In a sudden turn of events, piles of wreckage became the only remnants of what used to be homes to over 7,000 people, women, and children. Places of worship, churches, mosques, including schools, and businesses were not spared.
After the state government unexpectedly carried out repeated building demolitions in June without prior notice, the residents of Mosafejo-Oworonshoki, a low-income residential community, were forcibly displaced and left to endure immense hardship.
Oworonshoki, located in the Kosofe region of Lagos in southwest Nigeria, predominantly consists of low-income residential properties and is home to over 170,000 people.
Over the past two decades, the Lagos government has torn down various shanties located near the lagoon in order to make space for the rich to construct lavish residences. Low-income communities in Otodogbame, Ilubirin, and Makoko had been earlier victims. However, poor residents of Mosafejo-Oworonshoki became the newest victims of the prevalent forced evictions in Lagos.
Worthy of note is that the affected communities neither received warnings nor prior notice from any government ministry pre-informing them of a possible demolition or that their houses were erected on illegal sites. Many of these people had been residing in these communities for more than four decades.
Since the unfortunate incident occurred, many residents have been forced to live in open shelters and makeshift accommodations, leaving them at the mercy of dangerous animals, harsh weather conditions, and death. No less than five infant deaths have been recorded. Women and girls forced to live under these abject conditions do so at the risk of physical attacks, abuse, and rape.
The demolished low-income community in Mosafejo-Oworonshoki, Lagos. Credit: Durotimi Dawodu
Needless to say, the provision of security, welfare, and shelter is integral to the fundamental aims and objectives of government. For many years now, the Lagos State government has failed woefully to meet these objectives.
According to a report by Business Day newspaper, Lagos accounts for about 5 million out of a total of 18 million housing deficits in Nigeria. This implies that the so-called commercial center of the country accounts for more than 31% of the total housing deficit in the country. Rather than increasing the already embarrassing statistics of homelessness in the state through thoughtless demolitions, the state should be massively investing in low-cost housing projects.
Unfortunately, the regime is deliberately throwing more than seven thousand of its citizens to the street at a time the country is grappling with an unprecedented level of hardship occasioned by the astronomical increase in the price of energy, including fuel and gas.
The inflation rate is at over 27%, and the cost of food and commodities has increased astronomically, with a wave of fee hikes hitting our various tertiary institutions, forcing thousands of young people out of school. These challenges in themselves are more than bad, as they have forced millions of Nigerians out of social existence; forcing them out of their houses into the streets should not be the priority of the government.
Notably, the affected communities and civil society organizations have organized campaigns and protest actions, calling on the Babajide Sanwoolu-led government to put an end to the ongoing demolition exercise and award compensations, including resettlement of the thousands that have been unjustly displaced, made homeless, and without property. This sharp reaction from the people is apt and must be widely supported by people of good conscience.
We refuse to be the lamb that is sacrificed on the altar of the insatiable greed of an elite minority.
At the dawn of independence in 1990, a public servant working in an entry-level position for the state could afford to buy themselves a home, a car, and send his children to school with a lunchbox for break-time. However, the rising cost of living has ushered in a phenomenon referred to as the ‘working poor’ where relatively young people, even those working at supervisory level, cannot afford to buy themselves homes and end up renting apartments in complexes if they are lucky. Many young people, especially in the capital city of Windhoek, have delayed moving out of their parents’ homes because, for them, affording a dwelling of their own is a pipe dream. Houses in Namibia, which are usually financed through a mortgage loan from one of the country’s four commercial banks, are only accessible to the middle class and those with a household income of at least N$35000 (USD 2000) and above.
The average wage in Namibia, according to the Wage Indicator Foundation, is estimated at N$3240 (US$187) per month. Low wages, rising inflation, and high unemployment (which results in black families having the burden of taking care of other family members) are all factors that contribute to the phenomenon of the working poor.
The free-market policies that Namibia’s government assumed at independence can also be seen as a contributing factor to the phenomenon of Namibia’s working poor.
Free Market Fundamentalism
Free market Fundamentalism is a term applied to a strong belief in the ability of unregulated markets to solve most economic and social problems. But what happens in an economy with an oversupply of labor and no industry to absorb that labor?
Well, the principles of supply and demand suggest that labor will be cheap in such a scenario, and employers are spoiled for choice when deciding who to hire and at what cost.
People queuing to withdraw money at an ATM in Windhoek’s Post Street Mall. Credit: Vitalio Angula / Ubuntu Times
In the absence of strong labor unions, the ability for workers to get at least a decent, living minimum wage is eroded!
The absence of a minimum wage for Namibia’s working force is one of the main contributors to the phenomenon of the working poor: people who are formally employed but can’t afford the basics in terms of food, clothing, and shelter, let alone school fees for their offspring, transport, water, and electricity bills.
How Did China Do It?
Following the disastrous Cultural Revolution in China, communist party leader Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese government initiated an open-door strategy aimed at achieving economic growth by actively embracing foreign capital and technology, while simultaneously upholding its socialist principles.
On the other hand, Namibia, at the dawn of independence, adopted a free market economy that they labeled ‘mixed’ and allowed capitalism to reign without proper regulation or oversight by the state.
Deng successfully enhanced the economic well-being of the Chinese populace through the implementation of a political framework characterized by a one-party socialist democracy, with the adoption of a market-oriented economic system.
This meant that there was an improvement in the economic status of Chinese people, which translated into a higher quality of life.
Namibian-based economist Robin Sherbourne states that “in spite of moderate real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate averaging 4.3 percent and translating into real GDP per capita growth of about 2.3 per year since 1990, this has not sufficiently translated into substantial reduction in poverty, income inequality, and unemployment”.
This was ten years ago, in 2013, and the status quo prevails.
Why has Namibia managed to have year-on-year economic growth that has not translated into employment opportunities, and in instances where those employment opportunities do not translate into a higher living standard for its working class?
Small-scale businesses sell arts and crafts in Windhoek’s Central Business District (CBD). Credit: Vitalio Angula / Ubuntu Times
The answer lies in the extractive industries, which are the mainstay of the economy. On the back of a huge mining sector, Namibia exports raw materials to other countries that manufacture them into finished goods.
Uranium, gold, copper, and diamonds are just some of the natural resources that Namibia is endowed with.
The country also has a huge fishing industry that exports jobs to countries such as Spain and Italy.
The lack of labor legislation and strong trade unions also compounds the tragedy of the working poor because there is no basic (minimum) (living) wage, and workers, especially those who are new entrants into the workforce, take the first offer that is put on the table, which is usually not market-related.
Employers take advantage of the plight of those who are desperate for employment and compensate them a pittance for the output and services they provide.
Inequality and wage disparities are man-made, and there is a need for an ethical dialogue on how to protect the most vulnerable of citizens so that they are protected from an unjust capitalist labor system.
The Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) launched the #WeAreEqual Campaign on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at a banquet ceremony held in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek.
The campaign is aimed at closing the gender gap on the African continent in line with the African Union Agenda 2063, which seeks to eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls in order for them to fully enjoy their human rights.
These rights pertain to social, economic and political rights.
Speaking at the event, Madam Monica Geingos, President of the Organization and First Lady of Namibia, stated that forty-five (45) African First Ladies have signed up to the organization, and thirty-seven are currently active.
She stressed that inequality manifests itself in every aspect of society, including health care, education, safety and security, and economic participation, and that future generations will have to deal with the consequences of inequalities that are not addressed today.
“There are so many women graduating out of universities, but the statistics are telling us they are not getting into the workforce, and when they do, they are not getting promoted… We must fix these disparities for the sake of our children and our sake as well,” Geingos said to huge applause from the audience.
She explained, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) report on the gender gap, the world would need 135 years to completely close the gender gap between men and women.
The Vice President of Namibia, Nangolo Mbumba, delivered the keynote address at the event, which was attended by various stakeholders, including the Namibian Ombudsman, the Deputy Minister of Health and the Chinese and American Ambassadors to Namibia.
He noted that the organization, which was launched in Congo Kinshasa in June this year, brings together high-ranking government officials from the continent, the private sector, stakeholders, and partners to advance the interests of women on the African continent.
“Women and men both possess the same inherent dignity and the same rights and have the same potential to build our societies regardless of our gender. With this campaign, we want to bring home an essential truth: WE ARE EQUAL,” Mbumba declared.
The Vice President said that despite this truth, the reality faced by many women in Africa tells a different story, and Namibia is no exception.
He highlighted that no country has achieved gender parity because women and girls experience inequality in agriculture, land ownership, economic opportunities, income, politics, and other areas. He insisted that this impacts economic development. He added that although Namibia is the most gender-equal country in Africa and the eighth-most equal country in the world, more still needs to be done.
The #WeAreEqual Campaign is an initiative by African First Ladies to close the gender gap on the continent by supporting initiatives aimed at empowering women.
An incident involving a thirteen-year-old girl child at the Crowthorne Christian Academy in South Africa led to the schools’ closure and the re-sparking of debate on black aesthetics in a racially polarized country that still battles with systemic, systematic, and institutional discrimination against blacks, who make up the majority of the population.
Tynil Gcabashe, a thirteen-year-old student, had her dreadlocks on when the school made the racist decision to dismiss her from class, according to a media release from the Economic Freedom Fighters Provincial Communications Officer for Gauteng province, Dumisani Baleni.
This provoked the EFF to stage a picket at the school.
“The school principal is reported to have said the learner will not be allowed back to school unless her dreadlocks are shaved off, on the 14 August when the learner’s parents sought to resolve the issue with the school, a white racist male alleged to be the principal’s husband, acting on the instruction and permission of the school, violently handled both the mother and the young girl and pushed them out of the school. A video circulating on social media bears evidence to this effect,” the statement reads.
Baleni further said the Crowthorne Christian Academy has a policy that allows only learners with natural hair in the school.
“This policy is predicated on the racist notion that natural hair means relaxed and straightened hair inherent to white people, whereas curly hair and dreadlocks, characteristic of black people’s hair, are considered unnatural and therefore prohibited from the school,” Baleni stated.
Hendrick Makaneta, education activist and deputy chairperson of the Foundation for Education and Social Justice Africa, told Ubuntu Times that black aesthetics are not accepted as a universal standard because of the highly entrenched European culture in private schools. He said blacks are expected to accede to policies that were formulated by whites and that such policies do not acknowledge African hair, such as dreadlocks.
