BY GEORGE KAGAME
In 2007 the World Bank, in its annual Doing Business Index placed Rwanda 158 among 175 countries worldwide in attracting entrepreneurs. Rwanda was upset, how can it be? Conferences were called, workshops and retreats were held. Something had to be done to improve this bad position. How can we be close to the last? The last in these times being the likes of Zimbabwe, Somalia, Iraq etc.
How can we perform so well in the tourism festival in Berlin and fail in our backyard in encouraging entrepreneurs to start and develop businesses? At that time the government called anyone with some business knowledge to policy round tables. Whoever thought there was no democracy in the country at the time would have noted these brain storming sessions. The Strategy and Policy office in the Presidency took on a major role and even if he worked behind curtains, David Himbara increasingly became a major figure in the country at the time.
The Rwanda Investment and Export Promotions with Francis Gatare also took centre stage. Note that the Private Sector Federation re-branded but remained largely a desktop lobby organization. The other two offices embarked on a vigorous PR campaign targeting the local media and later regional media house. Crucially Tony Blair-he needs no introduction- was on board too.
The following year Rwanda was ranked 139, I remember about the same-time covering an event at Hotel Umubano where a certain Nkurunziza who was heading one of the business improving agencies in the country said some unflattering things and soon loosing his job in the reshuffles that followed that meeting.
About the same-time, the RPSF-Rwanda Private Sector Federation- also took note of the winds of change and came on board. The first activity was meet President Paul Kagame and address with him the issues deterring investments in the country. Its head Robert Bayigamba said the high cost of transporting goods and services to the Rwandan market along with the absence of an effective tax rate were some of the issues that had to be dealt with effectively if Rwanda were attract more investments. (Although soon afterwards, at a conference called by the RRA some of the leading accountants in the revenue agency said they did not understand that tax system in the country.) But perhaps due to this meeting Kenyans firms started arriving in Kigali as did Nigerian Banks.
The government then opened a training institute in Butare where RRA tax collectors could be trained on basic tax systems in Rwanda, how to collect the taxes and more importantly how make these collections useful in the development of the country. The tax collectors after learning from the institute came back to Kigali and utilized their lessons very well and tax collection in the country increased considerably to Frw 566.2 billion. T he only hitch being that some of the tax collectors having collected this sum were jealous to hand it all to government and so they diverted some of it to building villas in Nyarutarama and Kibagabaga. Ever alert, the spies caught with some and they were sent to the 'commune.'
Characteristically cautious, Kagame formed a special unit in his office to advise him on how to attract investments to the country. The Doing Business in Rwanda task force began its work in December 2007 and, within nine months had identified and successfully implemented 15 investment climate improvements, most of which were captured in the 2008 survey causing Rwanda to move several notches up from 158 to 139. These included; reduced cost of port and terminal handling by liberalizing the warehouse services sector, and new customs declaration points which helped to accelerate trade. Furthermore, decentralization sped the issuance of building permits.
The task force came into force at about the same time that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development along with the Rwandan country office of the World Bank hired The Policy Practice, a savvy consultancy firm from the US to advise economic policy makers on business reforms to improve local private investments.
These reforms included starting a professional framework for employees and employers in the formal sector like regulating or establishing working hours, (although this was kept only on paper) and advising the government to lobby for increased working hours at all boarder points in Kenya, Uganda and the sea port of Mombassa. AS a result all terminal points started 24 hour shifts. Exports and imports increased and reforms in the land and agriculture sector were also undertaken.
The multi frontal strategy to improve business in the country especially targeted improving the lagging service sector in the country and as a result performance contracts were established for local government authorities and enforced albeit in dramatical form.
They were to be calculated in percentages. The ICT philosophy also became ingrained in the now famous Vision venti venti ideology. Not to be outdone the RPSF hired a South African research organization to advise it on how to be more efficient in service delivery to Rwandan investors, and also how to draft reports to their appointing authority.
In the process the amount of money spent on consultancy in the country totaled to Frw 80 Billion and a large percentage of that going to foreignors!
Recently as the Immigration officials lined up at the airport to receive Anaclet Kalibata, carrying the latest award in good institutional management thanks to the good service of the commission he heads, there was a major feeling of satisfaction and pride. It was the same case with President Kagame's return from the Former US President Bill Clinton's Global Initiative about the same-time as he was awarded for his commitment to good leadership.
But when the Mo Ibrahim released their analysis of service in the country it was not favourable because Rwanda was placed nearest to the bottom rung. Transparency International also had their take on our fight against corruption and they were not sugar coating. Institutional bosses were defense immediately up in arms defending themselves without giving any credence to the two organizations.
And this rises the question, if we are happy and enjoy being honoured and praised for good works by foreignors, why are we not humble enough to accept criticism. Denying the voice of critics and then partially implementing their recommendations is a sign of double standards and we don't want that on our resume.
Ends
donuwagiwabo@gmail.com
Monday 19 October 2009
Computer incompetence+pizza baking; mambo jumbo
G KAGAME
This is a personal note, if you are the kind that is not interested in such please read no further.
A few days ago I lost all my music files saved on my prized notebook computer, at one time I owned a collection of music that was richer than three FM stations in Kigali or so I boasted among my friends in Rwanda. Recently I moved to North America and my fortunes changed. One of my favourite songs in the collection was by Nigerian Maestro Femi Kuti and was titled "Sorry Sorry." The song tells Africa's misery as the continent is exploited and neglected by politicians and soldiers and left for the dogs.
My collection of music was stored in three computers, one, a prize personal notebook, the other a laptop for work purposes and the third was a desktop which, for those that read my blog know too well how I managed against all odds to purchase it ending in my eviction by my roommate for defaulting on my monthly rental payments- I had spent my three months total pay to buy it and in the process failed to contribute on anything else in the house.
So as I moved to North America, I never knew the importance of back up for files kept on computers, like so many other aspects of a computer that I never knew. In one bizarre moment I erased all my music files unintentionally. The music, to a large extent told the episodes of my life-story from infant, puberty right through to my current stage which is swinging between youth mature, old, ancient, man and manhood.
