Senegal's President Wade and Son Karim Wade. Source: niger1.com

Were the Wades ready to call in European troops to back their bid for a new ‘monarchy’? According to influential French lawyer and longtime Wade family confidant Robert Bourgi, the president’s son asked him, on June 27, to get the French Army to intervene in the country.

It all started when President Abdoulaye Wade, 85, tried to push through parliament a constitutional reform which would have assured his son Karim, 42, become President upon his death. The reform would have created the position of vice-president and would have allowed the ticket to be elected with only 25% of the vote in the first round rather than in the two-round majority system. On June 23, serious rioting against what the opposition feared was a ‘Constitutional Coup’ set Senegal ablaze and President Wade withdrew his reform.

Bourgi said Karim called him at nearly three o:clock in the morning on June 27, saying the “situation is quasi insurrectional” and warned that “French interests are at stake”. “Uncle” Bourgi refused to use his influence on French President Sarkozy and told Karim “You are panicking. I want you to be a bit more coherent.”

Adding fuel to speculation, former Prime Minister and opposition candidate for the February 2012 presidential elections, Macky Sall, on July 1, accused President Wade of “recruiting mercenaries” to attack the opposition. Sall said the mercenaries are from the Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea and Nigeria. “Four hundred have entered the national territory through the southern border,” he said.

Presidential asociates have vehemently denied all the accusations. “We have enough gendarmes, soldiers and police,” Wade spokesman Serigne Mbacké Ndiaye said, “that we don’t need to ask anybody for aid.” You cannot get any clearer as to the real mission of Senegal’s security forces.

As Wade tried to push through his unpopular constitutional reform he was also doing his best to restore good relations with the French. In a break with his African peers and against his own public opinion, Wade recognized Libya’s rebel Council of Transition and backed NATO’s war against Gaddafi.

On June 9, the Senegalese President became the first African leader to visit the rebel capital, Benghazi. Karim, who has never been elected to office but who holds four ministerial portfolios, was at his father’s side. Their chaperon was the French pseudo philosopher and self-proclaimed foreign minister for the LIbyan crisis Bernard Henri Levy. It was Levy who brought the rebel leaders to see President Sarkozy in Paris and obtain official recognition of the rebellion from the Head of State.

Was the ‘Libya thing’ an attempt by Wade to prepare to ask the French to intervene in Senegal when it became clear his reform would be met by violent opposition? The problem for Wade is apparently neither Robert Bourgi nor French Interior Minister Claude Guéant can stomach Bernard Henri Levy and those two have Sarkozy’s attention.

Another man who sees Levy’s meddling as counter-productive is the real Foreign Minister, Alain Juppé. To hammer home the distance between Wade and Paris, Juppé, on July 7, sided with the opposition calling the constitutional reform “abnormal”. In an allusion to the request for armed intervention, Juppé said it was up to the Senegalese to decide their future. “You don’t change such an important rule a few months from the ballot.” he added. “I believe the authorities understand that by abandoning the reform.”

Abdoulaye Wade’s chances of seducing Sarkozy were slim from the start. He has stung France’s “General Pinocchio” more than once. In April 2010, Wade unilaterally reneged on the 1974 military agreement with France and told the 1200 French troops in his country to get out. “I don’t risk a Coup d’Etat in Senegal.” he said. The French Marines left in June 2010.

He had already angered Sarkozy in 2007 when he took the Dakar Port contract away from the French President’s close and super-rich friend, Vincent Bollaré, and gave it to Dubai Port World. The same company that took the contract for Djibouti away from the French Group.

The French are clearly realigning their pawns in ‘their African sphere of influence’. They put their puppet Alassane Ouattara in Power in Cote d’Ivoire. They are dropping the Wade family. Paris is pulling its Army out of Chad after saving President Deby from rebel offensives twice since 2007. (Very reliable sources tell me Chadian troops are in Libya fighting the rebellion to support Gaddafi). But Paris is leaving its Army in Gabon where the French did not have a problem seeing a son access ‘the thrown’ after his father’s death. But then again, Gabon has oil. Senegal does not.

By George Kazolias

George Kazolias is an American Journalist based in Paris and a Professor of Global Communications at the American University in Paris. He runs the blog kazodaily.

Family business of Uganda cartoon by Stano (Stanislous Olonde). Source BBC UK.

In Uganda the opposition has claimed that President Yoweri Museveni is grooming his eldest son Lieutenant Colonel Kaneirugaba Muhoozi, 36, to succeed him.

Museveni has already placed his presidential guard under the Special Forces, an elite army unit commanded by Colonel Muhoozi.

The Special Forces is tasked with, among other duties, guarding the Lake Albert oil fields. In its ranks include commando, infantry, artillery and air force units.

“Already there has been an outcry from Ugandans about the president’s habit of putting his relatives in strategic positions,” opposition defense spokesman Hussein Kyanjo told Newswatch magazine.