Dumisani Baleni in attendance at the EFF Gauteng Provincial Plenum, which was addressed by the President and Commander-in-Chief Julius Malema at the beginning of the year. Credit: EFF Gauteng
“Unfortunately, the thirteen-year-old girl was victimized for expressing her African identity,” Makaneta said.
“The fact that the school was allowed to develop policies that are not in line with the spirit of the constitution of the republic (South Africa) exposed the government’s failure to provide leadership,” he added.
Makaneta highlighted that although the autonomy of educational institutions to develop their own policies should be respected, the government ought to put correct mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate the various policies adopted by the institutions from time to time.
The events that unfolded led to the closure of the school, which was found not to have the proper licenses to operate.
Spokesperson at the Gauteng Education Department, Steve Mabona, told Ubuntu Times that the incident with the thirteen-year-old is an isolated case of discrimination, and the department hardly hears of or deals with such cases.
“All codes of conduct of our schools were reviewed not to discriminate learners on the basis of hair… What is paramount is discipline of learners at our schools,” Mabona told Ubuntu Times.
Mabona said the school has now been closed down due to non-compliance with registration as an educational institute.
“The school was operating illegally because they decided to relocate and changed their name without following proper procedures,” Mabona stated in email responses to Ubuntu Times.
Education activist Makatena said racism is pervasive in South Africa as a result of the economic disparities between white and black South Africans, with the former still being largely in control of the economy.
Dumisani Baleni, addressing the Vaal University of Technology students ahead of the Student’s Representative Council election in 2018. Credit: EFF Gauteng
“The fact that the economy is still controlled largely by the white minority means that acts of racism will continue,” he said.
“Of course not every white person is racist, but all whites in South Africa are beneficiaries of racism,” he further highlighted.
Makatena implored the government of South Africa to take practical steps to end poverty and inequality, which affects mainly black South Africans in a negative way.
“As long as the owners of the means of production remain white, we are likely to see a continuation of racism. Even the schools we are talking about now are owned by whites; hence, black children are expected to comply with European norms and standards,” he said.
“Government must also move swiftly to decolonize education by making history compulsory in all schools; children need to learn more about African history as opposed to European history,” he added.
Gauteng is the economic hub of South Africa and Southern Africa and is home to the richest square mile on the African continent, Sandton.
There are over 2200 public schools in Gauteng and 500 private schools.
Although Ubuntu could not independently verify the figures, Gauteng is estimated to have about 2.6 million learners. Twenty-one percent of South Africa’s total estimated learner population of 15 million.
A Lesotho environmental law expert says it is alarmingly troubling that the once pristine African land continues to be sacrificed at the altar of profits by multinational companies extracting the continent’s minerals for financial gains.
Advocate Borenahabokhethe Sekonyela says allowing multinational companies to dirty the African environment and its ecosystems with impunity is a violation of fundamental African customary laws that seek to protect the land.
“The multinational companies are clearly maximizing profits at the cost of life in Africa,” Advocate Sekonyela said.
He says fundamental principles of African customary laws dictate that Africans have full rights to their land and all natural resources beneath that land, including copper in Zambia, diamonds in Lesotho, and coal in Malawi.
“Africans have full land rights protected by customary laws. Customarily, land is an important asset for Africans. In terms of farming, if one does not own a farm but has cattle, there was a butter system arrangement in place to ensure that we all benefit from that land. This was a fundamental economic theory of our African custom.
“The same principle should apply even in mines because God placed Africans there with all those resources and there should have been an equity share in those resources but that is not the case because African governments have leased out mining areas to multinational companies who are sacrificing our land at the altar of profits,” Advocate Sekonyela said.
He said the expectation that mining companies must conduct their businesses in such a way that even future African generations will benefit from their resources is slowly becoming an unrealistic dream.
“Do it in such a way that you do not destroy my land because it is for my benefit and those that will come after me,” he said.
Zambians Look to South Africa for Justice
A South African high court is expected to pronounce itself on whether or not it has jurisdiction to preside over a landmark class action lawsuit against Anglo American mine in the coming months.
This was after 14 Zambian women and children alleged in court papers that Anglo American “massively” polluted their land when it operated and managed a mine in Kabwe, Zambia between 1925 and 1974.
According to Amnesty International and South African Litigation Centre, the 14 Zambian applicants are acting on behalf of “an estimated 100,000 children and women, who report suffering injury from lead exposure as a result of century-long mineral extraction near their homes.”
The applicants want the South African high court to order Anglo American to compensate them for alleged breach of what Zambians have identified as a “duty of care to protect existing and future generations of residents of Kabwe against the risks of lead pollution arising from the Mine’s operations.”
Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, has likened this case to a biblical story of “David vs Goliath case and a significant, long-overdue step towards justice for the people of Kabwe, who have suffered from lead poisoning for years due to the mining activities of multinational corporations in their communities.”
Anglo American has been previously quoted in the media saying “we do intend to defend ourselves because we do not believe that we are responsible for the current situation.”
In an interview with Ubuntu Times this month, Advocate Sekonyela warned that the Zambian case was just a drop in the ocean, saying there were thousands of Africans experiencing serious health complications caused by effects of mining pollution.
“Mining dirties water and it does not matter if you were an imperialist or not, I have a riparian right to drink clean water and any type of development should not jeopardize my right to access clean water,” Advocate Sekonyela said.
Lesotho Government Investigates Water Pollution
In March this year, Lesotho’s Ministry of Natural Resources said it is investigating allegations of water pollution by Letseng Diamonds Mine, Storm Mountain Diamonds and Liqhobong Diamond Mine.
“The Ministry of Natural Resources wishes to acknowledge and notes with concern the various articles that have appeared in the Lesotho and South African press recently concerning the alleged pollution of above-average concentration of nitrates in certain rivers that flow into the Katse Dam,” read a press statement circulated on 1st March 2023.
“The validity of the allegations are being investigated and in addition to having instructed the Department of Water Affairs to report to the Minister of Natural Resources Honourable Mohlomi Moleko, on the allegations.”
Mine tailings form plateaus in rural district of Mokhotlong, Lesotho. Patising and Maloraneng communities suspect that these tailing and water seepages are responsible for blue, toxic water they regularly spot in two streams originating from the mine. The mine was previously a beautiful lake in Mokhotlong, Lesotho. Credit: Retselisitsoe Khabo
Government’s investigations come after MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism published a story that the Lesotho Highlands Development Agency (LHDA), an agency monitoring and managing the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, said mines pollution of critical water sources continues unabated despite the mines’ repeated promises to mitigate contamination during joint meetings chaired by the department of environment.
According to the LHDA, the three mines polluting rivers critical to the water project that transfers water to South Africa are Letšeng Diamonds Mine, Storm Mountain Diamonds and Liqhobong Diamond Mine.
Communities downstream Letšeng Diamonds Mine and Storm Mountain Diamonds have accused the two mines of polluting their water courses with impunity, an accusation the two mines hotly deny. Letseng Diamonds Mine is co-owned by Lesotho government (30 percent) and British-based Gem Diamonds (70 percent).
Since it started operating the mine in 2004, Letšeng states on its website that it has discovered precious stones such as a 910-carat Lesotho Legend (2018); 603-carat Lesotho Promise (2006), 550-carat Letšeng Star (2011), 493-carat Letšeng Legacy (2007) and the 478-carat Light of Letšeng (2008). Collectively, the mine made US$81.2 million (M1.2 billion) from four of those five stones.
Storm Mountain Diamonds’ shareholding is held by the Lesotho government (25 percent) and South Africa’s Namakwa Diamonds (75 percent). Storm Mountain Diamonds’ website states that the mine’s 3.06-carat Kao Purple Princess was sold at US$727, 898.
Coal, Uranium Mines Leave Trail of Destruction in Malawi
The Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) says communities around coal and uranium mining areas in that country “face a lot of challenges with water pollution”.
The Network’s Program Officer, Bertha Phiri has accused the Malawian government of “…not doing enough in protecting the rights and livelihood of people living in mining communities.”
“The law is clear on issues of Environmental Impact Assessment and all its related issues but the biggest challenge is laxity in the enforcement of the law. People living around coal and uranium mining areas face a lot of challenges with water pollution and their land is also affected in terms of productivity and farming let alone their health is at risk as well,” Phiri told Ubuntu Times last week.
Phiri is positive that Malawi should learn from the Zambian lead poisoning and argues that Malawi could have enacted a far much better, inclusive Mines and Mineral Act, 2018 had it taken suggestions from community representatives on board.
“The mines and Minerals Act went through a very rigorous process as far as consultations with relevant stakeholders are concerned. However, consultations do remain consultations up until when all the issues, concerns and suggestion that are brought forward are taken on board.
“Our observation is that Malawi missed an opportunity to address its issues and bring sanity in the mining sector learning from the bad experiences we have had with Kayerekera Uranium Mining. So the enactment of the Mines and Minerals Act would have taken on board lessons learnt which in MEJN’s view did not to the large extent besides stakeholders raising the issues during the consultations,” Phiri said.
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the eldest son of Uganda’s long-serving autocratic leader, is set to contest in the 2026 presidential election in a gambit that could potentially see the military officer take full control of this soon-to-be oil-producing nation that has been under the firm grip of his father for nearly four decades.
His bid for the presidency has shaken structures in the ruling National Resistance Movement party and military. Last month, General Kainerugaba who also serves as the presidential adviser on special operations launched a campaign team comprising notable politicians and other key personalities as part of his campaign efforts. He has also begun appearing at rallies for his supporters.
“I will stay in touch and engaged with you in regards to the next steps of my campaign,” he told a cheering crowd of mainly youthful supporters known as the MK movement, who constantly interrupted his speech with clapping, ululations, and chanting at a rally held in Kapchorwa, northeastern Uganda in January.
But veteran opposition leader Kizza Besigye says that what Muhoozi is attempting to do is create a new power base that will attract the attention of young people who have lost interest in the ruling party and its leader.
“He wants to create something that appears new, although it is exactly the same thing,” Besigye told Ubuntu Times.
Mr. Museveni has long been suspected of grooming the 48-year-old general to be his successor in order to establish what opponents call monarchical rule in Uganda. This follows a playbook by other authoritarian dictators in Africa, such as Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Cameroon’s Paul Biya’, who have attempted to anoint their sons as the next presidents.
General Kainerugaba’s rallies are also against Ugandan law, which prohibits serving army officers from participating in politics. The 1995 Constitution and the Uganda People’s Defence Force Act – UPDF 2005 bar or prohibit serving army officers from dabbling in partisan politics.
