The Entrepreneur - Cameroon's Premier Economic & Business Journal

Viewpoint: How tribalism stunts African democracy

By Calestous Juma

Africa's democratic transition is back in the spotlight. The concern is no longer the stranglehold of autocrats, but the hijacking of the democratic process by tribal politics. Kenya's 2007-08 post-election violence revealed the extent to which tribal forces could quickly bring a country to the brink of civil war. The challenge to democracy in Africa is not the prevalence of ethnic diversity, but the use of identity politics to promote narrow tribal interests. It is tribalism. There are those who argue that tribalism is a result of arbitrary post-colonial boundaries that force different communities to live within artificial borders. This argument suggests that every ethnic community should have its own territory, which reinforces ethnic competition...more

New Year Wishes and Work: Pursuing and Practicing Peace

By Maulana Karenga

The end and beginning of the years always find us in a critical period of transition in which, responding to the mandates of our moral tradition and the human urgencies of our history, we are compelled to continue forward and turn our best New Year wishes into our most committed work. And we must continue to move forward without surrendering the achieved good of our past, misreading the meaning and tasks of our present or sacrificing the possibilities and promise of our future. In the tradition of the ancestors, we must engage in a reaffirming and re-enforcing process and practice of remembrance, reflection and recommitment to our central mission to bring, increase and sustain good in the world and enjoy the peace and prosperity central to this. Indeed, the Odu Ifa says, we must “Think deeply about things, cultivate character, acquire wisdom and come forth and sacrifice so that you may have peace inside and out.”

Libya and You: Commoners Hoodwinked?

By RSB1

The current "Adventure in Libya" has exposed NATO for what it really is - the military arm of the Corporate Elite.  'Libyan Rebels' = NATO Mercenaries.  Between them, these three factions (NATO, The Corporate elite, and Al Quaeda) have demolished an elected democracy that committed no crimes against humanity.  Gaddafi's 'crime' was to provide the Libyan people with a higher standard of living than available in any country in the World.  Gaddafi was completing wonderous 'works' exemplified by the GREAT MAN MADE RIVER PROJECT and the creation of the AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK which was largely funded by Libya and outside the control of the global banking 'system' that is so cleverly robbing the rest of the World blind !  Gaddafi held no power, he was not and has not been since 1977, 'The Libyan Government'. 

Coalition of Murderers!

Using the fig-leaf of Resolution 1973 to cover the war of aggression being waged cannot be supported. There is a difference between having war planes police designated territorial areas to enforce a no-fly zone. That policing activity as sanctioned by the United Nations is a far cry removed from showering down “shock and awe” upon the people of Libya in an effort to create sufficient chaos in Libya to effect regime change....Again, stalling for time to effect more bombardment, and NATO turning its back on the entreaties of the AU to broker a peace-deal is nothing short of amoral....Having witnessed the lies that led to the war in Iraq; the pretext of a humanitarian mission to assist the Iraqi people; the utter destruction of Iraq with sanctions and bombs and the killing or deaths of some one million Iraqis arising from the occupation – what can you now convince sentient beings about, with this latest repeat of the slaughter in Libya – orchestrated by the same powers?...More

"NATO's Libya War Generals should be hauled to court," says US Congressman Dennis Kucinich

NATO commanders who authorized the Libya bombing campaign should be “held accountable” to international law and hauled before the world court for civilian deaths, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Tuesday, August 23, 2011. “NATO’s top commanders may have acted under color of international law, but they are not exempt from international law,” Kucinich said in a statement released by his office. “If members of the Qadhafi regime are to be held accountable, NATO’s top commanders must also be held accountable through the International Criminal Court for all civilian deaths resulting from bombing. Otherwise, we will have witnessed the triumph of a new international gangsterism.” “The reasons for the U.S./NATO intervention in Libya keep changing,” he said. “First, it was about the potential for a massacre in Benghazi. When the massacre did not materialize and once the war against Libya was under way, the reasons for intervention changed.”