“What President Museveni has done confirms Ugandans’ worst fears. He is making the Ugandan presidency monarchical and is clearly anointing his son to succeed him”.

But Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye has defended Muhoozi by saying:

“He has equal right like you and I and he didn’t chose to be born to a person who was later to become president of Uganda. He’s an individual Ugandan with rights, including contesting for the presidency if he wants”.

After the Presidential Brigade Guard was placed under his charge, the UK and US trained Lt Col Muhoozi is now said to have the sweeping powers of any commander-in-chief.

However this elevation did not come as a surprise since in recent years the Ugandan head of state seems to have developed a penchant for appointing his kinsmen to high office.

The president’s stepbrother General Caleb Akandwanaho (Salim Saleh) is the senior presidential advisor on defense, brother-in-law Sam Kutesa is the foreign affairs minister, daughter Natasha Karugire is the private secretary to the president and the first lady’s nephew Justus Karuhanga is the president’s private secretary for legal affairs.

First Lady Janet Museveni is the minister for Karamoja region while her relative Hope Nyakairu is the finance under-secretary at Ugandan State House.

But President Museveni is not alone in the game. Although Swaziland, Lesotho and Morocco are the only de facto monarchies in Africa, the culture of dynastic political succession is breeding a class of “republican kingdoms”.

“Rulers prefer sons over alternative figures more inclined to hasten the succession through assassination or coup attempts.

Concern about assassination by son is less in a hereditary successional arrangement than if the designated successor is a high ranking official of the existing regime,” writes Jason Brownlee, a political scientist.

Hereditary succession is common in autocratic regimes whose long-serving rulers have cultivated strong personality cults by eliminating rivals and hoarding power around themselves and a clique of elites.

With no institutionalised power structures outside the leader, the state security machinery is used to whip the masses into accepting the preferred successor.

Africa has seen four sons of former heads of states ascend to power in the past 10 years, three of them inheriting leadership directly from their fathers.

Ali Bongo's caricature by Franco-Burkinabese cartoonist Damien Glez.

Ali Bongo of Gabon and Faure Gnassingbe of Togo succeeded their long serving fathers in bloody and hugely discredited elections.

In DRC, Joseph Kabila was appointed at the tender age of 28 by the military to replace his father who was assassinated in 2001.

In Botswana President Ian Seretse Khama, son of the country’s founding father, came to power after the former head of state abdicated before the end of his term.

The street protests that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are said to have been triggered by, among other things, the prospect of his three-decade rule being extended through his son Gamal.

The fact that Mubarak was grooming his son to succeed was so obvious that some quarters in the west and the donor community were already warming up to his presidency.

“To the IMF and the World Bank, a few European capitals and even certain sectors of Washington Gamal looks like the future of the Arab World,” wrote The Weekly Standard, an American opinion and analytical magazine.

But with 60 per cent of Egyptians living on less than $2 a day, Gamal’s economic wizardry was far from evident. Now a Mubarak presidency is history following a successful uprising.

Inspired by the fall of Mubarak at the hands of unarmed citizens, Libyans have risen against Col Muammar Gadaffi. Despite the dictator’s vow to crush the revolt and die “a martyr” in his home soil, protesters are in control of eastern regions of Libya.

Although not officially endorsed for several years, it has been rumoured that Gadaffi’s son Saif l-Islam is the strongman’s most preferred successor.

When protests broke out two weeks ago, Saif came out strongly declaring the regime will “fight to the last bullet” to stop the uprising.

Appointed by his father to the highly visible role of negotiating with the West and heading a number of key organisations in Libya, the 39 year-old London School of Economics graduate is so influential in Libyan politics that analysts believe he played a critical role in persuading Gadaffi to abandon the ambitious nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Described by many in his homeland as confident, charismatic, outspoken but sometimes naïve, Saif is also known for tinkering with liberal political concepts alien to his father’s Jamahiriya system like creating a constitution, instituting political freedoms and free-market reforms.

To defend his deviant philosophies, most of which have rattled the older generation of the ruling elite, Saif used to explain that he was he was merely expressing the hopes of ordinary Libyans.

However when a revolt broke out a fortnight ago, Saif’s democratic pretensions disappeared. He is now leading an onslaught against rebels in eastern Libya.

But with people driven revolution reportedly less than 100 kilometres from the capital Tripoli it’s very unlikely that the “King of Kings of Africa” will have the opportunity and time to impose the scion on Libyans.

Cartoon portraing Abdoulaye Wade and his son Karim. Source Damien Glez/RNW, Netherlands

In Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade has similar plans. His son, Karim, “already holds the Senegalese government’s most senior position, as what the Dakar press calls ‘Super-minister’ in charge of International Cooperation, Air Transport and Infrastructure.

But on 4 October, he added yet another string to his bow by taking over the most strategically vital – and potentially most lucrative – portfolio to become Energy Minister,” writes Africa Confidential.