“He is perpetuating the abuse of the constitution, abuse of the law and this disqualifies him from being considered a leader,” says Besigye. “He is acting against the country and cannot aspire to lead it at the same time.”
General Kainerugaba has also earned himself the name “the tweeting general” with his controversial tweets. Just like former US President Donald Trump, the general uses Twitter to promote his profile. He once tweeted that the Ugandan army might invade Kenya.
“It wouldn’t take us, my army and me, two weeks to capture Nairobi,” he tweeted.
This prompted Mr. Museveni to relieve him of his then duties as commander of the UPDF’s Land Forces and denounce his controversial use of Twitter. However, Museveni still promoted Kainerugaba to a five-star general and retained him as his adviser on military affairs.
Last year, Kainerugaba held a spree of lavish birthday celebrations across the country. The celebrations were attended by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame. Political analysts contend that these are all clear signs that Kainerugaba is being maneuvered into place to succeed his father.
General Kainerugaba joined the army in 1999 after graduating from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in England. He rose through the ranks to command the presidential security unit, which has now been expanded into an elite Special Forces Command SFC group. The SFC protects the president, his family, and critical assets including oil fields.
With an estimated 10,000 men, the SFC is Uganda’s most powerful branch of the army. Kainerugaba led the SFC from 2008 to 2017, and later from December 2020 to July 2021, during the tumultuous presidential election season.
In July 2021, he was promoted to lead the Uganda land forces, the army’s main component but later demoted by his father-the commander in chief, following a string of divisive tweets that sparked domestic and international uproar.
Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, Member of Parliament and the spokesperson of the main opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change FDC, says that Museveni is merely seeking to create an uneven playing field for anyone attempting to oppose him come 2026.
“This is again another tactic Mr. Museveni is using to prolong his rule,” said Ssemujju.
Many Ugandans continue to decry the controversial rule of President Museveni who has been in power for 37 years now. In 2021, Mr. Museveni secured for himself five more years as president in a general election that was marred by violence and claims of vote-rigging by his main challenger famous musician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu well known by his stage name Bobi Wine.
Because of the 2017 constitutional reform that removed the age limit, there is nothing in the constitution that prevents Mr.Museveni from standing again and again. Presidential term limits were also removed in 2005. Museveni’s new term ends in 2026 and by then he will have ruled Uganda for 40 years.
On January 24, Museveni launched Uganda’s first drilling rig for the Kingfisher oilfield, operated by China’s CNOOC company and estimated to bring in more than $50 billion. A local NGO organized a public debate on the East African Crude Oil Pipeline at a city hotel on the same day. Opposition leaders Kizza Besigye and Robert Kyagulanyi were among the invited speakers, but a military squad barricaded and sealed up the hotel entrance, denying the public access to the venue and canceling the event.
“I don’t mind Kainerugaba’s intentions to run for president, but I’m concerned about the vulgarization of national institutions like the UPDF army. He should first quit the army,” said Sarah Bireete, the executive director of a local think tank, Center for Constitutional Governance.
BULIISA, Uganda — Baboons wander through shrub-lands that line the sides of newly built roads straddling Uganda’s wildlife reserves close to the shores of oil-rich Lake Albert. Across the border in Congo, magnificent lush green hilly countrysides stand out. If you’re lucky you can catch a glimpse of elephants too. Wildlife is abundant here, but such scenes might be no more in a few years, as oil companies embark on multi-billion projects to pump as much as 6 billion barrels of crude oil from Uganda’s biodiversity-rich Albertine Rift Graben.
Baboons crossing the newly built Hoima-Buliisa road that straddles Bugungu wildlife reserve close to the shores of oil-rich Lake Albert. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire / Ubuntu Times
This territory has also been occupied for generations by the indigenous Bagungu people, who tilled the land to cultivate millet and sorghum and gather medicinal herbs and fish on Lake Albert. The Bagungu have over the years used traditional techniques to conserve the lands. From restricting access to sacred areas to designating wildlife sanctuaries, owing in part to a traditional belief that nature and its resources are guarded by spirits.
But planned development of hundreds of oil wells that dot the shores of lake Albert poses new threats to the pristine environment and has come at the expense of indigenous people’s rights. The Bagungu have been uprooted from ancestral grounds and their once revered cultural sites destroyed—including shrines and grazing lands.
Alex Wakitinti the chief custodian removes his shoes at Wandeko sacred natural site in Kasenyi village Buliisa district. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire / Ubuntu Times
“We have lost our grazing lands. Our people wish oil had not been discovered in this area,” Alex Wakitinti the chief custodian of sacred sites of the Bagungu, says, pointing at a newly built highway. “We no longer have access to medicinal herbs and sacred trees where we worshiped.”
French oil giant TotalEnergies operates the Tilenga oil project in the remote districts of Buliisa, Hoima, Kikuube, and Nwoya near the ecologically fragile Murchison Falls National Park and the Nile Delta in western Uganda. The project consists of six oil fields and is expected to have 400 wells drilled in 31 locations. It will also house an industrial area, support camps, a central processing facility, and feeder pipelines. The project necessitates the acquisition of 2,901 acres of land across the districts, as well as additional land within the national park.
A map showing the TotalEnergies Tilenga project located near Lake Albert, Western Uganda. Credit: Petroleum Authority Uganda
According to Petroleum Authority Uganda, the process of acquiring land for the Tilenga project is still underway and has displaced 5,523 families. Residents and local officials, however, say that this process has been marred by inadequate and delayed compensation and resettlement.
Three years ago, TotalEnergies, approached Kaliisa Munange, a peasant farmer in kasenyi village, in Buliisa district, near the shores of lake Albert with a proposal. They would take over his 6-acre piece of land for project developments, in exchange for a bigger chunk of land, complete with a house, in a nearby village. With the promise of a better life, Mr. Munange consented to a relocation that he thought would be life-changing.
“When I arrived, I was so disappointed all the promises were empty, yet the company had already taken over my property,” he said, frowning his forehead with anger. “It was very far, there wasn’t a nearby school that my children would attend and the hospital is ten kilometers away. I decided to take them to court but up to now there is no decision.”
A notice board for Tilenga project-related information updates in Kasenyi Village. Locals say these haven’t been effective due to the language barrier. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire / Ubuntu Times
Kaliisa’s is not the only case. His plight is shared by thousands of peasants in this lakeside village, which will soon house one of the largest oil processing facilities in Africa. Many have been waiting for compensation for several years since they were ordered not to plant any perennial crops and erect permanent structures on their land.
Fishermen at Wanseko landing site on the shores of Lake Albert in Buliisa district. Most fishing sites have been cordoned off due to oil developments. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire / Ubuntu Times
locals are nostalgic of the good old days when they had a source of livelihood tilling their land and fishing freely from L. Albert. When the land was communally used for grazing, worship, herbal medicines, and building materials.
“Community involvement and participation in the land acquisition process and environment impact assessment processes has been limited,” says Wakitinti “Our people were not involved in the identification of cultural sites and a number of medicinal herbs and trees were not assessed for compensation.”
Total executives deny the allegations insisting that the company is addressing the complaints of the affected people and has even been providing them with supplies, such as food.
The tamarind tree which is one of the sacred trees central to Bagungu worship system, Kasenyi Village, Buliisa district. Custodians say that a number of these trees were not assessed during the social and environmental impact assessments for Tilenga oil project. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire / Ubuntu Times
Pauline Macronald, head of the environment biodiversity at TotalEnergies Uganda says that the project is taking measures to ensure the socioeconomic stability of project-affected persons.
“TotalEnergies is committed to developing the Tilenga project while observing human rights standards and International Finance Corporation performance standards,” she said, adding that the company has been in close contact with project-affected people to minimize the projects’ impact on locals.
The constitution of Uganda safeguards property rights and land ownership. It affirms that everyone has a right to possess property and offers strict protection against unfair property deprivation. This states that everyone whose private property or land must be acquired for a public project should get prompt, fair, and reasonable compensation.
The International Finance Corporation Performance Standard 7 aims to guarantee that corporate operations minimize adverse effects and promote respect for indigenous peoples’ cultures, rights, and dignity. A fundamental criterion is the free, prior, and informed permission of indigenous peoples, as well as informed consultation and engagement with them throughout the project development process. The Bagungu, however, contend that these rights and standards have been violated by oil project developers.
“The land acquisition processes for oil projects have been shrouded in secrecy, no transparency. The processes have not been participatory and consultative in nature and any project resistance has resulted in costly formal court proceedings to the indigenes,” says Enoch Bigirwa, the former chairperson of the Bagungu Community Association.
The Bagungu Community Association BACA is a local group championing the rights of Bagungu amidst oil developments in their territory. It exists for the sociology-cultural and economic development of Bagungu. BACA is part of the environmental groups that filed a lawsuit against TotalEnergies in France over human rights violations and environmental harm in its Uganda oil project.
Who are the Bagungu
The Bagungu are an indigenous tribe native to Uganda and totaling around 83,986 according to the 2014 population census. They are mainly found in Buliisa, Hoima, and Masindi districts of western Uganda-Albertaine Graben. They belong to the historical Bunyoro Kingdom led by an Omukama, their King.
A map showing the location of the Bangungu people of Uganda. Credit: Bugungu Heritage and Information Centre
They are agricultural and fishing folk. Bagungu are the guardians and custodians of Lake Albert, a large freshwater lake that is the the source of Albert Nile, a branch of the River Nile that flows through Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, and DR Congo.
Oil Developments in Uganda
In 2006, oil and gas reserves were discovered in Uganda’s Albertine Graben.TotalEnergies and China’s CNOOC recently reached a final investment decision to inject $10 billion to kick start oil developments in partnership with the government of Uganda through Uganda National Oil Company which will subsequently lead to production in 2023. Output is expected to peak at 220,000 barrels a day of crude, Uganda consumes around 15,000 barrels a day of crude. Part of the crude oil will be refined to supply the local market while the remainder will be exported through a 1,443km buried East African Crude Oil Pipeline EACOP from Uganda to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania for export to the international market.
Uganda envisions the development of the oil and gas industry will accelerate economic growth, and job creation, improve the general prosperity of Ugandans and catapult the country into middle-income status. Petroleum Authority of Uganda estimates that about 200,000 people will be employed in the oil and gas sector.
However, climate campaigners have been opposing oil developments in the country citing environmental issues, climate change, and community rights violations. As a result, financiers of fossil fuel projects like banks, insurers, and other financial players have been urged to refrain from providing financial support for oil projects.