The events that led to my easing my music were not so complicated to anyone my age and education standards, (moderate) as compared to somebody that grew up in the west. So as I explained to a friend how I had erased my music he could not really comprehend my mental status. I could tell from how he looked at me that the word RETARDED was what he wanted to say to me. But the west is different, so he just looked at me (or tried to ) with sympathy. Since I lost these music files I have been depressed, and I have been extremely hurt beyond words.
I left the two computers in Kigali and I only have the prized one. Since the music was saved on three different computers and even on an Ipod, you'd say that I can simply retrieve it from one and restore it. But it is not this simple. First I carried only the files I had on my notebook, the back up memory chip where other copies were stored was stolen from me while I worked in the Pan African Parliament newsroom in Johannesburg last year.
After the chip was stolen I put up a passionate plea and reward in the Gallagher estates asking if somebody had taken the chip to return it but wapi. It was not returned. The friend with whom I left my other two computers in Kigali cannot quite comprehend the thing. If I requested him to post me my saved files with a chip I would have to explain to him multiple times. First the instruction process would be unnecessarily long and he would not be bothered to post anything. In Africa the use of post office and mailing has never developed beyond what colonialists left. In fact we still use the same box addresses that colonialist left behind in the early 60s.
My other friends that understand how to operate computers are either too 'classy' to do this kind of favour, would not be bothered or our friendship was simply premised on me bringing good quality chapati in the newsroom. Friendships in Africa are 'in your face' kind of thing. It is after all the holiday continent for many, where you make short term connections and drop them as conveniently as they come. In the same way, though moralists might say otherwise, African life (between Africans, as if we are the real life vampires) is lost as easily as the African sun comes and goes.
But this is not a tirade about Africa, it is one man's self disappointment with his failure to manage simple affairs. When I consider that I have worked in three different newsrooms in three African countries, and in each I have had my mobile memory chips picked up/stolen. It is not just my failure to master computers. It is the inherent corruption on simple things that makes many of us on the continent really fucked up. And this is not an attempt to justify my stay in the west, although this is another issue altogether.
And this is not even close to the personal story that inspired me to share this note. A pizza did. You see, I started working for the biggest bakery in Uganda or East Africa when I was aged 17 and I kept working for this bakery in one way or another till I was about 26. Yet in all these years, apart from contributing to NSSF there's very little that I was allowed to learn on the job. During the first years I worked on the slicing machine of the bakery, later I was transferred to the rolls/buns moulding table and my last post in the production department was on the bread mixers and ovens.
By the time I left the factory department in 2000 and transferred to the sales team and later administration by 2004 I never had a chance to learn how bread is made, its ingredients and any other product in the factory for that matter.
This bakery produced 300 different products and for high profile businesses as Sheraton Hotel and the UN. By 2006 when I stopped working from them I never knew how to make even a biscuit. Onetime my supervisor, a man aptly named 'Forex' found me learning how to make a pizza in the wee hours of one night shift.
He suspended me from work but he did not have a reason to make it official so he accused me going to night clubs unnecessarily on my off duty days and talking about it. My suspension letter read that I was influencing into going to Silk Royale and therefore I'd lead to workers contracting HIV/Aids.
Recently I met a North American and we soon became friends. In less than two weeks Mike had taught me how to make pizza, lasagna and famous little round cakes baked in papers. And yet it did not take much effort. He just told me that cooking is creativity and so anybody in the world with an appetite and a brain was able to cook if they wanted to.
He wrote down the menu and now, as you can see above, I can bake a very very beautiful and sumptuous pizza. A simple skill than has given many a job, taken many through life and school. Now, thanks to this man no one in the pizza business in my neighbourhood will ever take my hard earned money. Pizza in North America costs a lot and In Africa it is for a chosen few, in fact many don't even know of the thing.
And huge amounts of money are spent on building human resource capacity in Africa, it is a shame that a journalist cannot properly know the basic rules of computers and a bakery goods worker cannot make the most basic product in the factory.
Updated on Wednesday · Comment · Like
Alphonce AssengaThis is too much pizza u have learnt n trust me your gonna make big money on that, don't forget i contribute a lot on the process of making this pizza till now I'm just few yards from where u will be making them from watching u from a distance n have that good smell.
14 October at 23:43 · Delete
Edward GathuraiKagame, thats deep. Disturbing...but deep nonetheless. So does that mean you will open a Kageme's Inn when you go back to M7's?
15 October at 00:42 · Delete
Gaaki KigamboPreviously, I haven't read beyond the opening intro of your long posts here. Firstly because my idea of Facebook doesn't include long notes, and secondly I've found your opening intros really drab and so they have not succeeded in sucking me into the whole thing.
This is different. The teaser in personal is good (there's always something magical about personal revelations), the brashness in the latter part would wow even the harshest of critics, and who would resist the punch of that one sentence intro? Knowing I've read worse, you hold the language and the presentation pretty well through the 15 darn paragraphs.
Now, I really wish I could say more in that spirit. Have you, in the few days you've lived in N.America, already been bitten by the 'western bug' that not only generalises Africa as if it were one country but sets one's sight to only see and remember the worst, including amplifying the minutest of hiccups? ... Read more
15 October at 01:15 · Delete
Gaaki KigamboFor good measure, you might find this intriguing; http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
15 October at 01:26 · Delete
Mugabe BonnieHi george,how are you?
15 October at 02:07 · Delete
George KagameGaaki, for all your wackiness thank you for bringing my attention to this lady. Now I'll go to the library and purchase her book.
(Note:we do not have real libraries in Africa, we have city councils running expansive football clubs and not library. i'll risk your labels for my immersion in North American culture and write about it. And also thank you for noting my fake intros. I'll improve.)
I'll post my response to the issues to you raise later but it was nice reading your comment.... Read more
15 October at 10:59 · Delete
Gaaki KigamboYou guy, what do you mean there are no real libraries? What's your criteria for measurement? The U.S. has the Library of Congress, the largest (in size and content) in the world. Should we say then that its close neighbour Canada which doesn't have the same doesn't have 'real' libraries?
How much of Africa do you know? You've been to S. Africa, ... Read more
15 October at 13:56 · Delete
David KawaiGeorge you ignorant bastard. hehe... Can the African pick up sarcasm? we wait and observe... Man, are you in Vancouver or something? That's what some people are telling me! talk soon!