Need for African Awakening to Western Fanatical Monotheists

Faith and the Politics of Terrorism

*by Ayi Kwei Armah (globalbreakingnews)*

*Abdelwahab Meddeb, born in Tunisia, now lives in France, where he teaches, writes and hosts a media show lending Arab-Muslim culture a Europhile glow. One of an accelerating flow of migrants fleeing Africa’s multiform poverty for refuge in Europe, their haven of freedom and affluence, Meddeb, having achieved the integrationist dream, should be happy in his earthly paradise.*

*But the dreamer feels insecure. In a Europe waging political, military and economic wars against several Muslim countries, and fearing blowback in the form of suicide bombs and Taliban insurgents, the demonization of Arab Muslims as fundamentalist terrorists can turn the immigrant dream into a security nightmare at any moment.*

*Meddeb blames this insecurity not on European prejudice, but on his fellow Muslims. Muslims, he says, inhabit a sick, cursed society, because they have carelessly allowed a violent minority of fundamentalists to hijack their common image. The disease, then, is fundamentalism, the tendency of believers in one God, or one Allah, to want to impose their faith by violence. Its symptom is terrorism, the use of violence, murder and the threat thereof, as prime arguments for God, against unbelievers.*

*Europeans today, like Americans, have used their media arsenal to link terrorism with Islam. This places a terrible obstacle in the way of Meddeb’s dream of Arab-Muslim integration into Europe. His task is to conjure away the European stereotype of Arabs as terrorists, and of Islam as a religion of unreasoning violence. For, beyond simple integration, Meddeb wishes Europeans could see Arab Muslims as cultural kin sharing a superior faith - monotheism - that makes them an integral part of Western civilization, which to him is the only real civilization, period. **/Occidentalisez-vous/**is his fervent plea to fellow Muslims. Get Westernized!*

Celebration of Murder!

By A. Toure

The celebration of murder and killing persons is not something new in the United States. All one must do is recall that Americans celebrated killing Afrikans in this country, something we call lynching. Not only did they celebrate it, gathering in the thousands to witness and participate in these illegal mob murders (pogroms), but they even planned them as spectacles, as white community entertainment, announcing the scheduling of the murder and torture of Afrikan persons in their newspapers. Why is this celebration of murder novel to us when it is typical of them? Richard Wright is reported to have noted that the behavior of American lynchers, including their habit of taking parts of the body and clothing of their victims, fit the behavior typical of serial killers..Email author

Africa, Libya and Africans

A Plea to African Cowards

By Affuembey Enow Affuembey

As the countdown grew to the attack on Libya; and as it finally happened, I have tried to take a step back and listen to the reaction of my fellow Africans. I am yet to be impressed. I have tried to look at the issue both ways from the beginning of the whole saga. When the rebellion started I heard all sorts of things, but what I noted was it was not consistent. If a similar rebellion had started in Uganda, I would have read about ill-intentioned enemies of the state and peace of peace-loving people and the dexterous leader (who has been in power almost as long as the one on Libya). If a similar rebellion took place in an Arab country with closer ties with the interests of the west (currently Bahrain and Algeria) the language from the State Department, Quai d'Orsai and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office will be well garnished. "If you want to kill a dog, you give it a bad name" and Ghaddafi already had one.

Libya: Reversal of Decades of Progress

The revolt in Libya is a revolt against pan-Africanism, in favor of tribalism. Libya is a threat to the West because of it's pan-African dream, and now the dream to unify Africa is being destroyed....Gadaffi has sought to emancipate the African continent from centuries of exploitation by outside forces...Gadaffi sought to have all the people share in his country share in the oil wealth in the east of the nation. However, Gadaffi sought to attempt to share the wealth with the rest of Africa as well, beginning with the places that needed it the most...Last year, Gadaffi apologized for the long history of Arab slave trade of black Africans, an issue that many other rulers prefer to ignore...The European Union on the other hand refuses to apologize for what has been done. Formal apologizing is blocked by Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Of course these also happen to be the nations that share the greatest responsibility for what has happened over the centuries.....More

Generating Independent Economic Thinking

When the economic downturn hit the west in 2008, there was amazement at the scale of paralysis it had caused and was threatening to cause further. Financial institutions of America that were heretofore considered as impregnable fortresses of capitalism tottered. They were so critical to the functioning of the rest of the economic system, not only to Europe and America, but to the rest of the world as well, that governments started pouring hundreds of billions of dollars in them to salvage them. Yet, the end in view was not clear...More