“Biodiversity is seriously threatened by Total’s oil operations. Government should encourage green economic investments in clean energy. These are inclusive and have the greatest multiplier effects on employment,” said Diana Nabiruma, the communications officer, at Africa Institute for Energy Governance.
This story was produced with the support of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network’s Indigenous Story Grants
For Claudious Murungweni (not his real name), a 35-year-old bus conductor plying the Zimbabwe-South Africa cross-border route, the corruption and smuggling of a low base mineral has turned around his economic fortunes.
From a paltry equivalent of US$90 dollars as a monthly salary, Murungweni now has a new avenue that is financing his livelihood running into thousands of US dollars.
Since October 2021 when the government relaxed the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that enabled cross-border buses to carry passengers, Murungweni says he has been approached by “good guys with great deals.”
“I carry raw granite stone slabs cut from the main blocks. These black granite slabs are movable by bus so for that job we get ZAR25 000 rand (US$1 600). First transaction is just a fifty percent deposit that I use to pay (bribe) the police and revenue collection officials at the Beitbridge border post.
“When we get to South Africa that is when I am paid the balance,” says Murungweni.
For the trip, Murungweni shares the money with the bus driver, and also bribes Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officials at the Beitbridge border post and their South African counterparts.
Zimbabwe is a country richly endowed with useful diverse mineral resources. Despite this vast mineral resource base, more attention has been placed on highly valued minerals like gold and diamonds when people talk of smuggling.
The illicit financial flow in the mining sector according to the government through Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe costs the state US$100 million each month in lost revenues, a total of US$1.2 billion annually.
The issue of illicit financial flows affecting Zimbabwe’s struggling economy has moved from highly precious minerals like gold to low minerals like the granite stone, now known as “the black gold.”
From where the granite stone is mined by the Chinese, in Mutoko, a rural area about 140 kilometers east of the capital Harare, villagers have little to show off the mineral mined in their area, except bearing the brunt of environmental damage.
The mining of Granite in Mutoko has left a trail of environmental degradation. Mining companies have not come up with initiatives to protect the environment. Credit: Ubuntu Times
A 2019 investigation conducted by ZELA on the financial and social impact of black granite mining in Mutoko revealed that less than ten percent of Zimbabwe’s granite is cut and polished locally with the bulk of it being exported in its raw form as “granite merely cut into blocks.”
She was arrested, spent days in prison and later released from custody in January 2021 on ZWL$100 000 bond. However, her case is now collapsing after anti-corruption advocates hinted that the way her case is progressing has been engineered to collapse because of her close links to the Mnangagwa family.
“If I get arrested I will just know I am a small fish, and those heavily involved in smuggling are walking scot-free. That means our system has broken down and people can just do all they can to earn a living. I do not even ask where the granite stone is going,” adds Murungweni.
According to Shamiso Mtisi, the spokesperson of the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association (ZELA), from where the black granite is mined “environmental damage and lack of community benefits for the people of Mutoko” are key characteristics.
“We hear there are issues of the smuggling of the black granite stone from Zimbabwe specifically because of its fineness and being a great quality mineral. Unfortunately, there is a failure to have it benefit the communities from where it is mined.
“What is procedural is to have granite exported through formal procedures by going to the Minerals Marketing Cooperation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), but the money that these mining companies pay as a mining levy is inadequate. Those levies deny the communities opportunities for development,” said Mtisi.
Export cumulative figures by the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (Zimstat) revealed that in 2020 Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, Italy, Switzerland, China, Greece and Spain are among the top export destinations of unbeneficiated granite.
A heavy machine seen atop the huge Granite boulders mined in Mutoko. Credit: Ubuntu Times
Mutoko is not an exception regarding general environmental, economic and social challenges resulting from the mining of black granite.
To curb smuggling syndicates and plug illicit financial flows, the Zimra border controls say the upgrading of the Beitbridge Border post into a “world class” center is one that will help break the stranglehold of smuggling syndicates.
Zimra head of corporate communications Francis Chimanda says the authority is working to improve security to reduce instances of smuggling by improving the bus terminal that will see all travellers.
“The new bus terminal (at the border) will provide facilities where all buses will have their goods offloaded and checked before authority to proceed will be granted by revenue officers through scanning of gate passes to activate the opening of boom gates.
“This will go a long way in ensuring that the buses are checked and authority to proceed is granted. The upgrade will also generally improve security and reduce instances of smuggling at the Beitbridge border post as the new measure for traffic control and movement have improved the checks and balances,” Chimanda says.
Chimanda also pointed out that Zimra officials have embarked on random searches of buses to break the smuggling syndicates but they have not intercepted any with black granite stone.
“Currently random searches are being done on exit buses and to date, no interceptions have been made on granite being smuggled. Having said that any instances of possible smuggling will be thoroughly investigated” Chimanda adds.
Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) spokesperson Dosman Mangisi says as long as government and policymakers in Zimbabwe do not come up with a Minerals and Metals Beneficiation policy, the country’s minerals will continue to be smuggled out.
He says the value of beneficiation should be explained to the communities where the minerals are being mined in order to empower locals.
“Basically we are lagging behind as a country because Zimbabwe has no legal and policy instruments that enable value addition of our minerals. We have no metal beneficiation laws.
“Our principals should come with beneficiation policy frameworks that govern this. The ones we have speak of mining on a touch-here-touch-there basis,” Mangisi says.
For example, sample surveys conducted by the ZMF since 2016 have concluded that Zimbabwe is sitting on US$30 billion worth of iron ore but the country is currently importing 70 percent of its iron requirements.
“For this country to unlock value, granite beneficiation should be done at community level through a formulated Minerals and Metals Beneficiation policy. These minerals should therefore be classified so that we know their uses and value.
“As long as we do not have beneficiation policies we will never know the value of what we have,” adds Mangisi.
He also urged the government to start beneficiation awareness campaigns at community level so that locals know what value their minerals have.
The burning cross of the Ku Klux Klan registers starkly as I think about Ghana’s National Cathedral project. What was meant to be a symbol of faith and morality may end up a scar on not just the Ghanaian Christian community, but the entire nation.
Recent developments around the project, comprising leaked documents and remarks from government officials, have heightened the fears that the Ghanaian people could ultimately end up bearing the cost of this unholy convergence of church and state in a secular republic.
The project raised some eyebrows when it was first announced in March 2017. Reason dictated that Ghana focus on more pressing deficits in other areas of society. However, this project had significant backers, with figureheads of Ghana’s Christian community coming out in support. At the time, the Akufo-Addo administration was also yet to wade into the pool of scandal and graft.
To keep the cynics in check, we were told the cathedral, which is expected to seat 5,000, have a series of chapels, a baptistery, a music school, an art gallery, and Africa’s first bible museum, would not primarily be funded by taxpayers’ money.
Instead, the government was going to rely on donations to fund the pledge Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo said he made to God ahead of his 2016 election victory. The only thing the state was going to offer towards the project was a 14-acre piece of land — land on which some state institutions, judges, and even a diplomat had to be relocated.
The earliest estimate of the cost of the project that Ghanaians were given was $100 million. At the time, I had zero confidence the project was going to have enough donations for substantial work on the project. And sure enough, in the 2019 budget, the government announced that it was going to provide seed money for the project.
Fast-forward to 2022 and Ghanaians remain unclear on how much in donations the government has raised towards the project. We do know that the cost of the project has shot up to $350 million and that the government has been pumping much more state funds into the project than its earlier utterances suggested.
Some leaked documents and past commitments from the government indicated that it may have so far spent over GHS 250 million on the project. As part of this amount, GHS 36 million ($4.4 million) has gone to the architect of the project, the western-acclaimed British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye (whose name also came up in the questionable attempt by Ghana’s Parliament to build a new chamber). As has been noted by observers, questions have to be asked about why he was paid money for a project at such an early stage.
The money going into the project feels like an even harder slap in the face as Ghanaians contend with the crippling inflation that birthed a cost of living crisis. But the rising fuel costs and food prices are just the things that are easy to spot because they affect all Ghanaians on a daily basis. There are other pressing concerns like the decrepit healthcare system littered with abandoned projects and the unacceptable deficits in education.
Many basic schools in Ghana lack key infrastructure for teaching and learning. Credit: Delali Adogla-Bessa / Ubuntu Times
As a Christian, the relative silence from the prominent pastors and Christian leaders who endorsed this project has been deafening. It is the latest chapter in my frustration with the church in Ghana for not using its influence in Ghana to hold the political class to account.
Nicolas Duncan Williams, one of Ghana’s most influential pastors, even played the card of common partisan foot soldiers, accusing critics of the project of favoring the opposition. “Some of you love your political parties and are more loyal to your political parties than you are to the bible and the cause of Christ,” the charismatic preacher said in 2017.
It is not enough to argue that the cathedral will bring glory to God when we are certain the political class has given up on any sense of morality. Even if the church in Ghana is unconcerned by the government’s misguided priorities, it should be concerned by the half-truths told about the funding of the project and the lack of transparency and accountability.
I wonder if the board of trustees of this project, comprising the who-is-who of Ghanaian Christianity, feel any shame. If we weren’t comfortable saying it before, we can boldly say the hoard of charismatic preachers that the government, including Muslim elements within it, has leaned on for legitimacy are complicit in Ghana’s moral decay and ultimate underdevelopment.
The politics of religion in Ghana stinks. Christianity has seemingly been warped; almost like white supremacists have defiled the cross Christians hold dear in the past. Nana Akufo-Addo can ride on the popular slogan of the “Battle is the Lord’s” to rise to power, but not account for the tens of millions of dollars that he and his cohorts used to fund their campaigns.
Ghanaians seem desensitized to the grave injustice the Cathedral will come to represent. An immoral government is what we have known all our lives and come to expect. We can easily point to scandals, uncompleted hospitals and schools under trees as evidence of its corruption.
If all goes to plan and the national cathedral is ready in 2024, we will unfortunately also have a national edifice to point to when highlighting the corruption of the church.
Thomas Sankara’s murder verdict was announced on Wednesday, April 6 by the military tribunal which sentenced former President Blaise Compaoré and his former colleagues, Hyacinthe Kafando and Gilbert Diendéré, to life in prison.
Afrika’s revolutionary visionary, Sankara, was assassinated in a coup on October 15, 1987, aged 37 during a National Revolutionary Council meeting.
