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Journalists are like doctors, they must prescribe measures that help maintain societal calm

2011-10-06T03:44:00.000-07:00

The fact that journalists are custodians of human rights and democracy is not coincidental but deliberate. In a liberal society, characterized by certain standards of moral consensus based on human values, it is very easy to assume the relativity of the former. The moral consensus in every society differs remarkably depending on their points of reference. However, there is no doubt that some values are human and are universally acceptable such as those of human rights and liberty. If journalists are there to guarantee that these rights are protected from abuse then – glory be to them.

However, if we examine the conventional journalistic approach in many African countries, then it is true that journalists have failed to carry out this noble responsibility by virtue of how they report issues. Journalists have often concentrated on sensationalism, immediacy and propaganda which has done very little to defend what they claim to be jealously protecting – liberty. Journalists, for instance, have reported conflicts as ‘a tug-of-war’ between two antagonists where one side risks being reported as losing. Of course, they would often argue that one of the values of news is that it is bizarre or unusual and conflicts fits perfectly within such definitions. Such conceptualizations of news which are embedded in Western models of journalism require rethinking.

Currently, classic examples on how the media plays a role in shaping public opinion is evident in their coverage of the Hague trials and the Mukuru Sinai fire disaster. The former has been given prominence due to its magnitude and the fact that public figures occupying public offices in Kenya have been implicated – these are important considerations in light of the news value criterion. However, what the media has failed to do and must do is to measure the degree of audience interest regarding the Hague question through audience research. Naturally, one would expect that audience have a high level of interest on the Hague coverage but only empirical evidence can guide the media in predicting the extent at which it would be useful to give the Hague prominence. Is there any additional human value for the media to represent the trials virtually all day every day?

Regarding the Sinai fire disaster, the media simply represented it as such – a disaster. The media extended this new and problematic or troubling event, which breached the taken for granted expectancies about how the world should be (consensual calm) by linking it to the forms of explanation which has served for all practical purposes. And so, the Sinai disaster is explained through analogies (similar other disasters) like the Bombolulu fire 2001, Sidindi in 1998 and the double tragedies at Nakumatt and Sachangwan tank accidents that claimed hundreds of lives in 2009. Emphasis is placed on drawing audience emotions through victims of the tragedies. Little effort is made to use the occasion as an opportunity to scrutinize and interrogate policy issues like urban human settlement and poverty alleviation to expose those politically responsible. However, episodes where the media covered the heroic experience of rescue workers must be commended.

The epistemological and ontological conceptions of journalism, which our media seem to religiously, follow have often been a Western creation which has fitted perfectly in the west, especially, when their media reports on Africa. Consequently, they defeat the faculties of reason when journalists attempt to employ them when explaining events unfolding in Africa. It would seem that, if journalists in Africa reason through Western fashioned lenses to explain realities in Africa, then their reasoning would be naturally flawed. Timeliness, as a news values that underpin the Western journalistic ideology, defeats the need to go deep into the background of news stories to capture historical trajectories and other nuances. It leaves events superficially covered often stereotypically and sensationally.

The challenge therefore is for critical media scholars to come up with counter discourses to deconstruct the Western models of news. It would not help much for journalists and media academics to seat pretty and argue that “news should be unusual and timely”, which is actually a commercial approach. Any simple criticism about the manner in which the media reports issues in Africa should be given a surgical appraisal, for this would act as a fertile ground for the birth of new ideologies. Reporting that characterizes war journalism that blows issues out of proportion should be discouraged. There are obvious examples where reporting has helped escalate conflicts rather than reduce them in different parts of the world from conflicts such as those between India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine to the Invasion of Iraq and, most recently, Libya. Locally, the Kenyan media acted carelessly in trying to delicately balance public opinion and official electoral results in 2007 leading to violence.

Reporting based on the conceptualization of elections as “winner takes all” is a time worn mentality that requires diagnosis. Journalists are like doctors, they should diagnose societal issues with the aim of prescribing measures that help maintain societal calm – peace and stability. Beyond the structural and ideological issues influencing journalists, individual journalists have psychological traits some of which are still linked to ideologies of journalistic practices such as objectivity, fairness and balance. Objectivity is a journalistic ‘myth’ that enables journalists avoid biasness and be perceived as fair. However, given that impartiality is endemic to humans, a deeper universal consciousness that surpasses journalistic ideologies is necessary– that of humanity itself. It is time for our journalists to embrace the same.

