Four pieces of news from Africa this week are likely to have significance in the future. One is likely to ignite demonstrations by the religious Right all over the USA from next June.
(I had intended to post this here much earlier but could not get access. I had to park it in Eurotrib and the orange one).
Lucy in Texas with Demos
The hot news for the USA is the annoucement on Wednesday that Ethopian officials have completed negotiations with the Houston (Texas) Museum of Natural Sciences to loan a fossil for study. It will also form the centepiece of an 11 city tour of museums.
The remains of the female Australopithecus afarensis are better known as “Lucy” after they were found while the Beatles song was playing to the archaeologists. No transitional speciaes have been found but the Australopiticines are believed to be an important pre-cursor to hominids, including homo sapiens sapiens (that’s thee and me) The “family tree” goes something like this.
Of course this goes a long way to demonstrating that the crude version of Darwinian theory, of human evolution from a common ancestor with the modern great apes, has a basis in the fossil record. Even stronger evidence of a close family relation with man was found earlier this year. The skeleton of an immature female was found which included the skull and a sandstone impression of the brain. Those studying it now believe it demonstrates that the species had the long slow development typical of humans. Of course a scientifically based claim merely that the skeleton is 3.3 million years old is enough for Genesis purists to man the barriers. They point to a Tuesday morning about 3000 BC as the time of the Creation. Look forward to fun and games from them when the touring exhibition starts.
An African Nobel Prize
Thursday will see the launch in London of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership This project has the support of Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan. An annual prize of $500,000 for 10 years and $100,000 a year for life after that. It will go to the African head of state whose nation tops an annual table of good governance, 53 countries will be assessed by Harvard University. It will be the world’s richest prize.
Importantly, the money will only be given after the head of state leaves office. They will only get it if they hand over to their successor in a democratic process. Its supporters see it as a way of improving governance and removing the motivation for corruption. Some dissenters point out that the mineral riches of Africa could give the corrupt and even bigger booty. To achieve the ideas the rest of the world will have to cooperate with incoming democratic governments to track down and repatriate the riches corrupt leaders have stolen. That way there will be a stick as well as a carrot towards government for the people.
OIL
Where would a report from overseas be with this administration if it did not include a reference to “black gold”. The dollar signs must be spinning in the eyes of the State Department that oil and natural gas has been discovered in Zambia. The locations are in the Chavuma and Zambezi districts in north-western Zambia near the border with Angola, itself an oil exporting nation.
Zambia is considered very much a political success story. Although there are allegations of improprieties in the election, the sitting President Levy Mwanawasa was re-elected to a second five year term in September.
When I was there a couple of months before the 2001 election the local press were reporting corruption in the previous administration. Pretty low level stuff compared to Halliburton, Enron etc but significant in terms of the ordinary Zambian. At that time there were financial difficulties and anecdotally I was told by a middle class white Zambia that the best contraceptive was to whisper “school fees”. Mwanawasa is credited in the linked BBC report with tackling corruption and attracting foreign investment to the country. The local currency the Kwacha has strengthened (because of past inflation you never see the sub-unit the ngwee – 100 ngwee = 1 Kwacha – and, at least while I was there, you virtually only saw paper currency)
The principal and virtually only Zambian foreign exchange earner was copper. Dependency on the world price of the metal and the currency strength meant that there is still a lot of poverty. Foreign investment is being used to encourage diversification into tourism and things like oil exploration. Like many developing countries; its capital, Lusaka, is a contrast between office blocks and fancy country club style hotels for the rich and shanty slums besides the railway track for the poor. Millions are below the poverty line and of course AIDS is taking a toll. Nevertheless, Zambia is one of those nations I have optimism for and this oil discovery should go a long way towards providing economic stability so that the worst of extreme poverty can be relieved. Let’s hope a new period of economic “chachacha” will improve the lot of those millions living on under $1 a day.
In case you are wondering why Zambias seem to be fixated on ballroom dancing (a main road in Lusaka is named it), it was the name given to the period of time in which the Zambian people fought for and gained their independence in 1964. It alludes to a steam locomotive starting up.
4000% Inflation
If Mwanawasa looks like a strong contender for a Mo Ibrahim Prize, his immediate southern neighbour must be a strong contended for the booby prize. More evidence this week of the basket case the Zimbabwean economy has become under Mugabe. The cost of tickets on Air Zimbabwe were increased by 500% putting air travel out of the reach of all but the richest. Many of those are anyway banned from travelling to EU countries because of their connection with the government and its repressive tactics.
Last month the official annual inflation figure for August was announced as 1204.6% This is expected to reach 1,800% by the end of the year. Unofficially the annual rate is already believed to be 4000%. The price of an return air ticket from Harare to London of Zim$ 1,865,000 (US$ 7,460) hides the recent currency reform when three zeros were knocked off the end. Thus new Zim$1,865,000 equals old Zim$1,865,000,000. Even today you only need carry 10 pieces of paper to have a million (Zimbabwean) dollars in your pocket.