Blaise Compaoré ruled for 27 years after the bloody coup that killed Sankara before his regime was toppled in a 2014 revolution forcing him into exile in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire.
Sankara’s verdict was pronounced in absence of the convicted Blaise Compaoré who acquired an Ivorian Citizenship in 2016.
Although Prosper Farama and his team of lawyers representing the family of Thomas Sankara have demanded the extradition of Compaoré back to Burkina Faso to serve his life sentence, Côte d’Ivoire’s constitution does not allow for the extradition of its citizens making the handover of Blaise Compaoré to Burkina Faso authorities unlikely.
Thomas Sankara’s widow, Mariam Sankara, emphasized after the court ruling that “Burkinabé people and the public now know who President Thomas Sankara was…, what he wanted, what those who assassinated him wanted…”
Mariam Sankara’s utterances convey the dilemma of the Afrikan continent and its people scattered in the diaspora away from their national base. Afrika has many more Blaise Compaorés’ who have proven themselves to be amenable to foreign, colonial interests. These misguided internal stooges have demonstrated to be puppets at the hands of European imperialists in their willingness to sabotage and undermine the Pan-Afrikan revolution.
Thomas Sankara envisioned a liberated, self-sufficient Burkina Faso and a self-actualized continent. He reduced government vehicular fleet as part of his determination against maladministration, was committed to the reforestation of Burkina Faso which is part of the increasingly desertified Sahel region, and was engaged in rural development unlike the present-day obsession with only developing the capital cities. He was also devoted to an agricultural revolution, women’s rights, education, and the health of Burkinabé people.
Burkina Faso, West Afrika, and Afrika have been haunted ever since Sankara was murdered. It remains to be seen whether the life sentencing verdict of fugitive Blaise Compaoré will be enough considering that potential attempts to extradite him might end up becoming an effort in futility.
With the vivid memory of the way past revolutionaries were eliminated, Afrikan revolutionary youth should be on their guard in protecting contemporary Pan-Afrikan leaders. Undoubtedly, Sankara’s staunch disciples will hope to keep his revolutionary legacy alive knowing that Afrika’s liberation struggle continues…
A Zimbabwe magistrate in the southern city of Bulawayo, Mark Nzira, on March 15 dismissed an application for discharge at the close of the State case by Ubuntu Times Correspondent Jeffrey Moyo.
The State alleges that Moyo illegally acquired media accreditation cards from the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) for two foreign journalists, Christina Goldbaum and Joao Silva, when they arrived in Bulawayo from South Africa on May 5 before they were deported on May 8.
Moyo is said to have facilitated the media cards despite the applications by Goldbaum and Silva having been turned down by the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services.
In his ruling, Magistrate Nzira said Moyo must raise a defence as the State has enough evidence against him.
Jeffrey Moyo’s wife, Purity, has offered support to her husband during his prosecution. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo
Moyo was jointly charged with a ZMC employee, Thabang Manhika, who was acquitted last on March 10 by the same magistrate after the State failed to amend the charges and prosecute the two separately.
Kathleen Mpofu, who is representing Moyo, told the media that the magistrate said her client has a case to answer.
“In his findings, it seems the magistrate relied on the fact that the state had led the evidence of the allegedly false accreditation cards that had been obtained by foreign journalists. Based on his interpretation of the evidence led by the state, he found that it was sufficient to put my client to his defence.
“Therefore the ruling of the application for discharge at the close of the state case was dismissed by the magistrate. He found that the state had led enough evidence for Mr. Moyo to be put to defence,” said Mpofu.
The matter was deferred to April 28 for continuation led by prosecutor Avumen Khupe.
KAMPALA, Uganda — The Ugandan government, backed by French and Chinese investors recently announced a final investment decision to kick start the long-delayed development of Uganda’s vast crude oil reserves, opening the way for the East African nation to become an oil exporter. But the planned development of the $10 billion projects, along the shores of Lake Albert, poses new threats in the ecologically sensitive area.
French oil giant TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation say they will start pumping as much as 230,000 barrels-a-day of crude from the region by 2025, which will be shipped for export through a $3.5 billion heated pipeline linking the oil fields along Uganda’s western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania. The 900-mile pipeline will pass through Uganda’s lush green hilly farmlands, vast areas of marshlands, before snaking around Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake.
Fanfare and military parades marked the event to sign the agreements, a firm commitment that the country’s 6.5 billion barrels of crude, discovered more than a decade ago will be commercialized. President Yoweri Museveni and the Vice President of Tanzania Phillip Mpago were among the key figures that witnessed the event.
“It is a masterpiece of a project and will be achieved at low cost and with a low carbon footprint,” said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné, adding that the Ugandan project comes at a time when the world is facing increased demand for fossil fuel.
Patrick Pouyanné, the CEO of TotalEnergies makes remarks at the event to mark the signing of the final investment decision where he said that Total was committed to developing the crude reserves in a sustainable manner. Credit: Petroleum Authority of Uganda
But local and international campaigners remain concerned about the environmental impact of the new fossil fuel projects and their carbon footprint. In particular, activists are concerned about the pipeline’s potential impact on water resources for millions of people in Tanzania and Uganda, vulnerable ecosystems, and the climate crisis.
Days after the signing, an oil production ship exploded off the Nigerian coast of Escravos, Delta State in what is considered to be the nation’s second major environmental disaster in three months. It’s yet another oil disaster that has resulted in huge amounts of toxic oil being released into the ocean, a stark reminder of the reality of risks involved in fossil fuels production.
Major funders for the pipeline project have also continued to pull out. Four out of five of South Africa’s largest lenders recently confirmed that they will not be involved in the financing of the pipeline project.
According to data from the World Bank, Uganda accounts for only 0.01% of the total global carbon emissions while its per capita CO2 emissions are also low at 0.13 tonnes. But, that is expected to change when oil production starts. Experts say, oil transported by the pipeline will emit at least 33 million tonnes of CO2 every year.
But Ugandan officials sought to allay the fears, pleading to safeguard the environment and social protection in the development of the projects.
“This project comes with a very big responsibility on the work of all stakeholders involved in the management and development of the country’s oil and gas sector,” said Jane N.Mulemwa, Board Chairperson of the state energy regulator Petroleum Authority of Uganda.
Uganda’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu claps after the announcement of the final investment decision that will unlock the development of Uganda’s vast crude oil reserves. Credit: Petroleum Authority of Uganda
Local civil society actors have also expressed concern about the gross rights violations meted on local oil projects host communities that oil companies and government have failed to address. Locals complain of being intimidated and threatened by local authorities to accept the inadequate compensation for their land. In 2019 a group of NGOs filed a lawsuit against Total in France over human rights violations and environmental harm in relation to planned oil exploitation in the heart of a protected natural area in Uganda. The organizations accuse Total of failure to adhere to its duty of vigilance “Total’s social responsibility.” The case is still in court.
“Oil Companies should walk the talk and comply with social and environmental safeguards, and international best practices on the path to first oil in 2025,” said James Muhindo, the coordinator of the civil society coalition on oil and gas.
The preliminary work to set the stage for the construction of these projects has progressed. The environment and social impact assessments, as well as the front-end engineering design studies for the Kingfisher, Tilenga projects, and the pipeline, were successfully concluded. All the land required for these projects has been identified and surveyed. The processes of compensation and relocation of the project-affected persons are ongoing. These had stalled for years, amid a litany of disagreements such as tax disputes, funding challenges, and opposition from climate activists.
“This milestone puts us on the path to first oil in 2025,” Uganda’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu said in a speech adding that close to 160,000 jobs are expected to be created during the project’s development.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso —Thomas Sankara’s trial is set to resume on Wednesday, February 2nd after a military court restored the constitution on Monday, January 31.
The trial was due to resume on Monday; however, civil representatives voiced their concern, citing the need for “judicial normalization.”
Prosper Farama, the lawyer representing Sankara’s family clarified that the legal team and civil representatives believe that the trial time frame should be reasonable though they leaned toward a trial not marred by “irregularities.”
Sankara was assassinated while attending a National Revolutionary Council meeting alongside twelve officials in an October 15, 1987 coup aged 37.
After the bloody coup that saw Sankara killed, Blaise Compaoré who is suspected to have instigated Sankara’s assassination came to power, ruling for 27 years before being deposed by a popular revolution in 2014 which led him to flee and has since remained resident in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire.
When Sankara’s trial began in October 2021 before a coup interrupted closing proceedings, twelve out of 14 defendants appeared in court including one of the top leaders of the 1987 coup, General Gilbert Diendéré. The main defendant, Blaise Compaoré, and Hyacinthe Kafando, Compaoré’s former guard commander, were absent. Most of the defendants who were present pleaded not guilty to the murder of Sankara.
The resumption of Sankara’s trial is another turn of events in Burkina Faso after former president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was toppled on January 24, 2022, by mutinous soldiers stemming from his inability to address the people’s outcry concerning violent jihadists threatening lives and properties.
34 years on since the infamous coup, Burkina Faso is still haunted by Sankara’s ghost. He was an influential soldier and servant-leader. Sankara left an indelible mark in Afrika’s liberation struggle by not only sensitizing Burkinabe people but also raising the collective consciousness of Afrikans against French colonialism and European imperialism.
He was a revolutionary who won the hearts of Burkinabe and Afrikan people through his strides against corrupt practices, his commitment toward reforestation, food self-sufficiency, women’s rights, rural development, education, health and well-being of his people. To the dismay of the colonial regime, internal detractors and traitors, Sankara even renamed the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso which means “the land of upright people.”
In a continent where justice is often delayed due to both internal factors and external interference, Sankara’s family and staunch followers will hope for a just verdict that will put an end to Sankara’s protracted trial.
Africans and other blacks abroad need to develop a historical consciousness that enables them to revisit their forefathers’ history to validate the true journey of the black race. Slavery, colonialism, Christianity and the colonial education systems have created dominant narratives by the west that have registered successes in whitewashing African and black history.
This erasure continues to systematically act towards whitewashing the history of Africa through European hagiography. As a result, Africa has become a victim of European historiography that exclusively acknowledges its own cultural and historical contributions, dismissing the successes of Africa and the black race along the way.
Before slavery, African progress in the fields of nationalising African knowledge systems was remarkable. More so, through slavery Africans who were forcibly removed from their birthplaces to the United States through slavery, also succeeded in various spheres. Unfortunately, their contributions remain unnoticed despite their importance.