Yes we have e-tv, SABC and other news outlets in South Africa but a journalist is either good or evil

2011-04-11T09:29:00.001-07:00

Call it conservatism or old-fashionism but psychological factors are still important variables that influence news content. Of course Prof. Tawana Kupe will take this ‘reality’ with a pinch of salt. This is due to the fact that, it would seem, psychological factors do not influence news content in a mutually exclusive manner nor do they exist in a vacuum. Therefore, they cannot be solely used to exhaustively explain the character of any journalist as an object of analysis.

To draw from the ancient Russian dramatist Denis Fonvisin, who was responsible for the construction of the Russian nationality in the 17th century Russia, we see relationships that can be comparable to South Africa and many African nations that realized nationalism much later in the 20th century given my arguments in this article. Like Peter the great, Fonvisin was keen about the realization of the Russian identity and nationality. Unlike Peter the great, who celebrated the idea of “the civil” or civilization from the West, especially the United Kingdom (the first nation on the planet), Fonvisin embodied the envy among Russians of the West. This was out of the realization that to be like them, then Russia has to match and probably even surpass them - as envisioned by Peter the great or Peter 1 (1682-1725).

There was influx of Western ideas and accompanied technology in Russia which Peter admired although he was not interested in cultural questions. When his vision to match and even surpass the West was not forthcoming and realizing that Russia could actually not match the West, resentiment was born beyond his control captured well by Fonvisin. However, this brought about cultural renaissance during the reigns of his successors.

The point I am making in this article is that one of the reasons why Fonvisin and many Russians were resented was the fact that the model conceived by the West was, according to him, not the best model for Russia to adopt. For when he personally visited France and after striving to be objective about his object of analysis (France), Fonvisin could not help but conclude that he saw more bad things happening in France than good ones, he saw many bad people than good ones. He further concluded that the same applies to everywhere in the world and neither the West nor Russia was an exception.

After observing the French, Fonvisin concluded that “a French man will never forgive himself if he misses an opportunity to cheat,” “his God was money”, that “what was considered a virtue in France was actually a vice in Britain” and that the French are good in nothing but the arts and culture (fashion). Having seen France, Fonvisin saw no reason to adopt the Western model but surely envied it. Nevertheless, the crisis of the forced noble identity created an identity gap and insecurity among the aritrocracy in Russia and the search for national identity became a state of emergency.

The search begun by, first and foremost, constructing the West as an object of ridicule especially in relation to the idea of civilization which Fonvisin, the dramatist, satirized so well. He satirized the cultural pretensions and privileged coarseness of the nobility which made him one of his nation’s foremost 18th-century dramatists. His wit and his knowledge of French and German classics made him a favourite in the enlightened circles of the court of Catherine the great. Such cultural satires became mortar for the construction of Russian nationalism.
In rejecting the West, reflected in works such as “Letters from abroad,” Fonvisin was not rejecting the idea of human reason but the force behind the faculties of reason.

Greenfeld, a Prof of nationalism at the Institute for the Advancement of Social Sciences (IASS), writes that the rejection of reason implied the reinterpretation of its corollaries in political culture: liberty and equality. While Russian nationalists agreed that the concepts denoted great moral virtues (for these values were so central to the canon that their very names acquired a magical character), they refused to see their true embodiment in Western institutions. Western liberty and equality were not real liberty and equality. These were something else. It was not entirely clear what they were, but the pivot of the reinterpretation is easily established. Individual freedom was the source of all bondage: It stifled and constrained the inner forces of spirit; and every expression of this limiting rationality in economic or political institutions only exacerbated it deleterious effects. Real freedom preceded into the soul and became the inner freedom; and political equality lost all meaning.