Kenya-based Mwaura Samora is a writer for Nation Media Group (NMG). His activities include consulting and mentoring. He is also a poetry enthusiast interested in intellectual discourses and author of the Sagepage Uncolonized blog located here.

“It’s not the voting that’s democracy; it’s the counting”.

–Tom Stoppard, Jumpers

The latest optimistic results of the “2-month” Tunisian revolution, and the “2-week” Egyptian revolution, must be considered a triumph of the common folk; but, more realistically, must be also considered as a regrouping opportunity for the repressive apparatus, so firmly embedded in the socio-political system for a long time, and an attempt to skew the participatory process to maintain its own benefit. It is not accidental that the first target of oppressive governments are journalists and human rights activists. That was the case in Tunisia when the government was carrying out a wide range of repressive measures during the election year of 2009. It was no accident  that access to online social networks was blocked in Egypt and that violence against journalists surged visibly in the beginning of February. As protests spread to other countries in the region, journalists have been targeted by security forces in Yemen, Iran, and Algeria.

A predominant trend, that seems to be used in justifying the repression, is the “patriotic card” all repressive forces typically play. That trend also strongly surfaced in various periods of US history, including a recent one in which any strong critic of the official governmental position was immediately labeled as “non-American” and hostile to the “voice of the majority”. Case in point: many events  in the last several months, that relate to oppression of the free press in Africa, seem to use the old “patriotic card” in attempts to justify the suppression and criminalization of freedom of speech.

“These newspapers have to stop, willingly or else! That’s a promise I’m making you and it will happen. They have no right here, regardless of how the international community sees it or understands it. Let them believe whatever they want. And if they don’t like it, let them take those journalists in. They have no place here.”

–President Paul Kagame (translated from the BBC-Rwanda’s Kinyarwanda language broadcast)

The case of Rwanda, the suspension of the independent Kinyarwanda-language (spoken by some 12 million people in Rwanda) newspapers Umuseso and Umuvugizi, the killing of Umuvugizi’s journalist, the arrest of journalists of independent newspaper Umurabyo, consequent jail sentences and fines, and persecution of opposition parties’ members, are the classic examples of using the power of state for censorship, political harassment and killing with impunity. However harmful it can be to compare Paul Kagame to Adolf Hitler, the justification of the government-run mechanism to silence freedom of expression is usually an initial indicator of more serious problems to come. Not surprisingly, the 2010 arrests of the Umurabyo’s journalists happened just ahead of the elections. The story of the FBI and Martin Luther King is another well documented example of such a mechanism.

The rights of the independent press are outlined in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa. The overwhelming majority of African nations include related supportive clauses in their constitutions yet only seven African countries (South Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe) have legislated access of the public to government information. Even so, little information is actually given out, according to a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) research. That apparent contradiction ought to be analyzed carefully during a democracy-building process such as the one facing Tunisia and Egypt today.

“Eritrea, Ethiopia and The Gambia are leaders among the few African nations accustomed to detaining members of the press incommunicado without charge or trial, without formal charges to fight or a trial in sight, prospects are grim for these journalists to gain freedom and for others to defy the chilling effect such imprisonments have.”

–Mohamed Keita (CPJ Africa advocacy coordinator)

From Cameroon to Kenya, and South Africa to Senegal, government reprisals of the freedom of speech and criminalization of investigative reporting have resulted in imprisonments, violence, threats, and legal harassment. African journalists continue to suffer for practicing their profession from various forms of violent repression in total impunity. With a death toll of 16 journalists in 2010 alone, 11 of whom were murdered in targeted attacks, the prospects of freedom of the press remain grim. You can download here the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Full Report on Journalists and Media Staff Killed in 2010 and read more about those tragic incidents on pages 8-13. Below is the summary of the 2010 deaths of African journalists:

January 2010

ANGOLA: Togolese  journalist Stanislas Ocloo, 35, sports reporter at the Télévision Togolaise (TVT) and press officer of the Togolese Football Association, was killed in the attack on the Togo national soccer team’s bus in the northwestern Angolan enclave of Cabinda. As many as three people were killed and nine wounded in the strike.

DRC: Floribert Chibeya, a Congolese journalist and cameraman, was shot dead by men in military fatigues in front of his house in the northeastern town of Beni. Chibeya, 35, worked for Radio Television Nationale Congolaise (RTVN)

April 2010

SOUTH AFRICA: Journalist Thabo Kgongoana, Télévision Togolaise (TVT) press officer of the Togolese Football Association, was shot dead during an armed robbery at a hotel and casino in Mafikeng from close range with an AK-47 rifle. Although what could have led to this killing is not yet known, it is suspected that the assailants realized he had a camera on him.

NIGERIA: In the city of Jos, journalists have been targeted amid recent deadly outbreaks of sectarian violence in the area. A mob of rioters reacting to the discovery of an allegedly Muslim corpse found near a church killed Deputy Editor, Nathan S. Dabak, and reporter, Gyang Bwede, of Church of Christ in Nigeria-owned monthly The Light Bearer.