15 October at 16:43 · Delete
George KagameGaaki and Dave;
Every writer has their unique and distinct ways of presenting what they think on paper. If I had started writing only after I moved to North America your diatribe against this note would be justified. But no, I started writing the whole of 8 years ago and I have always questioned our approach to some simple things like the posta.
To answer Gaaki's first question, I once forgot my pocket money before an important trip and remembered this money only after a stop over at Addis Ababa. I called my friend in Kigali and requested him with proper instructions to wire for me the money. He failed.
... Read more
15 October at 20:10 · Delete
Gaaki KigamboKagame, I wish your other friends on here were capable of an intellectual conversation so they could weigh in on this, otherwise am afraid to run it as a 'contest' btn just the two of us. Save for the 1st and last para here, I could easily punch holes in all of the remaining. The experiences you recount are purely personal as someone else can ... Read more
15 October at 20:52 · Delete
Anne Bucura BagireKagame this is inspiring,but whatever the case ur African and will die African.
This is a personal note, if you are the kind that is not interested in such please read no further.
A few days ago I lost all my music files saved on my prized notebook computer, at one time I owned a collection of music that was richer than three FM stations in Kigali or so I boasted among my friends in Rwanda. Recently I moved to North America and my fortunes changed. One of my favourite songs in the collection was by Nigerian Maestro Femi Kuti and was titled "Sorry Sorry." The song tells Africa's misery as the continent is exploited and neglected by politicians and soldiers and left for the dogs.
My collection of music was stored in three computers, one, a prize personal notebook, the other a laptop for work purposes and the third was a desktop which, for those that read my blog know too well how I managed against all odds to purchase it ending in my eviction by my roommate for defaulting on my monthly rental payments- I had spent my three months total pay to buy it and in the process failed to contribute on anything else in the house.
So as I moved to North America, I never knew the importance of back up for files kept on computers, like so many other aspects of a computer that I never knew. In one bizarre moment I erased all my music files unintentionally. The music, to a large extent told the episodes of my life-story from infant, puberty right through to my current stage which is swinging between youth mature, old, ancient, man and manhood.
The events that led to my easing my music were not so complicated to anyone my age and education standards, (moderate) as compared to somebody that grew up in the west. So as I explained to a friend how I had erased my music he could not really comprehend my mental status. I could tell from how he looked at me that the word RETARDED was what he wanted to say to me. But the west is different, so he just looked at me (or tried to ) with sympathy. Since I lost these music files I have been depressed, and I have been extremely hurt beyond words.
I left the two computers in Kigali and I only have the prized one. Since the music was saved on three different computers and even on an Ipod, you'd say that I can simply retrieve it from one and restore it. But it is not this simple. First I carried only the files I had on my notebook, the back up memory chip where other copies were stored was stolen from me while I worked in the Pan African Parliament newsroom in Johannesburg last year.
After the chip was stolen I put up a passionate plea and reward in the Gallagher estates asking if somebody had taken the chip to return it but wapi. It was not returned. The friend with whom I left my other two computers in Kigali cannot quite comprehend the thing. If I requested him to post me my saved files with a chip I would have to explain to him multiple times. First the instruction process would be unnecessarily long and he would not be bothered to post anything. In Africa the use of post office and mailing has never developed beyond what colonialists left. In fact we still use the same box addresses that colonialist left behind in the early 60s.
My other friends that understand how to operate computers are either too 'classy' to do this kind of favour, would not be bothered or our friendship was simply premised on me bringing good quality chapati in the newsroom. Friendships in Africa are 'in your face' kind of thing. It is after all the holiday continent for many, where you make short term connections and drop them as conveniently as they come. In the same way, though moralists might say otherwise, African life (between Africans, as if we are the real life vampires) is lost as easily as the African sun comes and goes.
But this is not a tirade about Africa, it is one man's self disappointment with his failure to manage simple affairs. When I consider that I have worked in three different newsrooms in three African countries, and in each I have had my mobile memory chips picked up/stolen. It is not just my failure to master computers. It is the inherent corruption on simple things that makes many of us on the continent really fucked up. And this is not an attempt to justify my stay in the west, although this is another issue altogether.
And this is not even close to the personal story that inspired me to share this note. A pizza did. You see, I started working for the biggest bakery in Uganda or East Africa when I was aged 17 and I kept working for this bakery in one way or another till I was about 26. Yet in all these years, apart from contributing to NSSF there's very little that I was allowed to learn on the job. During the first years I worked on the slicing machine of the bakery, later I was transferred to the rolls/buns moulding table and my last post in the production department was on the bread mixers and ovens.
By the time I left the factory department in 2000 and transferred to the sales team and later administration by 2004 I never had a chance to learn how bread is made, its ingredients and any other product in the factory for that matter.
This bakery produced 300 different products and for high profile businesses as Sheraton Hotel and the UN. By 2006 when I stopped working from them I never knew how to make even a biscuit. Onetime my supervisor, a man aptly named 'Forex' found me learning how to make a pizza in the wee hours of one night shift.
He suspended me from work but he did not have a reason to make it official so he accused me going to night clubs unnecessarily on my off duty days and talking about it. My suspension letter read that I was influencing into going to Silk Royale and therefore I'd lead to workers contracting HIV/Aids.
Recently I met a North American and we soon became friends. In less than two weeks Mike had taught me how to make pizza, lasagna and famous little round cakes baked in papers. And yet it did not take much effort. He just told me that cooking is creativity and so anybody in the world with an appetite and a brain was able to cook if they wanted to.
He wrote down the menu and now, as you can see above, I can bake a very very beautiful and sumptuous pizza. A simple skill than has given many a job, taken many through life and school. Now, thanks to this man no one in the pizza business in my neighbourhood will ever take my hard earned money. Pizza in North America costs a lot and In Africa it is for a chosen few, in fact many don't even know of the thing.
And huge amounts of money are spent on building human resource capacity in Africa, it is a shame that a journalist cannot properly know the basic rules of computers and a bakery goods worker cannot make the most basic product in the factory.
Updated on Wednesday · Comment · Like
Alphonce AssengaThis is too much pizza u have learnt n trust me your gonna make big money on that, don't forget i contribute a lot on the process of making this pizza till now I'm just few yards from where u will be making them from watching u from a distance n have that good smell.