Fonvinsi was among the first to point to the critical difference between the real and the apparent. In his letters to Panin (1778), he wrote “Observing the conditions of the French nation, I learn to discern liberty by law and real liberty. Our people do not have the first, but enjoy the latter in many ways. In contrast, the French, having the right of liberty, live in veritable slavery,” but it was the Derzhavin who unselfconsciously, gave Russian liberty and equality a concise, but articulate poetic definition. He said in The Grandee “Blessed is the people which like the Russian people, sees happiness – in unity/equality – in equity/and liberty – in the ability to control ones passion.” However, the matrix of such a conceptualization which was the Russian nationalism was based on cultural re-evaluation. Russia did not have liberty and equality; and so it revolted against rationality, rejecting both the thinking individual and the faculty that define his nature.

Greenfeld points out that reason as a faculty of the human mind referred to articulation, precision, delimitation, and reserve. They oppose to it life so full of feeling that one could choke on it – the inexpressible, the immeasurable. By their very nature these qualities were vague, undefined. It was much clearer what they were not, than what they were. These qualities of the Russian soul arrived at through the mental exercise of posing antithesis to the Western virtue in which Russia was particularly deficient. Greenfield further points out that the possession of such a soul was so sweet, and its inventors and discoverers wanted so much to believe in it, that this initially intangible entity materialized and, embodied in the national character, became the most formidable and immutable component of the culture emerging around it.

Fonvisin argued that reason cannot be equated to the mind because the mind often cuts through the veil given that it’s a product of the surrounding environment, unless it is a product of a sacred and pure heavenly Island divorced from environmental variables, ‘reality’ and beyond human reach. Fonvisin argued that reason and thought is about fashion. Reason, and by extension the mind, can be out of fashion but not the soul. He argued that a body, which is just a vessel, without a soul is a monster and the soul is what brings about the pure consciousness of humanity and is the reason for its very existence. It was this foundation that the Russians wanted to construct their nationalism as distinct from the West. If we go by this analogy, we are tempted to assume that the Russian nationalism was constructed by men and women who had great ability to reason but guided by the soul. However, such an assumption may leave a lot to be desired.

Thanks to technology today. There are many Fonvisins and Peter the greats in the society in the name of politicians, academics and business people due to their positions of power and explosion of technology like facebook and twitter. But those who enjoy a relatively privileged position in the distribution of culture are journalists and citizens as journalists. Journalist report what happens by virtue of having witnessed the event unfolding, so do citizens. To what extent are journalists responsible, just like Fonvisin and Peter the great for the construction of a better South African nation and African nations today? Because journalists are people and there are more bad people than good ones in every nation, as Fonvisin observed, how can evil/bad journalists escape this psychological trait that is part and parcel of their human reason?

Given that psychological factors still play an important role, how can good journalists strive to counterbalance the imbalance? Do journalists have to be evil/bad to celebrate the fact that “good news is bad news?” Do they really celebrate bad news? If so, does it mean that this is because they are bad/evil journalists? Or is it because, like the French in Fonvisin’s analogy, their God is money and they simply sensationalize to sell stories? And how can they escape such criticisms and accept self critique of what is inherently psychological? Do journalists in South Africa and Africa view reality with Western fashioned lenses which marvel them but blind them of cultural issues in Africa like Peter the great?

The media has now replaced the early nationalists in Africa that had to "decolonize" the African mindset as well as overthrow colonial rule. The media should continue with the nationalist task of "reeducating" Africans and the promotion of black pride through African foods, music, dress, architecture, and religion as equal to, if not better than, their European counterparts. While these steps may seem minor they are the best ways that the media can adopt to build a better South African nation and African nations through their news content and programming. Yes we have e-TV, SABC, SABC-Africa and other news outlets in South Africa but a journalist is either good or evil. The good ones embody the soul/spirit and pride of Africa and are constantly constructing our unique nationalism.

Yes we have e-tv, SABC and other news outlets in South Africa but a journalist is either good or evil

2011-04-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

Call it conservatism or old-fashionism but psychological factors are still important variables that influencing news content. Of course Prof, Tawana Kupe will take this ‘reality’ with a pinch of salt. This is due to the fact that, it would seem, psychological factors do not influence news content in a mutually exclusive manner nor do they exists in a vacuum. Therefore, they cannot be solely used to exhaustively explain the character of any journalist as an object of analysis.