NIGERIA: Two unidentified gunmen shot dead the Judiciary Correspondent of The Nation newspaper, Edo Sule-Ugbagwu, in his Lagos residence. His killing came seven months after the former Assistant News Editor of The Guardian, Mr. Bayo Ohu, was killed by unknown gunmen in Lagos. Two senior journalists with ThisDay newspaper, Godwin Agbroko and Abayomi Ogundeji, were shot in similar circumstances in 2006 and 2008.

May 2010

SOMALIA: Gunmen killed a Somali journalist, Sheik Mohamad Abkey, working for the country’s state-run radio station after abducting him on his way back home from work in Mogadishu and torturing him.

June 2010

RWANDA: A journalist, the acting editor of the independent Umuvugizi newspaper, Jean Leonard Rugambage, has been shot dead in front of his house in the Rwandan capital. The Rwandan authorities had recently suspended the paper, prompting it to start publishing online instead.

July 2010

UGANDA: Broadcast journalist, Stephen Tinka, was among those killed in the blasts that rocked Kampala city during the screening of the World Cup final match. Tinka, who had a night program and hosted a Saturday morning magazine show died the following day, after spending the night in a critical condition.

August 2010

TOGO: Radji, a journalist with Golfe Info was mortally injured in a car accident on 6 August and died three days later.

SOMALIA: Veteran radio journalist, Barkhat Awale, was killed by crossfire in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Awale, director of the community radio station Hurma Radio, was on the roof of the station assisting a technician in fixing the station’s transmitter when a stray bullet hit him in the stomach. His colleagues rushed him to Madina Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

September 2010

SOMALIA: Abdulahi Omar Gedi, was attacked as he left the newsroom  by unidentified assailants who stabbed him at the chest and the legs in Garsoor village. He died from his wounds on his way to the General Hospital of Galkayo. Gedi, 25, was newscaster and reporter and worked for Radio Daljir branch in Galkayo.

ANGOLA: Alberto Graves Chakussanga, a radio journalist with a station critical of the ruling MPLA government, was found lying in a corridor of his home in Luanda’s Viana district. He had been the presenter of a weekly, Umbundu-language news call-in program on private Radio Despertar and a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Agostinho Neto state university and at the Angolan police academy.

UGANDA: Commercial motor cyclists locally known as bodabodas in Rakai district have beaten a Top radio correspondent Paul Kiggundu to death. Kiggundu joined the Masaka based Top Radio eight months ago as an area for Rakai district in Southern Buganda. Despite his efforts to identify himself as a journalist, they beat Kiggundu into comma that ended in death.

UGANDA: Unidentified assailants beat and killed news presenter Dickson Ssentongo who was awaiting a bus in Nantabulirirwa village, 43 miles (70 kilometers) from the Kireka-based Prime Radio station. Assailants beat Ssentongo with metal bars and dragged him into a nearby field. Ssentongo, 29, had worked as Lugandan news presenter for Prime Radio for two years and a part-time court assessor for the Mukono High Court.

December 2010

NIGERIA: Member of the Plateau State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Augustine Sindyi, an experienced photo journalist with Nigeria Standard Newspapers was killed in the bomb explosion in Jos, the state capital.

The previous AR post dealing with deaths of African journalists is located here.

Assembled by Mark Bajkowski

Mark, born in Poland, is a Jack of all trades, master of none, who lives in New York since 1979. Mark has an unusually wide range of interests and is known to relate well to people half his age. Since his early childhood, he felt a curious relation to Africa, which unavoidably brings up the controversial subject of past-life memories.

Well, let’s say for starters that this is a list that contain CDs that I have received this past year. Needless to say, I have not received or reviewed every CD release of African music in the past 12 months. CD sales are down and it harder than ever to get some record labels to send music to radio stations.

Some good CDs I didn’t even bother to pursue because it’s like pulling teeth to get them from certain labels. It can get embarrassing to constantly e-mail them to beg for a CD that you will be doing the artist a favour by airing and publicizing. On the other hand, one gets barrels full of unsolicited rubbish weekly.

Many of these, accompanied by press releases touting the amazing ability of the recording to be cutting edge, hip “world music” that is electronica, jazz, soul, pop, reggae with a touch of traditional Maori elements, all simultaneously.

Desperate and nondescript nonsense that is best used as a frisbee or shiny Christmas tree ornament. Of course, even if one uses objective criteria to judge music, one still ends up with a list on one’s likes.

It’s no different with me and there is only one CD on this list that I don’t own as I don’t really care for it but inclusion is acknowledgment that it is really good. So, with that long caveat, here is the First World Music Top Ten African CDs for 2010.