14 October at 23:43 · Delete
Edward GathuraiKagame, thats deep. Disturbing...but deep nonetheless. So does that mean you will open a Kageme's Inn when you go back to M7's?
15 October at 00:42 · Delete
Gaaki KigamboPreviously, I haven't read beyond the opening intro of your long posts here. Firstly because my idea of Facebook doesn't include long notes, and secondly I've found your opening intros really drab and so they have not succeeded in sucking me into the whole thing.
This is different. The teaser in personal is good (there's always something magical about personal revelations), the brashness in the latter part would wow even the harshest of critics, and who would resist the punch of that one sentence intro? Knowing I've read worse, you hold the language and the presentation pretty well through the 15 darn paragraphs.
Now, I really wish I could say more in that spirit. Have you, in the few days you've lived in N.America, already been bitten by the 'western bug' that not only generalises Africa as if it were one country but sets one's sight to only see and remember the worst, including amplifying the minutest of hiccups? ... Read more
15 October at 01:15 · Delete
Gaaki KigamboFor good measure, you might find this intriguing; http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
15 October at 01:26 · Delete
Mugabe BonnieHi george,how are you?
15 October at 02:07 · Delete
George KagameGaaki, for all your wackiness thank you for bringing my attention to this lady. Now I'll go to the library and purchase her book.
(Note:we do not have real libraries in Africa, we have city councils running expansive football clubs and not library. i'll risk your labels for my immersion in North American culture and write about it. And also thank you for noting my fake intros. I'll improve.)
I'll post my response to the issues to you raise later but it was nice reading your comment.... Read more
15 October at 10:59 · Delete
Gaaki KigamboYou guy, what do you mean there are no real libraries? What's your criteria for measurement? The U.S. has the Library of Congress, the largest (in size and content) in the world. Should we say then that its close neighbour Canada which doesn't have the same doesn't have 'real' libraries?
How much of Africa do you know? You've been to S. Africa, ... Read more
15 October at 13:56 · Delete
David KawaiGeorge you ignorant bastard. hehe... Can the African pick up sarcasm? we wait and observe... Man, are you in Vancouver or something? That's what some people are telling me! talk soon!
15 October at 16:43 · Delete
George KagameGaaki and Dave;
Every writer has their unique and distinct ways of presenting what they think on paper. If I had started writing only after I moved to North America your diatribe against this note would be justified. But no, I started writing the whole of 8 years ago and I have always questioned our approach to some simple things like the posta.
To answer Gaaki's first question, I once forgot my pocket money before an important trip and remembered this money only after a stop over at Addis Ababa. I called my friend in Kigali and requested him with proper instructions to wire for me the money. He failed.
... Read more
15 October at 20:10 · Delete
Gaaki KigamboKagame, I wish your other friends on here were capable of an intellectual conversation so they could weigh in on this, otherwise am afraid to run it as a 'contest' btn just the two of us. Save for the 1st and last para here, I could easily punch holes in all of the remaining. The experiences you recount are purely personal as someone else can ... Read more
15 October at 20:52 · Delete
Anne Bucura BagireKagame this is inspiring,but whatever the case ur African and will die African.
WHY EAST AFRICA'S, NAY, AFRICA'S FUTURE IS ISLAMIC
GK
IDD-UL-FITRI: Share
Monday, 21 September 2009 at 03:46
In Uganda, and other African countries where a European power was the coloniser, Islam was discouraged - and persecuted. Muslims were denied education, and discriminated against in public life. In Uganda, they drifted to the more liberal environment urban areas where they became artisans,taxi drivers, small traders, cobblers, name it. One result is that outside of the Islamic countries in Africa, mosques were a rarity in the countryside.
However, the discrimination against Muslims turned into a boon. Because they were not tolerated in rural areas and congregated in urban areas, and because of the ablutions that Islam requires them to undergo (much despised by Christians) the unintended result was that Muslim households in East Africa, for example, have generally a higher standard of living than Christian ones. They are more likely to have piped water, electricity, latrines or flush toilets, than Christian homes Because they are largely urban, the many children from their many wives were integrated in the modern urban economy much faster than the many children of Christian polygamists in the villages, who became peasants. When a Muslim child in the city went rogue, and became a thief, if he was lucky, a robbery would net him $1,000. The Christian child in the village, meanwhile, would only steal a chicken worth $5.
The Muslims have, therefore, been able to grow their numbers more than Christians because the child mortality rates in their households are far lower; and they have accumulated more capital.
Granted, the sight of Al Shabaab in Somalia stoning rapists to death, and chopping off the hands of pickpockets will revolt many, but this strict approach to discipline has generally ensured that Muslim children (as a percentage) stay on the straight and narrow and fish school more than Christian children.
With better standards of life, in Kenya you will notice that Muslim women are better groomed and, given the percentage of the population, most of the very beautiful women on the covers of newspaper style inserts are Muslims. Behind the burqa lies a bewildering array of beauty, my Muslim and adventurous Christian friends tell me.
In Christian homes, the Protestants did much better than Catholics in decades gone by. But then Protestantism got hit by the independent Born Again churches which turned followers into zombies, and robbed them of their savings in the name of Christ. In Uganda, now, we are seeing what happens in the west - Born Again churches going bust like the commercial entities they are. Protestantism, as a result, is in deep s**t. There is nothing more devastating than being robbed by your Messiah.
Catholics are coasting alone. Catholics have the most liberal church in Africa. Apart from its backward position on the role of women in the church, and abortion, the Catholic allows its priests to get drunk, smoke, and mix more freely. The result of this liberal attitude, mixed with its inflexibility on matters of doctrine (I do, by the way, support the Church's position on celibacy), has made it the laughing stock, because the weaker members among its priests, nuns, and bishops are forced to live a double life as secret husbandas and wives. This has landed Catholicism with a serious image problem.
But that, really, is not a crisis--the Catholics are just going back to their roots, of powerful corrupt popes who had harems and real political power. One result of this laxity, is that in Uganda Catholic households up-country tend to have a lower standard of life than Muslim and Protestant ones, and the very high birth rate that ususally comes with poverty.
