The Women of Congo

While we're on the topic of African women being photographed, some Congolese women are the subject of this art installation in Chicago.

The Trains of Kibera

From JR Art:

Today, after more than a year of planning, 2000 square meters of rooftops have been covered with photos of the eyes and faces of the women of Kibera [the slum on the outskirts of Nairobi]. The material used is water resistant so that the photo itself will protect the fragile houses in the heavy rain season. The train that passes on this line through Kibera at least twice a day has also been covered with eyes from the women that live below it. With the eyes on the train, the bottom half of the their faces have be pasted on corrugated sheets on the slope that leads down from the tracks to the rooftops. The idea being that for the split second the train passes, their eyes will match their smiles and their faces will be complete.

And someday, this will be seen on Google Earth, although I'm not quite sure why the faces don't fit together. It looks like one of those block puzzles where you have to slide the grooved pieces around on a square to get them to align:

What is Going On?

Two weeks into Operation Umoja Wetu, and we have yet to hear about any significant clashes between government and FDLR forces. We know that MONUC says it will be helping to plan and coordinate the mission; that Kabila went on TV on Saturday and promised that the Rwandan troops will be out by end of February; that a number of FDLR have voluntarily surrendered to MONUC; that the opposition in Kinshasa is divided, but deeply suspicious about the entrance of Rwandan forces on Congolese soil; and that Rwanda captured but has so far not repatriated Laurent Nkunda to Congo (as it may or may not have promised Kabila it would), or sent him on to the ICC, as HRW and others have demanded. We have also heard about a scattering of skirmishes and displacements: in the Makobola area south of the South Kivu regional center of Uvira; near Walikale and Kalehe; and elsewhere.

But what the Rwandan troops are doing on a day-to-day basis; whether there are serious clashes taking place below our radar screens; how the Mai-Mai are reacting; who's taking control of the multitude of artisanal mines that dot the region; and how the Rwandans hope to finish mopping up the FDLR before the end of February--all these are largely mysteries. We need much more on-the-ground reporting.

How Will the Economic Downturn Affect Africa?

Maybe not as badly as you might think:

On 6 November, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released updated forecasts showing that economic growth in all regions will slow markedly. But Africa’s performance will still be relatively strong, with 5.2 per cent average growth in gross domestic product (GDP) projected for 2008 and 4.7 per cent for 2009. That compares favourably not only to the hard-hit industrialized economies, but also to the growth rates of some other developing regions, such as Latin America and the Caribbean.

However:

As economic growth slows worldwide and some major industrial economies have gone into recession, it has become clearer that the repercussions of the global financial crisis will be felt throughout Africa’s “real economy” — beyond the narrow realm of stock trading. Dwindling financial remittances from Africans working abroad, lower world prices for Africa’s exports, scarcer and more costly commercial credit and less generous flows of foreign aid will inevitably dampen productive activity across the continent.

h/t Africa Unchained

Quote of the Day

Kofi Annan:

It will be incredibly short-sighted, as well as immoral--I'm sorry to use that word--for the wealthiest nations to use the financial crisis as an excuse to drop promises to protect and help the poorest.

Hey, that reminds me of something...

Query: Can anyone name one other campaign promise Obama has already explicitly repudiated?

Braeckman on the New Book about Kouchner [Updated]

Memo to Self: There's no such thing as too much cynicism. Colette Braeckman reports that Bernard Kouchner, glamorous hero to the left, founder of Medecins sans frontieres, pal to the stars, and oh, by the way, foreign minister of France, pocketed 4.6 million euros between 2002 and 2007 from Gabon's president Omar Bongo and the Congo's Denis Sassou Nguesso. And what did he do to earn these vast sums? Provided the two gentlemen with "advice" on improving their countries' health care systems.

That the two presidents are so concerned about their countrymen's well-being will come as welcome news to their people, who, uncooperatively, rank 188th and 189th in the world life expectancy. The news will also serve as a stern rebuke to those nabobs of negativity, like the French police, who are investigating the two presidents for embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars to buy lavish French mansions, tailored suits, and sprees at the Waldorf that make the young Mick Jagger seem like a model of restrained asceticism.

Hey--I have some advice for the two presidents: Stop stealing all the money!

That'll be 4.6 million euros, please.

Update: Here's a link for an account, in English, of the kerfuffle. I see Kouchner is due to meet with Clinton later this week. Perhaps they can compare notes on how to squeeze the most out of their African dictator friends.