1] CARLOU D.— MUZIKR. WORLD VILLAGE

Amid all the dross of unsolicited promotional CDs that littered my mailbox this year, I found a nugget of purest gold. “Muzikr” by Carlou D. is the best CD of the year. Conceptualised to bring the zikr out of its esoteric strictures by the addition of contemporary Senegalese instruments and melodies, it was perfectly executed. Carlou D’s singing is muscular, confident, nuanced, simultaneously youthful and mature. The album exudes joy for life, love, dance, song and spiritual peace within its cohesive structure. So refreshing to hear contemporary modern Senegalese music without an preponderance of claviers hogging the melody lines. A worthy gold medal winner.

2] KHAIRA ARBY—TOUMBOUTOU TARAB. CLARMONT

I’ve been listening to Koroboro music for decades. I own two cassettes and one CD by this woman before this last recording but this is the first time most world beaters and afro poppers had ever heard of her. Inevitably, there was a lot of press and cyberspace column inches devoted to this “new” talent, most burdened by stupidity and hyperbole. One “African music expert” likened her to Aretha Franklin in his review. [sic] The album is indeed exciting and the live performances by the band during their American tour, electrifying. Thanks to the dazzling wizardry of her 21-year old Abdrahamane Touré on electric guitar, American listeners thought they heard rock influences and sensibilities in his melodic architecture, making it easy to “get with it”. But songs like “Khaira” and “Goumou” are irresistible for the complete elemental input. Handclaps, sokou, background singing. Indeed, the virtuoso playing of Ebalaw Yattara on n’goni was as impressive to me as Touré’s guitar playing. Unfortunately, Carlou D. gets the edge and “Timbuktu Tarab” gets silver.

3] KONONO N°1—ASSUME CRASH POSITION. CRAMMED

This Congolese outfit came back in 2010 bolder than ever with this album. Featuring the same rough-hewn compositions on electrified likembé and recycled scrap metal percussion and amplifiers. Complex, insistent and constantly shifting melodies and rhythm, all contrive to showcase a testament to African resilience, ingenuity and creativity in less than optimal living conditions in Congo 2010. This music will invade your mind and body like a phantasmagoric body snatcher. Bronze.

4] ALI FARKA TOURÉ & TOUMANI DIABATÉ—ALI & TOUMANI. NONESUCH

Just like there will be no true Beatles reunion, there will not be another Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté album. Death made sure of that. This follow up to the Grammy award winning “In the heart of the moon” is more of the same, superior, contemplative music that people of quality and taste can appreciate. The young people have their own. We mature people of a certain vintage and temperament have ours. I prefer ours. With only guitar and kora, they set the mood. Percussion, contrabass and occasionally, Ali Farka’s vocals [Toumani doesn't sing] adds variety. A masterpiece.

5] SOUMAORO IDRISSA—DJITOUMOU. LUSAFRICA

This follow up album to “Kotè” is full of originality and experimentation. It’s a risk that pays handsome dividends. No recycled songs here. I did recognise the familiar refrain on “Yèrè Djaté” but that doesn’t count and besides, I don’t expect the non-Malian listener to recognise it. The only jarring note musically to my ears was a harmonica that sounded like a clucking hen in places but after a while almost didn’t hear it. There are also two songs with an Eastern European feeling. All I can say is, interesting. Anyway, “Djitoumou” reveals Soumaoro to be an artist with a singular vision. It displays a varied sonic palette which incorporates elements of classic [not neo] blues, soul and country. It’s as modern and more original than anything a young African rap imitator can muster. Highly recommended.

6] KEÏTA SALIF—LA DIFFÉRENCE. UNIVERSAL MUSIC FRANCE

He may be wary of touring Europe and North America to make money but his creative expression on record sounds far from tired. In fact, Keïta has never sounded more emotional and expressive in his singing. Many of the songs sound introspective but it is only the title track that can be said to actually be so. On “La Différence”, Keïta sings for the first time in his career about the condition with which he was born; albinism. And if you find something familiar about the rest of the songs, you are not wrong. They were released earlier on previous albums. These re-workings are different enough to make a qualitative distinction. Not better. Just different. Produced with the highest quality production. The addition of oud, piano, accordion and cello enhance this moving and evocative collection.

7] KEÏTA ALY—FARAFINKO. CONTRE JOUR

Not only is Aly Keïta a balafola of the first order but he also builds his own magnificent instruments. The sonority of the bala on his sophomore album [Farafinko] is without peer. Keïta’s fluid playing produces mellifluous roulades like a waterfall. This album is great and should not be overlooked simply because it lacks Auto-Tuned vocals, synthesised music, derivative rap and other rubbish. All the better to focus on Keïta’s playing. There’s not a big enough oeuvre of solo, instrumental recordings of African instruments. Keïta’s “Farafinko” ups the number.