The only advantage is that outside the Islamic countries, in Africa the Catholic populations continue to grow and present the church with an opportunity to be powerful. However, the general lack of an official line on behaviour, means Catholics tend to be more divided than Muslims and Protestants, and therefore are not able to vote their own into power in most countries (in Uganda, they are majority, but the country has never had, and is far from having, a Catholic president).
The African traditional religion, meanwhile, continues to thrive as Protestants, Catholics, Muslims all dip into its rituals of superstition and ancestors' shrines at night. They are like the attractive househelp. The man of the house will visit her quarters when the Madam is away (sometimes even when she is around), but he will almost never acknowledge her or step out hand in hand with her.
My sense, and the evidence supports it, is that Islam (hopefully it will the more liberal and cosmopolitan version), Islamic banking, and Islamic-backed secular schools, will be the most dominant in most of Africa in the coming decades. Christianity could be moribund. The Golden Age of Islam in Africa is yet to come.
IDD-UL-FITR
IDD-UL-FITRI: Share
Monday, 21 September 2009 at 03:46
In Uganda, and other African countries where a European power was the coloniser, Islam was discouraged - and persecuted. Muslims were denied education, and discriminated against in public life. In Uganda, they drifted to the more liberal environment urban areas where they became artisans,taxi drivers, small traders, cobblers, name it. One result is that outside of the Islamic countries in Africa, mosques were a rarity in the countryside.
However, the discrimination against Muslims turned into a boon. Because they were not tolerated in rural areas and congregated in urban areas, and because of the ablutions that Islam requires them to undergo (much despised by Christians) the unintended result was that Muslim households in East Africa, for example, have generally a higher standard of living than Christian ones. They are more likely to have piped water, electricity, latrines or flush toilets, than Christian homes Because they are largely urban, the many children from their many wives were integrated in the modern urban economy much faster than the many children of Christian polygamists in the villages, who became peasants. When a Muslim child in the city went rogue, and became a thief, if he was lucky, a robbery would net him $1,000. The Christian child in the village, meanwhile, would only steal a chicken worth $5.
The Muslims have, therefore, been able to grow their numbers more than Christians because the child mortality rates in their households are far lower; and they have accumulated more capital.
Granted, the sight of Al Shabaab in Somalia stoning rapists to death, and chopping off the hands of pickpockets will revolt many, but this strict approach to discipline has generally ensured that Muslim children (as a percentage) stay on the straight and narrow and fish school more than Christian children.
With better standards of life, in Kenya you will notice that Muslim women are better groomed and, given the percentage of the population, most of the very beautiful women on the covers of newspaper style inserts are Muslims. Behind the burqa lies a bewildering array of beauty, my Muslim and adventurous Christian friends tell me.
In Christian homes, the Protestants did much better than Catholics in decades gone by. But then Protestantism got hit by the independent Born Again churches which turned followers into zombies, and robbed them of their savings in the name of Christ. In Uganda, now, we are seeing what happens in the west - Born Again churches going bust like the commercial entities they are. Protestantism, as a result, is in deep s**t. There is nothing more devastating than being robbed by your Messiah.
Catholics are coasting alone. Catholics have the most liberal church in Africa. Apart from its backward position on the role of women in the church, and abortion, the Catholic allows its priests to get drunk, smoke, and mix more freely. The result of this liberal attitude, mixed with its inflexibility on matters of doctrine (I do, by the way, support the Church's position on celibacy), has made it the laughing stock, because the weaker members among its priests, nuns, and bishops are forced to live a double life as secret husbandas and wives. This has landed Catholicism with a serious image problem.
But that, really, is not a crisis--the Catholics are just going back to their roots, of powerful corrupt popes who had harems and real political power. One result of this laxity, is that in Uganda Catholic households up-country tend to have a lower standard of life than Muslim and Protestant ones, and the very high birth rate that ususally comes with poverty.
The only advantage is that outside the Islamic countries, in Africa the Catholic populations continue to grow and present the church with an opportunity to be powerful. However, the general lack of an official line on behaviour, means Catholics tend to be more divided than Muslims and Protestants, and therefore are not able to vote their own into power in most countries (in Uganda, they are majority, but the country has never had, and is far from having, a Catholic president).
The African traditional religion, meanwhile, continues to thrive as Protestants, Catholics, Muslims all dip into its rituals of superstition and ancestors' shrines at night. They are like the attractive househelp. The man of the house will visit her quarters when the Madam is away (sometimes even when she is around), but he will almost never acknowledge her or step out hand in hand with her.
My sense, and the evidence supports it, is that Islam (hopefully it will the more liberal and cosmopolitan version), Islamic banking, and Islamic-backed secular schools, will be the most dominant in most of Africa in the coming decades. Christianity could be moribund. The Golden Age of Islam in Africa is yet to come.
IDD-UL-FITR
MAIZE, SLAVERY, AND AFRICAN STOMACHS
COO
Food—or rather the lack of it—has now become truly an elephantine problem for Africa. In Kenya, early this year the government announced that 10 million were in danger of starving. The crisis sparked off one of the biggest citizen-driven humanitarian efforts I know of in an African country.
Overall, since 1990, Africa’s hungry have increased by 20% and now estimated to be 32% of our continent’s population of 850m. As far as food for Africa’s hungry, especially the adults, goes the killer application is corn/maize – posho flour for making ugali.
However, the irony of this is that some of Africa’s problems today have their roots in the arrival of maize on our shores in the 16th Century.
We owe this astounding insight to a book that very few people in Africa have read. A marvellous work which goes by the title “Maize and Grace: Africa’s Encounter with a New World Crop” by a good man called James C. McCann.
So what is McCann’s take? First, that maize was unknown in Africa until the sixteenth century, although it has become Africa’s primary food product. Of the 22 countries in which maize constitutes the highest proportion in the national diet, 16 are in Africa.
Three-quarters of the maize consumed in the world today is eaten in Africa. McCann, therefore, argues that apparent that the changes it brought about in cultivation and consumption habits were radical and require careful historical analysis.
He identifies 1540 as the date for the first documentary evidence of maize cultivation in Africa. Maize quickly became an essential food crop in the Asante kingdom, as important as gold mining and the slave trade. Without the infusion of carbohydrates into the West African farmers’ diets, he argues it’s doubtful that Asante or any of the other slave-exporting economies in that part of the world could have been such energetic participants in the Atlantic slave trade. Maize (ugali), you might say, made slavery possible.