To draw from the ancient Russian dramatist Denis Fonvisin, who was responsible for the construction of the Russian nationality in the 17th century Russia, we see relationships that can be comparable to South Africa and many African nations that realized nationalism much later in the 20th century given my arguments in this article. Like Peter the great, Fonvisin was keen about the realization of the Russian identity and nationality. Unlike Peter the great, who celebrated the idea of “the civil” or civilization from the West, especially the United Kingdom (the first nation on the planet), Fonvisin embodied the envy among the Russians of the West. This was out of the realization that to be like them, then Russia has to match and probably even surpass them – as envisioned by Peter the great or Peter 1 (1682-1725).

There was influx of Western ideas and accompanied technology in Russia which Peter admired although he was not interested in cultural questions. When his vision to match and even surpass the West was not forthcoming and realizing that Russia could actually not match the West, resentiment was born beyond his control captured well by Fonvisin. However, this brought about cultural renaissance during the reigns of his successors.

The point I am making in this article is that one of the reasons why Fonvisin and many Russians were resented was the fact that the model conceived by the West was, according to him, not the best model for Russia to adopt. For when he personally visited France and after striving to be objective about his object of analysis (France), Fonvisin could not help but conclude that he saw more bad things happening in France than good ones, he saw many bad people than good ones. He further concluded that the same applies to everywhere in the world and neither the West nor Russia was an exception.

After observing the French, Fonvisin concluded that “a French man will never forgive himself if he misses an opportunity to cheat,” “his God was money”, that “what was considered a virtue in France was actually a vice in Britain” and that the French are good in nothing but the arts and culture (fashion). Having seen France, Fonvisin saw no reason to adopt the Western model but surely envied it. Nevertheless, the crisis of the forced noble identity created an identity gap and insecurity among the aritrocracy in Russia and the search for national identity became a state of emergency.

The search begun by, first and foremost, constructing the West as an object of ridicule especially in relation to the idea of civilization which Fonvisin, the dramatist, satirized so well. He satirized the cultural pretensions and privileged coarseness of the nobility which made him one of his nation’s foremost 18th-century dramatists. His wit and his knowledge of French and German classics made him a favourite in the enlightened circles of the court of Catherine the great. Such cultural satires became mortar for the construction of Russian nationalism.
In rejecting the West, reflected in works such as “Letters from abroad,” Fonvisin was not rejecting the idea of human reason but the force behind the faculties of reason.

Greenfield, a Prof of nationalism at the Institute for the Advancement of Social Sciences (IASS), writes that the rejection of reason implied the reinterpretation of its corollaries in political culture: liberty and equality. While Russian nationalists agreed that the concepts denoted great moral virtues (for these values were so central to the canon that their very names acquired a magical character), they refused to see their true embodiment in Western institutions. Western liberty and equality were not real liberty and equality. These were something else. It was not entirely clear what they were, but the pivot of the reinterpretation is easily established. Individual freedom was the source of all bondage: It stifled and constrained the inner forces of spirit; and every expression of this limiting rationality in economic or political institutions only exacerbated it deleterious effects. Real freedom preceded into the soul and became the inner freedom; and political equality lost all meaning.

Fonvinsi was among the first to point to the critical difference between the real and the apparent. In his letters to Panin (1778), he wrote “Observing the conditions of the French nation, I learn to discern liberty by law and real liberty. Our people do not have the first, but enjoy the latter in many ways. In contrast, the French, having the right of liberty, live in veritable slavery,” but it was the Derzhavin who unselfconsciously, gave Russian liberty and equality a concise, but articulate poetic definition. He said in The Grandee “Blessed is the people which like the Russian people, sees happiness – in unity/equality – in equity/and liberty – in the ability to control ones passion.” However, the matrix of such a conceptualization which was the Russian nationalism was based on cultural re-evaluation. Russia did not have liberty and equality; and so it revolted against rationality, rejecting both the thinking individual and the faculty that define his nature.