8] DÉMÉ VICTOR—DÉLI. CHAPA BLUES

At number eight is another sophomore effort. I’m so glad that Démé is getting some commercial success now after a long struggle in Côte d’Ivoire before returning to his native Burkina Faso. This album picks up where his debut solo opus left off; a collection of soulful ballads based in Manding tradition and a few up-tempo numbers. Guitar, bass, kora, accordion harmonise to create the soundscape. There’s also violin, a little to sweet and intrusive in places but not repellent enough to be objectionable. I was glad to see him live in Central Park, NYC this past summer. Backed by his core band and stripped of the European studio arrangements, the elemental quality of the compositions worked very well. And Démé’s voice, simultaneously plaintive and soulful, imbued the crowd with warmth and good feeling.

9] ASMARA ALL STARS…ERITREA’S GOT SOUL. OUT HERE

This was a pleasant surprise. It is rare to get music from Eritrea. This album came together courtesy of a white French producer. Many of the participants did not see his vision initially which was to assemble the best musicians in the country for an all star band to record an album of modern Eritrean music and sung in all the languages of Eritrea. But after a few auditions and rehearsals, others quickly came aboard. The album is a bit uneven but the sound is fresh and there are some gems. The surprise was how much reggae has influenced contemporary Eritrean musical sensibilities. That I did not expect. The opening track, sung by Faytinga, exemplifies this very well. The jaunty reggae melody is book-ended by traditional drums. An interesting aural treat. If only to have Eritrea represented in your African music collection, you must get this.

10] MARIEM HASSAN—SHOUKA. NUBENEGRA

The voice of Mariem Hassan is hard, gritty, rough and stark as the life of any Sahraoui refugee must be. And the music matches. The Sahraoui people are really Imazighen originally but now identify as Arabs. Their music resembles that of the Maures of Mauritania. They’ve kept some of the modal qualities but they cleave less tenaciously to the classical formality of musical presentation. Indeed, tidnit and ardin both seem to have been universally jettisoned for the electric guitar. Tbal and handclaps are constant though and the arrangements are augmented with clarinet and ney. There could have been more driving, propulsive numbers like “Maatal-la” and “Ragsat naama” for my taste and at 16 tracks, the album is too long. Still, this is a great document of contemporary Saharoui music and merits its place in the top ten.

BEST COMPILATION OR REISSUE OF 2010.

LURA…BEST OF LURA CD & DVD. LUSAFRICA

She only has four CDs on the international market and it might seem presumptuous of her record label to think that she was so good that after such a scant output, a “Best of” compilation was warranted. Actually, it was thoroughly merited. A very good decision.Lura’s best asset is her ability to sing many genres equally well. Morna, coladera, funaná, batuku, kontradansa all fare well with her interpretation. With Toi Vieira at the helm of arrangements, she’s in solid hands. Hardly a misstep anywhere. And the bonus DVD show of her dancing and personality very well from the stage.

BEST LIVE RECORDING OF 2010.

THANDISWA…LIVE IN CONCERT. GALLO

The competition wasn’t too thick this year but this one was the best. “On Air”, the posthumously released live recording of Cheikha Rimitti didn’t have the variety as Thandiswa Mazai’s. A very, very good live recording.

BEST LIVE CONCERT OF 2010.

ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO @ TOWN HALL NYC ON MARCH 26TH.

She is the best communicator from the stage. She rules and commands and the audience obeys. Blink, and you’ll miss something. I can’t imagine people tweeting from her show but there are extreme narcissists out there. This was a great show. She had the audience eating out of her hands.

WORST CD OF 2010. AVOID THIS ONE LIKE THE LATEST DISEASE.

VARIOUS ARTISTS…SHANGAAN ELECTRO. HONEST JON’S

In the past I’ve criticised white Europeans in America and Europe for producing African artists while not understanding African music. Some of these aim to destroy African music in the first place with narcissistic, forced hybridisation resulting in pure, unadulterated rubbish. This piece of drivel is entirely home grown in South Africa and would have stayed there except for some couch potato in Brooklyn looking at a You-Tube clip and thinking this was good music worthy to be put on CD and distributed from the US to the world. NOT! This repetitive, unsophisticated, synthetic crap sped up to 100 MPH will induce schizophrenia in anyone who listens to it. You will hear voices in your head telling you to kill people.

RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR: LUSAFRICA

Great music. They respect African music. Their output doesn’t take the music far from its roots. Nice people to work with too. They are very responsive to deejay requests for promos. Good job Lusafrica! I look forward to working with you in 2011.

Written and presented by Akenataa Hammagaadji.

Akenaata Hammagaadji is an African music expert and cultural critic. He is the radio host of First World Music; an African music programme broadcast from WVKR. His insightful music reviews, which goes beyond music into cultural dissections, can be found in his weekly First World Music Newsletter, now a blog on afrobeatradio.net.

Youssou Ndour. Source: youssou.com

After two years of wrangling and political machinations on both sides, Youssou N’dour’s television station; Télévision Futurs Medias, made its broadcast debut in Sénégal on Wednesday. The Grammy award winning singer first applied for a license to broadcast a general media television station in May of 2008.