Some blacks taken from Africa participated in the United States war of independence against British oppression. Others also contributed through architectural designs which are today still visible in America. Through information suppression by the white establishment, the heroic adventures and contributions of blacks remain in the periphery. The first person whose blood was spilt in the revolution which freed America from British oppression was a black man named Crispus Attucks. Another black man, Benjamin Banneker, was amongst the team that designed the capital of the United States, Washington DC.
In 1721, the United States went through a perilous phase when it faced a smallpox outbreak. A black slave named Onesimus, who had been bought in 1706 by one influential Boston minister Cotton Mather, shared significant knowledge with his master on how to treat smallpox. According to black tradition, before being enslaved in the United States, Onesimus, whose name means Useful, and his people had knowledge on treating smallpox through variolation. The treatment of smallpox in the United States was not a white man’s discovery, but a knowledge system that was passed by a black slave.
From Onesimus, Mather learnt that in Africa, blacks took pus from the wounds of an infected individual and inserted it into a cut made on a healthy person. This process, while adjudged not to be entirely effective, caused a mild reaction that gave people a degree of smallpox immunity for the healthy individual.
Because of mistrust in African remedies, Mather shared information he acquired from Onesimus with a white physician named Zabdiel Boylston. Recorded history informs one that Boylston tried the technique on several people, including his own son, and was pleased to ‘discover’ that Onesimus’ procedure was a largely successful one.
Through the misrepresentations of white supremacy, Mather and Boylston were hailed as heroes and the African, Onesimus, was nowhere close to securing a place in this important milestone in medicine. And despite his life-saving contribution to the smallpox outbreak, he was still not a free man.
Countless blacks have been unjustly stripped of their rightful recognition as vital contributors to science and medicine, among other disciplines. These also include Lewis Howard Latimer, the black man who invented the carbon filament board that made the light bulb give its glow, continuously. Today credit on who invented the light bulb has been given to Thomas Edison.
While nothing can undo the damage done by such cruel omissions from defining moments in history, Africans need to work hard and do their part to acknowledge these innumerable contributions to humanity by continuing to share these important historical discoveries… Unfortunately, blacks are not told and taught this in school; instead, end up praising the white man.
These past lessons by Africans, slaves and descendants of slaves are never told because they humiliate the white man. To get into the future, the past has to be studied to get new perspectives, unlike the white man’s narrative that continues to brainwash black people by developing false narratives that even other races continue to believe.
Western Philosophy ‘Unimaginative, Even Xenophobic’
In his book Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto, Bryan Van Norden, a Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College in Singapore writes that the way the west projects African history is “narrow-minded, unimaginative, and even xenophobic.”
There have been ‘discoveries’ through exploratory excursions and military conquests done by white ‘explorers’ through the displacement of Africans in their territories. Statues have been erected in honour of these white ‘explorers’ and places renamed in their honour.
History shows that Africa, originally called Alkebulan, was named after a Roman general Scipio Africanus who had defeated Ethiopians. More so, one of the world’s seven wonders in Zimbabwe, the Victoria Falls, was ‘discovered’ by Scottish ‘explorer’ David Livingstone in 1855. Livingstone named the place Victoria Falls in honour of the British Monarchy’s Queen Victoria.
Livingstone named the falls after the queen, but the Kalolo-Lozi people in Zimbabwe had their own name for it, Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders.”
Western ideology and narratives have morphed into a false white knight in shining armour, itching to swoop in and enforce their model of “progressive” Eurocentric history over black successes.
Van Norden: “The west has written Africa out of the history of philosophy and black success, presenting all of Western philosophy as a linear progression from the ancient Greeks.”
Professor of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Claude Mararike said the black race needs to record, research, teach and distribute literature that praises black successes under the “patriotic history” platform.
“We need to teach patriotic history, which is the interpretation of history in our context as blacks and Africans. There has to be more funding into research, publication and circulation of such information. The media (personnel) should be able to dig more into the archives because some history has been distorted,” says Prof. Mararike.
The academic also blamed religion, both Christianity and Islam for enabling colonialism and oppression of the black man through slavery and colonialism.
“The revolutionary patriotic history of Africa also has to be understood from the context of Christianity and Islam as the two religions that have also done a lot of distortions to African history.
“Missionaries are the greatest culprits and the church has been distorting African history and culture. So writing about that is not opening old wounds, but that is the correct interpretation of history and Africa should know these things,” added Prof. Mararike.
Undermining Western Intellectual Foundations
The African Union (AU) and its governments ought to invest in knowledge that shakes the western foundations.
Strides by Africans and blacks from all over are written, the continuous recording of their successes are there. There is evidence that shows that black movements like the #BlackLivesMatter are giant testimonies to undermine racially skewed Western interpretation of history.
History has been white-washed so severely that often, African philosophers who generate ideas about Ubuntu, colonial independence and sovereignty are only regarded as public intellectuals. In the textbooks of Europeans, these African heroes are not incorporated.
The white race seeks to amass all the historical glory, incentives and talents for itself while consciously and voluntarily disadvantaging strong black constituencies.
This is a key matter of national and intellectual independence in which “woke” black students need to raise in order to undermine the intellectual foundations of the West and expose them for their desire for “multicultural inclusion”.
As the West gets away with murder on white-washing history, this continues to reinforce false assumptions that black history is substandard to other cultures in general, but to the dominant white culture in particular.
It is not ahistorical to remind people that Christianity was evil colonial machinery that was used to evangelize Africa.
“Areas of concern are schools and universities. It is unfortunate that in some African countries, they do not want African history to be taught. In the United States, Britain and South Africa, they do not want to teach African patriotic history,” Prof. Mararike continued.
It is time for African governments and the AU to put more funds to promote the Afro-centric movement. This, in the long run, will effect change from the enlightened grassroots.
Cletus Awuni was on his normal rounds on the afternoon of July 1 when the alarming news came his way.
Some soldiers were on the rampage in Wa, the capital of Ghana’s Upper West Region.
They were beating up some residents of the town and putting others in positions of duress after a phone belonging to one of the soldiers had been stolen.
Cletus, the Public Relations of Officer of the region’s Coordinating Council set out to investigate the brutalities and perhaps put a stop to it.
But in a blink, he too became a victim.
“In the course trying to find out why they were brutalizing people, I got myself also assaulted,” he recalled to Ubuntu Times.
When he got to the scene, Cletus had tried to capture the incident on video.
He was in a car with his phone up ready to film the human rights abuses when some of the soldiers turned their attention to him.
“About eight of them pounced on our vehicle and opened the door and tried to pull me out and they beat me up,” he said.
The conduct of the soldiers was a surprise to Cletus.
He said this was the first time he had heard of such an occurrence in his part of the country, which is known to be relatively quiet.
“The relationship between the citizens of the region and military has been very peaceful. In fact, no one has even noticed the presence of the military in the region.”
However, when the rest of Ghana heard the news and saw images of the actions of the soldiers, this was the latest instance of a worrying trend.
The country was already on edge after a more lethal instance of human rights abuses by the military.
The Wa incident followed soldiers opening fire on some protestors two days earlier in Ejura, a town in Ghana’s Ashanti Region.
The protestors were angry over the death of an activist in the area, who is believed to have been murdered because of his criticism of the Akufo-Addo administration.
Six people sustained gunshot wounds, two of whom died having been shot in the back. One of the wounded, a 16-year-old boy, lost a leg.
The subsequent outrage prompted the formation of a commission of inquiry to probe the circumstances that led to the military deployment to a purely civilian matter.
Escalation Of A Worrying Trend
Soldiers in Ghana can be seen responding to distress calls in schools, manning checkpoints, and fighting crime like police officers, among others.
A security consultant, Col. Festus Aboagye, has been one of the voices in the desert long decrying the growing footprint of Ghana’s military in civilian affairs.
“Why bring ourselves to a point where every issue should have the military in front line deployment? It is not appropriate,” he said to Ubuntu Times earlier in the year, when soldiers were again in the news for the wrong reason.
In the case of Ejura, testimony from the commission of inquiry has revealed that there were multiple breaches of protocols and drills meaning the military intervention was unlawful.
This is in addition to clear evidence the soldiers “were not equipped or did not intend to engage in any crowd control,” observed Col. Aboagye.
These incidents remain a major threat to Ghana’s democracy as we know it, he reiterated.
“The democracy that we have is very fragile; just a veneer. It is just on the surface.”
This damaging footprint of the military in civilian affairs has gotten significantly larger in the last 12 months.
No one has answered for the deployment of soldiers into Ghana’s Parliament. Credit: Delali Adogla-Bessa / Ubuntu Times
Soldiers deployed to opposition strongholds ahead of the 2020 election were accused of being tools of voter suppression.
They were also used to police the election itself and an attempt to disperse an agitating crowd with live bullets at a polling station led to the death of two persons.
When soldiers are engaged in human rights abuses, there is generally no accountability to the public.
For instance, no attempt has been made to find and sanction the security personnel who opened fire on the crowd at the polling center leading to the two deaths.
“Up till date, not a single person has been held to account or is standing prosecution for their roles in those murders,” Mensah Thompson, the Executive Secretary of Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability, stressed to Ubuntu Times.
For him, it is a reminder that there are never any significant outcomes in terms of accountability of security agencies when they abuse power.
Even with the inquiry into the recent actions of the military in Ejura, Thompson feels there is no cause for excitement.
“What we want to see is a more robust attitude towards military brutality,” he said. “The government has been lax and this emboldening military men to engage in more brutalities.”
The lack of robustness has been reflected in the posturing of the committee probing the actions of the military in Ejura.
The committee at times appears unfocused and for people scrutinizing its work, like Col. Aboagye, the committee does not seem well prepared.
“I doubt whether the committee will establish substantive findings,” he added.
The committee has at times appeared more interested in the accounts from victim’s families and some media personnel who had limited knowledge of the events on the ground.
But the military personnel seem to have been treated with kid gloves, having questionable statements go unchallenged.
One of the officers in charge claimed the dead protesters could have been killed by friendly fire from fellow protesters but have presented no evidence to that effect.
This is in contrast to damning footage from the media showing soldiers aiming and firing on fleeing protesters.
Whilst commanding officers were invited to testify before the committee, soldiers who discharged their weapons were not even called to answer for their actions, to Col. Aboagye’s dismay.
“The people who were on the ground, the soldiers, all of them should have been called [especially] the ones who fired,” remarked the consultant.
Growing Partisan Shadow Over The Military
As alarming as the conduct of military personnel has been, fears are that it is only a symptom of the bigger problem; the flooding of security agencies with political party footsoldiers and militia.