Greenfield points out that reason as a faculty of the human mind referred to articulation, precision, delimitation, and reserve. They oppose to it life so full of feeling that one could choke on it – the inexpressible, the immeasurable. By their very nature these qualities were vague, undefined. It was much clearer what they were not, than what they were. These qualities of the Russian soul arrived at through the mental exercise of posing antithesis to the Western virtue in which Russia was particularly deficient. Greenfield further points out that the possession of such a soul was so sweet, and its inventors and discoverers wanted so much to believe in it, that this initially intangible entity materialized and, embodied in the national character, became the most formidable and immutable component of the culture emerging around it.

Fonvisin argued that reason cannot be equated to the mind because the mind often cuts through the veil given that it’s a product of the surrounding environment, unless it is a product of a sacred and pure heavenly Island divorced from environmental variables, ‘reality’ and beyond human reach. Fonvisin argued that reason and thought is about fashion. Reason, and by extension the mind, can be out of fashion but not the soul. He argued that a body, which is just a vessel, without a soul is a monster and the soul is what brings about the pure consciousness of humanity and is the reason for its very existence. It was this foundation that the Russians wanted to construct their nationalism as distinct from the West. If we go by this analogy, we are tempted to assume that the Russian nationalism was constructed by men and women who had great ability to reason but guided by the soul. However, such an assumption may leave a lot to be desired.

Thanks to technology today. There are many Fonvisins and Peter the greats in the society in the name of politicians, academics and business people due to their positions of power and explosion of technology like facebook and twitter. But those who enjoy a relatively privileged position in the distribution of culture are journalists and citizens as journalists. Journalist report what happens by virtue of having witnessed the event unfolding, so do citizens. To what extent are journalists responsible, just like Fonvisin and Peter the great for the construction of a better South African nation and African nations today? Because journalists are people and there are more good people than bad ones in every nation, as Fonvisin observed, how can evil/bad journalists escape this psychological trait that is part and parcel of their human reason?

Given that psychological factors still play an important role, how can good journalists strive to counterbalance the imbalance? Do journalists have to be evil/bad to celebrate the fact that “good news is bad news?” Do they really celebrate bad news? If so, does it mean that this is because they are bad/evil journalists? Or is it because, like the French in Fonvisin’s analogy, their God is money and they simply sensationalize to sell stories? And how can they escape such criticisms and accept self critique of what is inherently psychological? Do journalists in South Africa and Africa view reality with Western fashioned lenses which marvel them but blind them of cultural issues in Africa like Peter the great?

The media has now replaced the early nationalists in Africa that had to "decolonize" the African mindset as well as overthrow colonial rule. The media should continue with the nationalist task of "reeducating" Africans and the promotion of black pride through African foods, music, dress, architecture, and religion as equal to, if not better than, their European counterparts. While these steps may seem minor they are the best ways that the media can adopt to build a better South African nation and African nations through their news content and programming. Yes we have e-TV, SABC, SABC-Africa and other news outlets in South Africa but a journalist is either good or evil. The good ones embody the soul/spirit and pride of Africa and are constantly constructing our unique nationalism.

South Africa Media Bills - is the economic structure still super?

2010-10-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

In recent years, the ideological form in which men became conscious of the existence of the conflict between politics and economics, and how to fight it out, has resulted in the birth of democracy. This has meant that individuals are free and at liberty of competitive expression to achieve material and psychological satisfaction.

The South African media, largely owned by the whites, consists of three newspaper groups Independent Media, AVUSA, formerly known as Johnnic Communications, but now largely owned by a consortium largely dominated by blacks, and Naspers which is basically largely owned by Afrikaners. Each of these media groups have certain major mainstream newspaper publications, affiliated to them, commonly referred to as the AB press.

They are called AB press because of the discourse around their quality in terms of structure and style of writing which is generally considered formal and serious. This is opposed to the informal nature of existing tabloids. The best examples of the AB press are the Sunday Times, published by AVUSA, Sunday Independent, published by Independent Media Group and Beeld published by Naspers. While AVUSA and Naspers are more local conglomerates, the Independent Media Group is international, linked to the Irish tycoon Tony O’Reilly with business interests from Ireland to many other parts of Europe, Australia and Newzealand.