You could argue, if you wanted to stretch it, that had there been no ugali, and therefore slavery on a small scale or none at all, then the economic and political development of the Americas, would have been different. Maybe the US would not be a super power today.
McCann also addresses the opposite question; whether maize has been beneficial to the Africans, or whether it has contributed to the continent’s long history of impoverishment.
His verdict is that without its high carbohydrate content, and without its adaptability to Africa’s difficult tropical climates and terrains, Africans would be less well fed and life would be more difficult.
On the other hand, given the fact that maize is the crop of people living in the world’s poorest continent, one might ask, is there a connection?
McCann joined with a team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in a research project on Ethiopia, where the connection between poverty and maize seemed strong. The results of the research seemed to indicate that in areas where maize was being cultivated, anopheles mosquitoes were bigger, lived longer, and more effective in spreading malaria. That, it would seem, is because a lot of land had to be cleared for the crop. Maize, it saved, and also killed us, in equal measure.
(Thanks additionally to insights on the political economy of maize by Robert L. Tignor)
Food—or rather the lack of it—has now become truly an elephantine problem for Africa. In Kenya, early this year the government announced that 10 million were in danger of starving. The crisis sparked off one of the biggest citizen-driven humanitarian efforts I know of in an African country.
Overall, since 1990, Africa’s hungry have increased by 20% and now estimated to be 32% of our continent’s population of 850m. As far as food for Africa’s hungry, especially the adults, goes the killer application is corn/maize – posho flour for making ugali.
However, the irony of this is that some of Africa’s problems today have their roots in the arrival of maize on our shores in the 16th Century.
We owe this astounding insight to a book that very few people in Africa have read. A marvellous work which goes by the title “Maize and Grace: Africa’s Encounter with a New World Crop” by a good man called James C. McCann.
So what is McCann’s take? First, that maize was unknown in Africa until the sixteenth century, although it has become Africa’s primary food product. Of the 22 countries in which maize constitutes the highest proportion in the national diet, 16 are in Africa.
Three-quarters of the maize consumed in the world today is eaten in Africa. McCann, therefore, argues that apparent that the changes it brought about in cultivation and consumption habits were radical and require careful historical analysis.
He identifies 1540 as the date for the first documentary evidence of maize cultivation in Africa. Maize quickly became an essential food crop in the Asante kingdom, as important as gold mining and the slave trade. Without the infusion of carbohydrates into the West African farmers’ diets, he argues it’s doubtful that Asante or any of the other slave-exporting economies in that part of the world could have been such energetic participants in the Atlantic slave trade. Maize (ugali), you might say, made slavery possible.
You could argue, if you wanted to stretch it, that had there been no ugali, and therefore slavery on a small scale or none at all, then the economic and political development of the Americas, would have been different. Maybe the US would not be a super power today.
McCann also addresses the opposite question; whether maize has been beneficial to the Africans, or whether it has contributed to the continent’s long history of impoverishment.
His verdict is that without its high carbohydrate content, and without its adaptability to Africa’s difficult tropical climates and terrains, Africans would be less well fed and life would be more difficult.
On the other hand, given the fact that maize is the crop of people living in the world’s poorest continent, one might ask, is there a connection?
McCann joined with a team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in a research project on Ethiopia, where the connection between poverty and maize seemed strong. The results of the research seemed to indicate that in areas where maize was being cultivated, anopheles mosquitoes were bigger, lived longer, and more effective in spreading malaria. That, it would seem, is because a lot of land had to be cleared for the crop. Maize, it saved, and also killed us, in equal measure.
(Thanks additionally to insights on the political economy of maize by Robert L. Tignor)
Historic moment as Rwanda is ushered into East Africa family
Published Date: 18th-June 2007
NEWS ANALYSIS
A momentous page will be laid today in the history of regional communities as Rwanda and Burundi officially join one of the oldest African regional economic communities: the East African Community (EAC).
The two neighbouring and brotherly nations receive their formal admission into the revived EAC when the ninth East African Heads of State Summit sits in Kampala, Uganda.
The admission date was brought forward from July 1 which had been earlier set by the EAC Secretariat last year.
It will be the last step in the proverbial journey of 1,000 steps that Rwanda set out on way back in the 1990s to gain admission in this 90-year-old bloc.
Rwanda applied to join the EAC bloc in 1996.
In 1999, its application reportedly caused a heated debate during a preparatory meeting attended by foreign ministers from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the three original members of the community.
Supported only by Uganda, the proposal to bring Rwanda on board at the time was reportedly defeated since it was deemed not possible to admit new members at that stage when procedures for doing so were not yet in place.
Rwanda went back and used the time to fix what was required of it to qualify for the bloc’s membership. The full membership status in the regional bloc guarantees Rwanda and Burundi voting rights as well as total participation in every programme pertaining to the EAC.
Among Rwanda’s selling points, observers in the region say, has been the current peace and stability the country enjoys.
EAC history
The EAC boasts a long history which dates back to 1917, when Uganda and Kenya established a customs union.
Former Tanganyika - before it later merged with Zanzibar to form Tanzania - joined ten years later. But the actual East Africa Community was formed 40 years later in 1967.
Ten years after its formation, the community was disbanded because of political differences among the three member states: Uganda was caught up in the Idd Amin dictatorship; Kenya went capitalist while Tanzania signed onto socialism.
It was however revived 30 years later in 1996 when the Heads of State of all the- Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - signed a new agreement on trade.
And its full revival came in 2001 in the Tanzanian northern town of Arusha, which is also houses the community’s headquarters.
Reservations
Even when Tanzania and Kenya at one time stayed Rwanda’s request to join the EAC in 1996, there were reservations in some sections of Rwanda on what it would benefit from the bloc.
There were concerns as well that the country’s young economy risked unwarranted competition in the face of ferocious price and promotional offer wars waged by the more established EAC member states.
There were also fears that there had not been sufficient consultations to represent the will of Rwandans in the community, as a new group in the age old bloc.
As such, it appeared that there were no guarantees that this time the community would not crumble like before. And if it did, who apart from the Rwandan citizens would bear the brunt?
