The British press tends to have a pejorative, backward view of Africa and have artificially portrayed it as a wasteland since the winds of change brought decolonisation over 50 years ago. The view of South Africa before the World Cup was that it was a country overrun by AIDS orphans, poverty and inequality. Now there are facts and stories to prove these correct but it is examined through a form of myopia that seems unlikely to change for the foreseeable.
As the tourists and the media have left South Africa back to their own territory, it has been shaping up in East Africa, Africa’s potential Euro-zone style economic area. It does not warrant a ‘make or break’ style headline, but concurrent events across the region will have significance on the short and long term goals of the region.
This month will see elections in Rwanda as Paul Kagame continues to keep a tight grip on power. Rwanda will always be associated with the Genocide of 1994, where 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus were slaughtered in one hundred days. Yet, since the genocide, Rwanda has become an economic tiger since its rebirth; Kagame created a hub for economic investment, free from corruption with broadband speeds quicker than rural England. Diplomatically, Kagame has become a darling of the West, transforming the former Belgian colony into a member of the Commonwealth and attracting millions of dollars in aid money each year - including £50 million from the British Government. In fact, tensions led him to cut all diplomatic ties with the French Government and saw Rwanda, a country with no British heritage, adopt English as its national language.
His strong-willed approach has brought him criticism from many internally and internationally. Former political allies have been shot, a national newspaper editor was murdered, opposition politicians have been gagged or placed in jail and Rwanda’s internet has been heavily censored, all have murders are suspected to be linked to his regime. Many have drawn similarities to his autocratic style to that of Mugabe and Israel’s Ben Gurion and that despite his prominence as a progressive leader, he is still a soldier at heart. Many argue that because of his armed interventions and Nyere-style reforms that he is a real African hero and deserves a final seven-year tenure will serve the Rwandan people well.
Across the border in Kenya, a proposed referendum will decide an overhaul of the country’s archaic and top-down political system. The shocking and violent election of 2007 nearly brought the West’s economic hub to the verge of civil war. Michela Wrong’s controversial book ‘It’s Our Turn to Eat’ uncovered the endemic corruption and revealed how tribal politics ravaged the country’s treasury and ultimately forced the UN and the West to prevent further bloodshed. The referendum hopes to address the constitutional powers of the executive, judiciary and enhance the role of the county system; not to mention the blurry seams of accountability. Not only does Kenya serve as a stable economic and political hub for the region but it is important for the rest of the world as many of Somalia’s pirates are being tried in Kenya’s courts.
Both of these events will help give purpose to further political enrichment and quell or enhance any fears in the West. Regional stability is essential in breaking down trade barriers between neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania. It is next year before we will have to wait to for another contentious poll, not in Somalia but a potential South Sudan. We will have to wait to see what happens.
As the tourists and the media have left South Africa back to their own territory, it has been shaping up in East Africa, Africa’s potential Euro-zone style economic area. It does not warrant a ‘make or break’ style headline, but concurrent events across the region will have significance on the short and long term goals of the region.
This month will see elections in Rwanda as Paul Kagame continues to keep a tight grip on power. Rwanda will always be associated with the Genocide of 1994, where 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus were slaughtered in one hundred days. Yet, since the genocide, Rwanda has become an economic tiger since its rebirth; Kagame created a hub for economic investment, free from corruption with broadband speeds quicker than rural England. Diplomatically, Kagame has become a darling of the West, transforming the former Belgian colony into a member of the Commonwealth and attracting millions of dollars in aid money each year - including £50 million from the British Government. In fact, tensions led him to cut all diplomatic ties with the French Government and saw Rwanda, a country with no British heritage, adopt English as its national language.
His strong-willed approach has brought him criticism from many internally and internationally. Former political allies have been shot, a national newspaper editor was murdered, opposition politicians have been gagged or placed in jail and Rwanda’s internet has been heavily censored, all have murders are suspected to be linked to his regime. Many have drawn similarities to his autocratic style to that of Mugabe and Israel’s Ben Gurion and that despite his prominence as a progressive leader, he is still a soldier at heart. Many argue that because of his armed interventions and Nyere-style reforms that he is a real African hero and deserves a final seven-year tenure will serve the Rwandan people well.
Across the border in Kenya, a proposed referendum will decide an overhaul of the country’s archaic and top-down political system. The shocking and violent election of 2007 nearly brought the West’s economic hub to the verge of civil war. Michela Wrong’s controversial book ‘It’s Our Turn to Eat’ uncovered the endemic corruption and revealed how tribal politics ravaged the country’s treasury and ultimately forced the UN and the West to prevent further bloodshed. The referendum hopes to address the constitutional powers of the executive, judiciary and enhance the role of the county system; not to mention the blurry seams of accountability. Not only does Kenya serve as a stable economic and political hub for the region but it is important for the rest of the world as many of Somalia’s pirates are being tried in Kenya’s courts.
Both of these events will help give purpose to further political enrichment and quell or enhance any fears in the West. Regional stability is essential in breaking down trade barriers between neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania. It is next year before we will have to wait to for another contentious poll, not in Somalia but a potential South Sudan. We will have to wait to see what happens.
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