Obama's Africa Appointments

From Foreign Policy:

Sources tell The Cable that retired ambassador Johnnie Carson, a long time Africa hand and foreign service officer who has recently served as the national intelligence officer for Africa, is going to be named assistant secretary of state for Africa. Michelle Gavin, a former Senate foreign policy advisor to Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) and the successor to Obama foreign policy advisor Denis McDonough as legislative director to Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO), will be named to an NSC slot on Africa.

Neither of these folks appears to have much background on the Congo. I will be delighted to be proven wrong, but I think it's safe at this point to assume that the US will continue to play only a marginal role in the DRC. We won't raise the Congo's profile; We won't threaten Rwanda or Uganda with sanctions or a loss of aid; We won't provide Congolese civil society or its sprinkling of professionals and good government types with enough funding to challenge the Kabila government or meaningfully advance the democracy or development agendas. The vague hope I had that Obama's Africa agenda might be as significant an advance over Bush's as the latter's was over Clinton's seems increasingly implausible.

To be sure, there will always be some buttinskies ready to prescribe a whole pharmacy's worth of elixers and liniments to cure what ails the Congo (and by extension, Africa in general). Who knows? The Obama people might even appoint a Special Envoy to the region. And eventually they will issue some rousing rhetoric and flourish some novel policy formulations, just as the Clinton people did. Who can forget the brassy stir of trumpets announcing the "African Renaissance"; the ceremonial unveiling of the "Trade not Aid" policy; the breathless discovery of that diplomatic penicillin, "African solutions for African problems"; or the solemn christening in the State Department and the pages of the New Yorker of "Africa's New Leaders," who, alas, all went to war with each other within six months of being named the hope of the continent.

In the end, it was all a distraction. Under Clinton, the US had neither the will nor the resources to attempt a meaningful engagement with Africa, and its policies consisted of a series of gestures meant to suggest a command of events over which it had little control. Under Bush, a vestige of the family's noblesse oblige and a timely push from the Christian Right produced a surprising spurt of charity, but little in the way of diplomatic energy. The best thing Obama could do for Africans is to tell them the truth: They are on their own, and will have to see things through as best they can.

FDLR Post Taken

Radio Okapi is reporting that the Rwandan army seized Munzenze, an important FDLR base located near Mabenga, in Virungu National Park, on Saturday. They also captured or killed several FDLR soldiers in the region. Other FDLR surrendered to MONUC.



[Map Credit: Radio Okapi]

Chinese Departing in Droves

From China Brief, an article on "Commodity Flux and China’s Africa Strategy"

During the commodity price boom, China invested massively in Africa seeking to lock up as many raw materials as possible. Some in academia spoke confidently of China having a fifty or one hundred year strategy toward Africa. In practice, Chinese entrepreneurs have been the first to leave when the market turned since the global decline in commodity prices accelerated with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. For instance, according to interviews the authors conducted in Congo, more than 60 Chinese mining companies have left the mineral rich Katanga the last two months, as cobalt and copper prices have tanked. Over 100 small Chinese operators are reported to have left Zambian mines for the same reason.

A similar retreat may be occurring at the strategic level. In 2007, it was announced that China would lend the Congo $5 billion to modernize its infrastructure and mining sector. Under a draft accord, Beijing earmarked the funds for major road and rail construction projects and for rehabilitation of Congo’s mining sector, while the repayment terms proposed included mining concessions and toll revenue deals to be given to Chinese companies. In simple terms it meant 13 million tons of copper for $5 billion—or (even at today’s depressed prices) $40 billion for twenty-times less [1]. The China-Congo deal, however, has gone very quiet as the copper price has plummeted. The market—not grand strategy—is the main Chinese motivation in Africa [emphasis added].

This article reaches more-or-less the opposite conclusion of the one from Reuters I cited last week.

Memo to US military in Congo

From the Washington Post:

Alan Doss, the top U.N. ambassador to Congo, stressed the need for civilian protection during the operation but noted that diplomats pushed for the Hutu militias to be disarmed.

The United Nations is helping with logistics and military planning; a small U.S. military team also arrived in the past week, though its role is not yet clear.

"There will be collateral damage, to use that horrible phrase," Doss said. "But again, the international community has pressed for this for a long time now."

MEMO to whatever US Special Forces are operating in Congo: You'll begin by thinking you can help them conduct a more targeted, humane operation; you'll continue by making excuses for them while publicly minimizing your own contribution; you'll end by denying any real involvement and getting into disputes with your critics over the final tally of the number slaughtered.

You don't know what you are getting into. You don't want to be a part of this.