President Paul Kagame, in his monthly press conference in August last year, noted that Rwanda never rushed to join the community.
He said then that the country did not need to belong to several regional organisations but instead had to make priorities depending on where it stood to gain more both economically and socially.
“All the member countries must agree on reciprocity so that each EAC nation derives advantages,” he said.
Rwanda’s contribution
What does Rwanda bring on the EAC table? And what does it hope to benefit? It must be noted that it was largely the former concern that formed one of the hurdles whether or not to admit the country into the EAC fold.
Economic benefits seem to stand out every time the EAC is mentioned, and rightly so since the community is at the foremost an economic bloc. With the inclusion of Rwanda - and its neighbour to the southern Burundi - the region’s market will grow to about 120 million people.
The business community in the region is already warming up to these numbers. There is a shared view that this market and the resources in the five countries are enough to stimulate development in the region and transform it into one of the leading business destinations.
Former EAC Secretary General, Col. (rtd) Amanya Mushega, while addressing a consultative workshop on fast-tracking the political federation of the member countries, noted that Rwanda’s admission into the regional bloc would create more opportunities for the region and solve problems related to industrialisation by increasing the labour force.
For Rwandan business people, in particular, access to thousands of international goods and importing and exporting products through the ports of other community member states will be easier with reduced customs duties because of its membership in the bloc.
According to Mary Baine, the Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority, this will spur national and regional trade. With her booming tourism industry - a targeted area for the country’s economic development - Rwanda will also benefit from the single East African Tourist Visa since it will encourage new tourists to the region. In this context however, it will not be taking away more than it will be offering.
Owing to the fact that she shares the rare mountain gorilla with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, her efforts in conservation will come in handy seeing as it is that the population of these primates in Rwanda has grown from 324 to 358 according to recent estimates.
Gorillas, and more
And Rwanda can talk about gorillas, and far much more. Compared to her sister countries in the region, it has a more elaborate Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy and is aggressive in science and technological development. That it is reputed to be on track to becoming the region’s ICT hub is without doubt.
Recently, the country scooped two awards for using ICTs in fulfilling public service delivery functions. The Technology in Government in Africa (Tiga) awards were organised by UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) with support from the Canadian Policy Resource Centre in training African policymakers.
Yonasani Kanyomozi, a Ugandan representative in the EAC Legislative Assembly, acknowledges this advancement and states that Rwanda stand better chances than any other country in exploiting ICT opportunities in the EAC. “They [Rwanda] have concentrated concretely on science and technology.
If the other countries do not take heed, we shall lose everything to Rwanda.” In an era where ICT seems the soul of everything, Rwanda’s expertise will help other countries in the bloc put their ICT houses in order.
Tied to ICT is the country’s Karisimbi Power which will bring in place computer aided broadcasting. According to information from Rwanda Gateway, Karisimbi Tower will enable Rwanda receive television signals from as far as Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Togo with ease.
The country will also possess a 1000Kms of VHF coverage boosted with the use of satellites and the accompanying mono-pulse radar. “International broadcasting and telecommunication companies are already looking at the Karisimbi (Project) as a way to boost their signals in the region.
There is no doubt Karisimbi Project will become an absolute gateway to better connectivity in the region,” reads information on the Gateway site.
In addition, with necessary support, Rwanda could be the solution to the energy needs that seem to beset the region. According to the Ministry of Energy and Communication, methane gas deposits in Lake Kivu amount to about 55 billion cubic metres. When this is extracted and processed, says State Minister for Energy and Communication, Eng. Albert Butare, it comes to more than 700 megawatts of energy supply which is far beyond what Rwanda needs. The good news is that the country has already expressed willingness to export, or even share.
Strategic location, exemplary leadership. Rwanda is geographically Africa’s heartbeat. Besides the aforementioned assets, Rwanda’s central location has already been identified by Uneca as one of the strategic points to connect Africa.
The country is already reaping from this location. According to Dr Laurent Mbanda, the vice president of Compassion Africa, Kigali City was chosen for the organisation’s headquarters because of its easy access to most parts of the continent.
The EAC stands in line to benefit from this location as much. Rwanda will also contribute exemplary leadership to the region and lessons in recovery. The country has succeeded in curbing corruption when its neighbours have been sucked into the vice.
For all the mayhem the 1994 Genocide bore on the country, it is surprising to see today that Rwanda has pulled to the front lane with the rest of her neighbours, well almost. Such experiences will be invaluable to the EAC bloc.
What the country will put on the table however does not dispel legitimate fears.
One of these lies in the political federation. Because of its past, there are concerns that its nascent stability might be affected by the vigorous reorganisation of the political arena, since as it is internal politics themselves are still setting.
While the East African Court of Justice might come in handy in Rwanda’s unique efforts of reconciliation and bringing to justice people suspected of committing Genocide crimes, it remains to be seen other partner states will buy into such situations that are specifically unique to it.
The country faces a challenge of taking on the EAC without letting go of the good chips it holds.
Written by GEORGE KAGAME
The New Times
NEWS ANALYSIS
A momentous page will be laid today in the history of regional communities as Rwanda and Burundi officially join one of the oldest African regional economic communities: the East African Community (EAC).
The two neighbouring and brotherly nations receive their formal admission into the revived EAC when the ninth East African Heads of State Summit sits in Kampala, Uganda.
The admission date was brought forward from July 1 which had been earlier set by the EAC Secretariat last year.
It will be the last step in the proverbial journey of 1,000 steps that Rwanda set out on way back in the 1990s to gain admission in this 90-year-old bloc.
Rwanda applied to join the EAC bloc in 1996.
In 1999, its application reportedly caused a heated debate during a preparatory meeting attended by foreign ministers from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the three original members of the community.
Supported only by Uganda, the proposal to bring Rwanda on board at the time was reportedly defeated since it was deemed not possible to admit new members at that stage when procedures for doing so were not yet in place.
Rwanda went back and used the time to fix what was required of it to qualify for the bloc’s membership. The full membership status in the regional bloc guarantees Rwanda and Burundi voting rights as well as total participation in every programme pertaining to the EAC.
Among Rwanda’s selling points, observers in the region say, has been the current peace and stability the country enjoys.