In 2019, a law was passed to criminalize the erstwhile practice of political parties forming units sometimes described as militia or vigilante groups.
The governing New Patriotic Party and the opposition National Democratic Congress were the main culprits of what was viewed as a major threat to Ghana’s peace.
At their worst, vigilante groups were seen storming a courtroom to free prisoners or beating up police at the seat of the Presidency.
But since the law was passed, Thompson fears the security services have replaced the vigilante groups.
“Unfortunately, the government did not disband its militia but rather found a way to absorb them into the security agencies,” he noted.
The governing party has a monopoly in this regard since it controls recruitment into security agencies.
This is seen as one of the reasons accountability has been hard to come by, and why the families of victims in Ejura may not see justice.
Beyond Ejura, the list of victims of human rights abuses at the hands of security agencies is likely to grow longer and Thompson warns that partisan strings controlling Ghana’s security agencies must be cut.
“If we want to maintain the peace and order in this country, it is important that we depoliticize our security agencies.”
A court in Zimbabwe has further delayed passing a ruling in a matter in which Ubuntu Times correspondent Jeffrey Moyo is seeking refusal of remand.
The ruling which was expected to be passed between July 22 and July 25 has been indefinitely postponed and the matter remanded to September 10.
Moyo’s lawyer, Doug Coltart, has said the postponement of his client’s ruling is a typical example of how the courts in Zimbabwe deal with politically sensitized matters.
“We are yet to receive the ruling and the matter has been remanded to September 10. We were anticipating the ruling between July 22 and July 25 but the court has not communicated to us what has prompted the delay,” said Coltart.
Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana recently told this publication that Moyo is neither a victim of political persecution nor free expression but should face the law.
A recent report showed that Zimbabwe has dropped two places on the World Press Freedom Index from number 129 to 131.
Billions of investments into mining projects have breathed new life in Uganda’s once-neglected Karamoja region, creating thousands of jobs in mineral-rich heartlands near the Kenyan border but the investment rush has also brought new problems, fueling environmental degradation, rights violations, and land grabbing, threatening livelihoods of millions of indigenous Karamojong people.
Ugandan authorities are investigating the latest deadly clash in the impoverished gold mining sub-county of Rupa Moroto district which happened in late April, that left a 28-year old local defense personnel dead and forced several hundred locals to flee their homes after armed assailants staged a daytime raid and stole gold ores, worth millions of Ugandan shillings. Days earlier, dozens of policemen from Uganda’s mineral protection police who had been deployed to secure the lucrative gold mining village abandoned their positions, due to rising attacks, blamed on assailants, who usually cross from Kenya’s Turkana region.
In a region long inhabited traditionally by cattle-herders, the rush to get the region’s precious minerals gold, limestone, and marble, is uprooting people, damaging key water sources, and stirring social unrest. Locals talk of being displaced from their ancestral farmlands by land grabbers while others are now suffering from many diseases, including skin infections and diarrhea, blamed on consuming water from contaminated water bodies, as some miners use hazardous chemicals including mercury to extract gold.
Impact On The Environment
“We have been invaded by foreigners who don’t care about our livelihoods,” said Anne Napeyo, a 30-year old mother in Rupa. “Many of our people are getting wounds on their skin because the water here is contaminated”
Thousands in Karamoja have taken jobs in the mines while others have become “artisanal diggers” digging their own holes and tunnels, risking cave-ins and other dangers in pursuit of buried treasure, local leaders say. In addition to hazards such as contaminated water bodies, mining activities are leaving behind gaping pits, which now dot vast areas as artisan miners leave these behind in search of new grounds. Small children sometimes drown in these pits, while local farmers have lost livestock.
Sacred grounds known as ‘Akiriket’ are also being destroyed. According to the Karamoja traditional setting, every community is socially organized to have its own Akiriket from where the assemble for social events from initiations to naming happens. Community leaders say the minerals are turning into a curse.
“We want development but it can’t be at the expense of our peoples’ lives and livelihoods,” said Margerate Lomonyang coordinator of Karamoja Women Cultural Group and Karamoja representative on the multi-stakeholder group for the Extractives Industries Transparency initiative EITI. “Investors are taking advantage of desperate people who are trying to make a living in the mines”
Land Grabbing
A total of 17,083 square kilometers of land area in Karamoja is licensed for mineral exploration and extraction activities, according to official data. In 2018, Chinese mining company Sunbelt was given 3.3 square kilometers of land to set up a $13 million marble mining factory in Rupa sub-county. A year later, the company expanded its operations to cover additional 4.1 square kilometers, ostensibly after a deal with local leaders. Hundreds of families have since been pushed out of their ancestral homes, local officials say. Locals accuse Rupa Community development trust, a community trustee group created three years ago, of conniving with investors to steal their land.
“The community leaders came to us with compensation documents saying they were going to help us demand compensation when investors come,” one local known as Lokol, said “They tricked us to sign them without paying anything, now we have nowhere to go.”
While Sunbelt insists that company representatives went through the right channels to acquire the land, including signing a memorandum of understanding with the local leaders, authorities are investigating the transaction, according to the energy and minerals ministry.
“Sunbelt violated the community members’ rights to fair and adequate compensation in the land acquisition process. They didn’t involve the community members who are the real custodians of the land,” said Lomonyang.
Another company DAO Marble Africa Limited, which operates a mining license to mine marble has been accused by Human Rights Watch for rights violations, including allegations that the company connived and paid off a few local chiefs without compensating the local residents.
Land ownership in Karamoja is under customary tenure and communally owned and managed. This means that land is held in trust by one generation for another with the elders as ‘stewards’. This very unclear land ownership model makes fair compensation a difficult issue as few elders negotiate with the companies for the temporary acquisition of land.
Local Miners Association To The Rescue
Karamoja Miners Association unites miners in the region and was formed to sensitize local mining communities about their rights, help locals demand accountability from their leaders, and seek fair compensation from mining companies.
Women engage in mining activities in Karamoja. Poor working conditions and environmental degradation pose health risks for them. Credit: Resource Rights Africa
“We organize miners in groups so that they have a formidable voice and can negotiate for better wages and working conditions from mining companies,” says Simon Nagiro the chairperson of the association. “We have also embarked on interpreting into local languages miners’ rights as enshrined under the mining laws.”
Regions’ Mineral Potential
Karamoja is endowed with a vast array of metallic and industrial minerals that have the potential to be developed commercially. A 2011 survey found that the region contains over 50 minerals including gold, limestone, uranium, marble, graphite, gypsum, iron, wolfram, nickel, copper, cobalt, lithium, and tin. With 61% of Karamoja’s 1.2 million people living in poverty, the region’s mineral potential holds the promise of economic development.
The region is endowed with over 50 different minerals, including marble, limestone, gold, silver, copper, and iron.
26 companies currently have exploratory or mining rights in the region.
The sector comprises both large-scale and artisanal and small-scale miners.
The Constitution of Uganda 1995, vests all mineral resources in the hands of government but article 244 provides that minerals shall be exploited taking into account the interests of landowners and local governments and further states that land will not be deprived of a person without prompt payment of fair and adequate compensation. Under articles 39 and 41, every Ugandan has a right to a clean and healthy environment and as such can bring an action for any pollution or improper disposal of wastes.
The Mining Act, 2003 is the principal law that governs mining in Uganda. Under Section 4 of the act, a person may acquire the right to search for and mine any mineral by acquiring a license issued by the commissioner. Section 15 provides for payment of compensation to owners of private land for damage done to the surface of the land or to any crops, trees, buildings, or for livestock injured or killed by the negligence of the holder of the license or an agent. Section 43 provides that a mining license shall not be granted unless the proposed mining program takes into proper account environmental impact assessment and safety factors.
Section 110 further makes it mandatory for every license holder to submit a costed environmental restoration plan which requires approval by the National Environment Management Authority. The Act however does not clearly address the regulation of mining activities by different government agencies and how they can follow up with the investors regarding royalties. This is worsened by the limited role local government plays in the regulation of mining activities due to resource constraints.
Rights Of Indigenous Groups In Uganda
According to Minority rights group international, Karamojong pastoralists, are some of the most marginalized minorities in Uganda, isolated economically and politically. Commonly stereotyped by their compatriots as violent and backward, other Ugandans refer to them as warriors. The African Commission’s International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs also recognizes the Karamojong people as indigenous minority groups in Uganda. However, Uganda does not officially recognize Indigenous minority groups. This lack of formal recognition by the state further disenfranchises Karamojong.
Uganda is a signatory to various international instruments that reiterate the rights of indigenous people. These include; the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People 2007, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. However, the country is still lagging behind in terms of protecting the rights of indigenous people.
A Karamojong woman digs a hole as she mines for gold in Rupa-sub-county. Such holes dot the area and have become death traps for both children and livestock. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire
“We are empowering communities by educating them about their land and property rights so that they are able to hold mining companies accountable,” says Abaho Herbert a program officer at Resource Rights Africa a local charity organization operating in the region. “We also work with local leaders to put in place by-laws that enable fair wages for miners to avoid being exploited by the mining companies”
Since Belgium-based Africa gold refinery set up a $20 million gold plant in Uganda, the country has become a magnet for gold mining activities, notably in Karamoja. Gold exports fetch $1 billion every year and have overtaken coffee as Uganda’s leading export commodity.
For many local leaders, this rush is the reason for increased insecurity, displacement of locals, and inter-communal clashes. Gold miners are routinely attacked by assailants looking for the highly sought-after metal, bringing back memories of the insecurity that plagued the region at the height of cattle rustling in the 1990s and 2000s. Illegal miners continue to flock to the 7 districts of Karamoja, driving up displacements, clashes over land ownership and shared water bodies.
Food insecurity is also a challenge in the region and reliance on natural resources has rendered livelihoods sensitive to climate change, already a reality manifested inform of recurring droughts, flash floods, and prolonged dry spells.
In June 2021, Uganda’s cabinet approved a draft mining law (Mining and minerals Bill 2019) that imposes steep penalties for violations in the sector, including fines of 1 billion shillings ($278,164.12) and prison terms of up to seven years for those found guilty of environmental degradation, illegal mining among other violations.
The new law will replace the old mining legislation that has been in place since 2003, when the region hadn’t discovered vast minerals, according to Vicent Kedi the commissioner licensing at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.
“The new law will solve issues of non-compliance by mining companies to social and environmental safeguards, ” he says. “We are working with local leaders in the region to continuously monitor mining company operations.