The license was finally granted after all sides agreed that the station would operate under the rubric of culture and not news or politics.  People may talk of ministers and other middling functionaries but I am sure that the ultimate decision was left in the hands of President Wade.

The old man knew that he was being criticised in Youssou’s newspaper [he's becoming quite the media mogul] and he did not want to Youssou to have another more powerful outlet to undermine his grasp on power, or the political ambitions he has for his son, Karim Wade. Wade’s officially stated concern, that the station would be financed by foreigners was embarrassingly disingenuous.

In the months leading up to the moment when the license was granted, , Youssou was savvy enough to show his political muscle by mobilising the citizenry who actually came out in the streets of Dakar to protest Wade’s stalling.

In the past, when asked, Youssou claimed not to have any ambition for elected office himself. I won’t hold him to that. With his newspaper, his radio station [the most popular in Sénégal] and now his teevee station, he’s poised to launch the media campaign whenever he likes, that could propel him to the presidential chair.

He has already asserted that, despite the designation of Television Futurs Medias (TFM) as a cultural station, he and his team will still find a way to cover social issues. It will be fascinating to see the chess moves he will be executing in a bid to further buttress his position for the day when that fateful declaration will be made.

It’s all interesting in light of the song Youssou wrote and recorded years ago. “Live Television” is a song bemoaning the intrusion of television on traditional social interaction.

It related how a man visited his friend but instead of engaging in the usual African custom of greeting and enquiring about relatives and catching up on news, the host turned on the television and started watching. No doubt he would not criticise such action today, as long as all Sénégal watches TFM.

N’dour’s private media group also operates a popular radio station, Radio Futurs Medias (RFM) and a large-circulation daily newspaper called L’Observateur, which have often been critical of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade’s government and it’s policies.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Written by Akenataa Hammagaadji.
Akenaata Hammagaadji is an African music expert and cultural critic. He is the radio host of First World Music, an African music programme broadcast from WVKR. His insightful music reviews, which goes beyond music into cultural dissections, can be found in his weekly First World Music Newsletter, now a blog on AfrobeatRadio.Net

Three years ago, on the night of Sunday June 17, 2007, the French Police was called to Bidassoa Street, 20th District of Paris for a disturbance of the peace. On arrival, eight police officers found Lamine Dieng, a Senegalese born male. He was unarmed. Upon initial contact, Lamine was pinned to the ground by the police, handcuffed with one arm over his shoulder, the other bent backwards, and his ankles were tied with a leather strap. Five police officers carried him to their Police van. Once in the van, they placed him on the floor, faced down. One officer restrained his head, four others knelt respectively on his right and left shoulder, his back and his legs were then bent backwards. Lamine Dieng died that night. He was only 25 years old.

Two days later, the Police Authorities (IGS) concluded that Lamine died of natural cause: a heart failure. A week later, on June 22nd, 2007, the Lamine Dieng’s family filed a complaint. A support Group was also created with the aim of shedding light on Lamine’s death and to bring out to the public the truth about his death. French government initially prevented the family from seeing the body. However, after a month, the Authorities relented and gave Lamine’s body to the family. He has since been buried in Senegal. The implicated police officers are believed to still be on duty.

While Lamine’s family awaits Justice, the Support Committee: ‘Truth and Justice for Lamine Dieng’ is now part of a larger Campaign to eliminate the use of various life-threatening immobilization techniques by the French Police.  On October 9, 2007, France was convicted by the European Court of Human Rights Abuse in the Case of SAOUD vs FRANCE, for using the same techniques the French Police used on Lamine. These immobilization techniques are illegal in Switzerland, Belgium and Germany.

The medical experts pinpointed the fact that Mohamed Saoud had been held to the ground for 35 minutes as the direct cause of his death from slow asphyxia. The Court deplored the fact that no precise instructions had been issued by the French authorities with regard to this type of immobilisation technique and that, despite the presence at the scene of professionals trained in emergency assistance, no treatment had been given to the young man prior to his cardiac arrest. Accordingly, the authorities had failed in their obligation to protect the life of Mohamed Saoud, and there had been a violation of Article 2.

The Case of SAOUD vs FRANCE
(Article 2, fragment)

In 2001, at the 3rd UN World Conference against Racism, one question remained central: that of police violence targeting African migrants at Europe’s borders and the black youth within America and European countries. As a result, the United Nations adopted a resolution calling on all States concerned to address the problem of anti-black racism, discrimination, racial profiling, and racial violence exercised by State agents whose mission is to protect the people. Ten years later, the situation continues to deteriorate in a general climate of impunity.

As Lamine’s death is being commemorated, there is a fundamental question that must be asked: When a state so demonstrates its possession of our bodies, we must ask ourselves, what is our real status (in France) in 2010? and indeed, in the Western World? To what extent has French government abolished slavery?

