a victory dance by former Cameroon soccer hero Roger Milla, has had enormous appeal for football fans and music lovers alike. The anthem has been heard at official fan parks, public viewing areas and stadiums, and has received significant radio airtime. The single reached number 1 in 17 countries and also overtook the official World Cup anthem “Waka-Waka” by Shakira and local band Freshlyground as the most played song in South Africa.

While the FIFA World Cup in South Africa has helped the world see the potential of Africa to compete with developed nations and successfully host major international events, the contribution of a Somali rapper has reminded many that there is much more to Somalia than war and piracy: there is a proud people who love their country, and hope to one day rebuild it as a nation of poets.

By Linda Krige

Filed under: Afrooptimists in Action, Good news Africa, Hope ]]>