This story was produced with the support of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network’s Indigenous Story Grants
Haiti is reeling from a new crisis after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home last Wednesday morning by mercenaries. The gruesome act which has been condemned by the United Nations (UN), opens up new ways to understand the instability, poverty, and diminishing power of the country’s central government in contemporary times and for many years to come.
Upon hearing news of his President’s assassination, Haitian Ambassador to the US Bocchit Edmond said: “It seems this horrible act was carried out by well-trained professional killers.”
The police said it has killed and captured Colombian mercenaries. Colombia’s Defense Ministry also confirmed that among those captured are its citizens who retired from its army but “will cooperate to verify with Haiti officials.”
Haiti was already going through a crisis and Moïse’s assassination has taken it to another level. Moïse’s presidency was contested from the start. His government, in May 2019, postponed parliamentary elections and he started ruling Haiti by issuing decrees.
“I don’t see how there is anyone, after God, who has more power in the country than me,” Moïse said in 2019.
The political vacuum his death has created in Haiti is extremely dangerous. In Haiti, when things like this happen, citizen violence comes quickly. Citizens have burnt vehicles and exhibited an eagerness to mete justice on the captured mercenaries
“I Prefer To Observe The Tragedy”
The Senate – the upper house of the Haitian parliament – has nominated Joseph Lambert as the interim president bestowed with a huge task to take Haiti to legislative and presidential elections scheduled in September.
Haiti has not recovered from the devastating 2010 earthquake, the effects of the 2016 hurricane Matthews and it is the only country in the Americas said to have not initiated vaccination against the COVID-19 pandemic amid a surge in cases. Inflation, food, and fuel shortages are tasks Lambert is expected to tackle to avoid more chaos from the fragile constituency he is leading.
The situation is a desperate and hard episode for the nation to stay afloat and the president’s assassination raises a possibility of more lawlessness.
Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph asked the US to deploy troops and protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilize the country. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation,” the Prime Minister has been quoted as saying. The Biden administration said it is sending a team of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers to help with investigations.
People have also gathered at the US Embassy in the capital Port-au-Prince pleading for a way out.
Haiti has a history of political instability and Moïse’s time was no different. As the crisis unfolds, a resident in the capital told Ubuntu Times: “I cannot give you any information (about developments going on) I prefer to observe the tragedy.”
In December 2020, Haitians held protests in Port-au-Prince against growing gang violence. Leading to the assassination of President Moïse, gunfire exchanges between police and armed gangs in the capital’s streets led to civilian deaths. Credit: Dieu Nalio Chery / AP
Since February when lawyers, citizens, and politicians contested Moïse’s “unconstitutional” stay in power after the end of his term, armed gangs started fighting for control of the capital’s streets. Gang violence in June led over 8,000 people to flee their homes.
At one point President Moïse offered a glimmer of hope.
“In no country on earth is it possible to talk about development unless there is political stability unless there is social peace,” he said.
The Past Has The Answers
Answers as to the crises in Haiti are in the past.
The tiny French and Creole-speaking country is the poorest in the western hemisphere yet it possesses a rich history. A rebellion by self-liberated slaves between 1791 to 1804 against French rule in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) made the country the first black republic in the world.
The victorious former slaves expelled the French and other slave owners who made a fortune through the inhumane practice. As punishment, Haiti was occupied, sabotaged, and embargoed into poverty and instability by the United States of America (USA).
On the other hand, France forced it to pay 100 years of reparations for “daring to kill their former colonizers” as the French, American, and British governments could not allow a self-created black nation to thrive.
The assassination of Moïse scarcely impacts or shapes the global developments in the minds of those nations that have colluded to put Haiti in this situation. The White House through its press secretary Jen Psaki has insisted that there should be “elections in Haiti this year in order to have a smooth transfer of power.”
The chaos that was created by countries that undermined Haiti’s revolutionary victory in 1804 is the one that continues to haunt citizens even there are claims of “independence.”
The reasons behind the president’s assassination must be looked into carefully because a misstep at the start makes everything all too wrong. Moïse’s death is not an isolated event that has happened over 200 years after the American and western undermining of true Haitian independence.
It is not a coincidence that events in Haiti are turning out this way, they are an occurrence that is designed for long to be such. The Haiti situation remains regrettable and answers becoming more elusive if citizens turn a blind eye and fail to learn on what made their fore-bearers emerge victorious against past slave masters.
Tens of thousands of people are missing out on free essential healthcare services in the restive English-speaking North West Region of Cameroon as the government maintains a suspension on the activities of medical aid group Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Border (MSF) in the region.
Authorities had in December 2020 forcefully halted the work of MSF on claims that the charity was colluding with armed separatist fighters seeking to secede from Cameroon and create their own state named ‘Ambazonia’. MSF has repeatedly denied the accusation and says it stands by its charter which requires the provision of healthcare without discrimination or heed to political or religious affiliations.
Despite MSF’s denial of wrongdoing and the necessity of healthcare provision, the government has yet to lift the ban six months after. People continue to live in limbo in a region where the government itself recently acknowledged that 30 percent of health facilities were no longer functional due to the drawn-out conflict.
MSF has now called on the government of Cameroon to allow it to resume operations and provide much-need medical and humanitarian relief to people in distress. Authorities have officially not responded to the request.
According to Emmanuel Lampaert, MSF Operations Coordinator for Central Africa, it is unacceptable that people who have fled violence into blushes are denied vital medical services for six months and counting. “This decision represents a substantial blow to medical and humanitarian access.”
Since 2018 when Doctors Without Borders started its intervention in the conflict-plagued English-speaking regions of Cameroon, it has treated patients for rape, physical and psychological torture, burns and gunshots. MSF teams have also largely handled patients in need of medical assistance for childbirth, malaria or diarrhea. Last year alone, the charity attended to 150,000 people in troubled regions.
“As we speak, our community health workers see people die and suffer because of the lack of treatment available in villages and displaced communities, and our ambulance call center continues to receive emergency requests, which they are forced to decline. What rationale can justify these unnecessary deaths?” Lampaert bemoaned.
Recent recurrent battles between government troops and increasingly bold armed separatists have exacerbated insecurity. This, coupled with Monday ghost towns, curfews, occasional lockdowns and the targeting of health facilities, have gravely disrupted access to healthcare. Economic hardship brought about by the drawn-out conflict has made it difficult for people to be able to transport themselves to health facilities or even pay for treatment. Many hospitals have suffered arson attacks or have been repurposed into military bases.
Yenfui Delphine, a young mother based in Bamenda, told Ubuntu Times she is one of those who feel the pinch of the absence of MSF. While making allusion to her son who felt seriously sick two months ago, Yenfui said MSF teams used to be there for people who had emergencies but lacked a means of transportation and money. “Without them, it is very risky getting a sick one by motorcycle [the only option available] to the nearby health facility on a ghost town day,” she said.
In 2020, MSF teams in the North West Region treated 180 survivors of sexual violence; 1,725 mental health consultations were provided; 3,272 surgeries were performed; 4,407 patients were referred by ambulance, of which more than 1,000 were women in labor; 42,578 consultations were provided by community health volunteers, mostly for malaria, diarrhea and respiratory tract infections.
Lampaert said MSF staff, volunteers and patients have regularly faced threats and violence from both state and non-state armed groups, with very little respect shown for the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality. “Our ambulances have been fired on and stolen, community health workers have faced sexual assault and murder, armed men have opened fire inside medical facilities, and our colleagues have faced death threats. Despite these extremely difficult situations, our staff kept on providing care to people in need, day after day.”
Since 2017, Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions have been ravaged by a bloody socio-political conflict. Low-level protests erupted in 2016 against decades of marginalization of the minority Anglophones by the Francophone-dominated government of long-serving President Paul Biya. The government responded with force and pushed many to the extreme, triggering an unending war.
To date, it is estimated that over 5,000 civilians, soldiers and separatist fighters have been killed, while no fewer than three million others are affected by the conflict. The war has internally displaced 712,800, according to OCHA and the UN refugee agency – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered 66,718 people who have crossed over the border to Nigeria as refugees.
The lawyer representing Ubuntu Times’ Zimbabwe correspondent Jeffrey Moyo, 37, says the State is “acting in an unjust way” after it issued an arrest warrant for his client on Thursday, June 24 without a legal basis.
Douglas Coltart said the arrest warrant, which was later canceled, is part of the State’s mechanisms to frustrate court proceedings before his client made an application for refusal of remand.
“We have been denied the right to make this application (refusal of remand) in the court and the magistrate insisted that we file the written submissions. The court issued an arrest warrant against my client without any legal basis because we were in court on time. We had to prove through paper trail that my client is not a flight risk and that we were in court on time.
“This shows the State, in this case, is acting in an unjust way,” said Coltart.
Moyo’s case is being heard in a Bulawayo court, about 450km southwest of the capital Harare, where he stays with his family. He is currently out of custody on ZW$5,000 (US$59) bail and denies allegations that he facilitated procurement of media accreditation cards for two foreign journalists without following due procedure.
Jeffrey Moyo, left, and his lawyer Douglas Coltart. Coltart says the State is not acting in good faith when dealing with his client’s case. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
According to Coltart, the State is yet to respond to his client’s court application for refusal of remand.
Zimbabwe’s government spokesperson Nick Mangwana told Ubuntu Times that Moyo is facing the consequences of contravening the country’s laws abusing journalistic freedoms.
Mangwana said Zimbabwe, despite being ranked 130 on the World Press Freedom index, enjoys cordial relations with both local and international media institutions and “Moyo’s arrest had nothing to do with media or press freedom.”
“As a government, we are doing well and not worried. We have good relations with media institutions, local and international. If the crime Jeffrey Moyo is alleged to have committed was committed by a medical doctor, that doctor was going to face similar fate. If that doctor was arrested, people should not say Zimbabwe is against medical doctors.
“There is nothing about press freedom in this case in which Moyo is charged,” he told Ubuntu Times.
Mangwana also indicated that government has not hindered or banned journalists from practicing in Zimbabwe “because there is a regulator (ZMC) who in my view has not banned anyone from practicing journalism.”
“We have an example of journalists who wrote stories that led to the resignation of a whole vice-president here in Zimbabwe and no one was been penalized for that. That is press freedom people want and they have it. But Jeffrey Moyo’s case is a different one. He committed a criminal offense by abusing his journalistic freedoms,” added Mangwana.
Moyo is set to return to court on July 8 for routine remand.
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