The Support Committee: TRUTH AND JUSTICE FOR LAMINE DIENG can be reached at: collectif-laminedieng@hotmail.fr

Please e-mail your letters of support to: collectif-laminedieng@hotmail.fr
Write it in whatever language you wish but please write.

Thank you.

For More Information:

coucxx.skyrock.com
generationslive.fr/lamine-dieng
facebook.com/collectif.laminedieng
myspace.com/coucxx_laminedieng_25ans

TRUTH AND JUSTICE FOR LAMINE DIENG (Born August 23, 1981)

Below you will find list of all other winners.  Click on name link of a winner for a pop-up photo to appear.

Samuel Eto’o came second with 69 points and Michael Essien third with 42 points. Given Drogba’s form for Chelsea this season, it’s tough to argue with the votes. This is Drogba’s second African Footballer of the Year win, after he collected the award in 2006. In 2007 he missed the title apparently by absence.

The Chelsea striker was the headline grabber, but he wasn’t the only winner. Other awards handed out were as follows:

In 2007, I have decided to create the Didier Drogba Foundation. Its first goal is to provide financial and material support in health and education to the underprivileged, especially women and children, who are often the ones who struggle the most. The children’s education is a very important matter to me, as much as their health. And to see women dying while giving birth in the 21st century is unthinkable to me but there is still too many today, particularly on the African continent.

Didier Drogba

Inter-Club Player of the Year
Tresor Mputu Mabi (T.P. Mazembe and DR Congo)

National Team of the Year
Algeria (presumably for their World Cup qualification achievement)

Club of the Year
T.P. Mazembe (DR Congo) – Winner of the 2009 CAF Champions League

Young Player of the Year
Dominic Adiyiah (AC Milan and Ghana U-20) (Top scorer and Most Valuable Player at U-20 World Cup)

Coach of the Year
Sellas Tetteh (Ghana U-20) – Won U-20 World Cup for Ghana

Fair Play Award
Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia) fans

Best Supporters Club
South Africa Supporters Club

African Football Legend:
Stephen Keshi (Nigeria)
Jules Bocande (Senegal)
Osvaldo Saturnino de Oliviera “Jesus” (Angola)

Platinum Award:
Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana

CAF Best XI
Goalkeeper – Muteba Kidiaba (T.P Mazembe and DR Congo)
Defenders – John Pantsil (Fulham and Ghana), Nadir Belhadj (Portsmouth and Algeria), Wael Gomaa (Al-Ahly and Egypt)
Midfielders – Alexander Song (Arsenal and Cameroon), Michael Essien (Chelsea and Ghana), Seydou Keita (Barcelona and Mali), Yaya Toure (Barcelona and Cote d’Ivoire)
Attackers – Tresor Mputu Mabi (T.P. Mazembe and DR Congo), Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan and Cameroon), Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Cote d’Ivoire)

Written by Mark Bajkowski.Mark, born in Poland, is a Jack of all trades, master of none, who lives in New York since 1979. Mark has an unusually wide range of interests and is known to relate well to the people half of his age. Since his early childhood, he felt a curious relation to Africa, which unavoidably brings up the controversial subject of multiple-life experiences.

Cheikh Tall on US Census 2010 from AfrobeatRadio on Vimeo

According to information provided by the US Census Bureau reproduced below:

We (US Census Bureau) depend on your cooperation and trust, and promise to protect the confidentiality of your information. Title 13 of the U.S. Code protects the confidentiality of all your information and violating this law is a crime with severe penalties. In addition, other federal laws, including the Confidential Statistical Efficiency Act and the Privacy Act reinforce these protections.

From the U.S. Census Bureau website:

The census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

The next census is in 2010.

Your participation in the census is required by law.

It takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

Federal law protects the personal information you share during the census.

Private information is never published

It is against the law to disclose or publish any of the following information:

Names

Addresses including GPS coordinates

Social Security numbers

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We collect Information to Produce Statistics

We use your information to produce statistics. Your answers cannot be used against you by any government agency or court.

Sworn for Life to Protect Your Confidentiality

All Census Bureau employees take the oath of nondisclosure and are sworn for life to protect the confidentiality of the data.

Violating the Oath Is a Serious Crime

The penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment of up to 5 years, or both.

According to Jonathan Kraft, in an article culled from his website, a Census worker may ask:

Verification of your address

Your name

Your age

Your race

Your gender

A salary range

A Census worker will not ask:

Your social security number

Bank account information

Credit card information

Donations

Avoid Phishing and Email Scams:

Census workers may contact you in person, by mail or even by phone but Census workers WILL NOT contact anyone by email or through the internet.

Do not click on any links or attachments that are supposedly from the Census Bureau or you’ll be at risks for identity theft or computer malware.

If you receive a phishing e-mail that says it is from the Census Bureau, do not open it but report it here:itso.fraud.reporting@census.gov.

Posted by AfrobeatRadio