EAC history
The EAC boasts a long history which dates back to 1917, when Uganda and Kenya established a customs union.
Former Tanganyika - before it later merged with Zanzibar to form Tanzania - joined ten years later. But the actual East Africa Community was formed 40 years later in 1967.
Ten years after its formation, the community was disbanded because of political differences among the three member states: Uganda was caught up in the Idd Amin dictatorship; Kenya went capitalist while Tanzania signed onto socialism.
It was however revived 30 years later in 1996 when the Heads of State of all the- Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - signed a new agreement on trade.
And its full revival came in 2001 in the Tanzanian northern town of Arusha, which is also houses the community’s headquarters.
Reservations
Even when Tanzania and Kenya at one time stayed Rwanda’s request to join the EAC in 1996, there were reservations in some sections of Rwanda on what it would benefit from the bloc.
There were concerns as well that the country’s young economy risked unwarranted competition in the face of ferocious price and promotional offer wars waged by the more established EAC member states.
There were also fears that there had not been sufficient consultations to represent the will of Rwandans in the community, as a new group in the age old bloc.
As such, it appeared that there were no guarantees that this time the community would not crumble like before. And if it did, who apart from the Rwandan citizens would bear the brunt?
President Paul Kagame, in his monthly press conference in August last year, noted that Rwanda never rushed to join the community.
He said then that the country did not need to belong to several regional organisations but instead had to make priorities depending on where it stood to gain more both economically and socially.
“All the member countries must agree on reciprocity so that each EAC nation derives advantages,” he said.
Rwanda’s contribution
What does Rwanda bring on the EAC table? And what does it hope to benefit? It must be noted that it was largely the former concern that formed one of the hurdles whether or not to admit the country into the EAC fold.
Economic benefits seem to stand out every time the EAC is mentioned, and rightly so since the community is at the foremost an economic bloc. With the inclusion of Rwanda - and its neighbour to the southern Burundi - the region’s market will grow to about 120 million people.
The business community in the region is already warming up to these numbers. There is a shared view that this market and the resources in the five countries are enough to stimulate development in the region and transform it into one of the leading business destinations.
Former EAC Secretary General, Col. (rtd) Amanya Mushega, while addressing a consultative workshop on fast-tracking the political federation of the member countries, noted that Rwanda’s admission into the regional bloc would create more opportunities for the region and solve problems related to industrialisation by increasing the labour force.
For Rwandan business people, in particular, access to thousands of international goods and importing and exporting products through the ports of other community member states will be easier with reduced customs duties because of its membership in the bloc.
According to Mary Baine, the Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority, this will spur national and regional trade. With her booming tourism industry - a targeted area for the country’s economic development - Rwanda will also benefit from the single East African Tourist Visa since it will encourage new tourists to the region. In this context however, it will not be taking away more than it will be offering.
Owing to the fact that she shares the rare mountain gorilla with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, her efforts in conservation will come in handy seeing as it is that the population of these primates in Rwanda has grown from 324 to 358 according to recent estimates.
Gorillas, and more
And Rwanda can talk about gorillas, and far much more. Compared to her sister countries in the region, it has a more elaborate Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy and is aggressive in science and technological development. That it is reputed to be on track to becoming the region’s ICT hub is without doubt.
Recently, the country scooped two awards for using ICTs in fulfilling public service delivery functions. The Technology in Government in Africa (Tiga) awards were organised by UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) with support from the Canadian Policy Resource Centre in training African policymakers.
Yonasani Kanyomozi, a Ugandan representative in the EAC Legislative Assembly, acknowledges this advancement and states that Rwanda stand better chances than any other country in exploiting ICT opportunities in the EAC. “They [Rwanda] have concentrated concretely on science and technology.
If the other countries do not take heed, we shall lose everything to Rwanda.” In an era where ICT seems the soul of everything, Rwanda’s expertise will help other countries in the bloc put their ICT houses in order.
Tied to ICT is the country’s Karisimbi Power which will bring in place computer aided broadcasting. According to information from Rwanda Gateway, Karisimbi Tower will enable Rwanda receive television signals from as far as Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Togo with ease.
The country will also possess a 1000Kms of VHF coverage boosted with the use of satellites and the accompanying mono-pulse radar. “International broadcasting and telecommunication companies are already looking at the Karisimbi (Project) as a way to boost their signals in the region.
There is no doubt Karisimbi Project will become an absolute gateway to better connectivity in the region,” reads information on the Gateway site.
In addition, with necessary support, Rwanda could be the solution to the energy needs that seem to beset the region. According to the Ministry of Energy and Communication, methane gas deposits in Lake Kivu amount to about 55 billion cubic metres. When this is extracted and processed, says State Minister for Energy and Communication, Eng. Albert Butare, it comes to more than 700 megawatts of energy supply which is far beyond what Rwanda needs. The good news is that the country has already expressed willingness to export, or even share.
Strategic location, exemplary leadership. Rwanda is geographically Africa’s heartbeat. Besides the aforementioned assets, Rwanda’s central location has already been identified by Uneca as one of the strategic points to connect Africa.
The country is already reaping from this location. According to Dr Laurent Mbanda, the vice president of Compassion Africa, Kigali City was chosen for the organisation’s headquarters because of its easy access to most parts of the continent.
The EAC stands in line to benefit from this location as much. Rwanda will also contribute exemplary leadership to the region and lessons in recovery. The country has succeeded in curbing corruption when its neighbours have been sucked into the vice.
For all the mayhem the 1994 Genocide bore on the country, it is surprising to see today that Rwanda has pulled to the front lane with the rest of her neighbours, well almost. Such experiences will be invaluable to the EAC bloc.
What the country will put on the table however does not dispel legitimate fears.
One of these lies in the political federation. Because of its past, there are concerns that its nascent stability might be affected by the vigorous reorganisation of the political arena, since as it is internal politics themselves are still setting.
While the East African Court of Justice might come in handy in Rwanda’s unique efforts of reconciliation and bringing to justice people suspected of committing Genocide crimes, it remains to be seen other partner states will buy into such situations that are specifically unique to it.
The country faces a challenge of taking on the EAC without letting go of the good chips it holds.
Written by GEORGE KAGAME
The New Times
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