These newspapers see audiences (active readers) as a potential market, in whose interest they need to serve. They deliver ‘active readers’, as a commodity, to advertisers. Businesses see newspapers as an ideal market for reaching potential customers with ideas and commodities, especially, due to the assumption that their target audiences have the financial capacity to buy products and services of high quality and value. The newspapers, audiences and the business community are, therefore, complexly interlinked in a consciousness that solidifies them and difficult to separate. The introduction of the media Bills is thus a big blow to their interest in South Africa.

Although the South African media might be polarised in terms of multiple ideologies, basically, due to historical trajectories of racial solidarity, they are united on one thing. That they exist to make profits just like any other product in capitalism and will thus support a system that will guarantee that they continue making profits. Any attempt to disrupt such a consensus is a likely recipe for chaos. These are the reasons why the business community has added their voice to the media bills and tribunal debates which is seen as retrogression as far as democracy is concerned.

It is from such consciousness that the South African media operates, acting as a custodian of freedom and guarding against the excesses of political and economic relations that might act as obstacles to freedom. The media always strives to be a neutral player in the delicate relation between politics and economics. This means that the media – the South African media is not an exception – is sometimes at the mercy of greater political and economic forces which tend to influence and threaten its very fundamental role of the custodian of liberty and the watchdog against state tendency to abuse power. The danger of introducing media bills in South Africa, a country that has been lauded in the SADC region for having a free press considering that its neighbours like Zimbabwe have very restrictive media laws, leaves a lot to be desired.

The central issues now heavily debated in South Africa are thus related to the delicate balance between press freedom and regulation. Although the debates begun on a higher note, with some politicians and media crying foul, they have taken a new dimension, the business community is adding their voice against that of the state. Their contention is that the media bills, if enacted into law, will reduce investor confidence and slow economic growth. One key voice is that of Gareth Ackerman - chairman of one of the biggest retail stores in southern Africa Pick n’Pay.

In an interview with Alec Hogg, a writer and a broadcaster, published on moneyweb.co.za, Ackermans argued that there is a strong awareness in the market that South Africa is in the new space, especially after hosting a successful 2010 world cup. It creates a negative sentiment in a position that they are now facing, driving off investments through the press being muzzled, through controls on the press, through issues in the mining rights and the whole issue around corruption. If the media is not allowed to talk and say what it needs to say, be it good or bad, then it could actually have a negative impact on business as a whole in South Africa.

Considering that the media acts as a huge market for businesses, such powerful discourses beginning to emerge from the South African economic/business class can ensure that any attempt to introduce media bills does not see the light of the day. This is by virtue of the facts history reminds us. That freedom in South Africa was won through the consensus that property rights will be respected and existing businesses interests will not be interfered with. This is also out of the symbiotic relationship between the media and business in a largely capitalistic democracy like South Africa.

The other issue is that political parties in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) included, have been increasingly relying on private donations and public funds for their election campaigns even though their sources of funding have been shrouded by mystery. It is only through scandals like the ‘Oilgate,’ where state funds were allegedly channelled to ANC, that we really begin to get into the depth of such mystery. Politicians will find it difficult to push ideas that are conflicting with the interests of those who bankroll their campaigns – the business class.

Nevertheless, the media will remain a site for struggle due to the fact that it forms part of a powerful public sphere acting as a platform for deliberating important issues of public concern for common good. However, it should guard (self regulation)itself against the excesses of commercialization where professionalism is sacrificed at the altar of commercial interests – Perhaps this should be addressed but not in terms of draconian laws and subjective media tribunals.

Kenyan referendum not juicy, let’s make a cocktail!

2010-08-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

President Kibaki adressing a press conference after the Yes team won the referendum (photo sourced from Daily Nation 05 August 2010).

Kenya has indeed shown the world that it can hold free and fair elections. No doubt. The people of Kenya are celebrating what the rebirth and the new constitution will bring, the second republic. Having stayed abroad for over seven years, I personally have something to smile about. I can now have a dual citizenship. How great. I can even choose to go back home and become an MP or is it a PS no, maybe the Prezo. Or I should just seat in the Diaspora and continue remitting cash back home. ..am still thinking.

You see, the reality is that the new Kenyan constitution has got much to offer. Wait a minute, why is the international media not seeing these fruits. I have been disturbed by the manner in which they have represented the Kenyan referendum. I did a quick textual and ideological analysis of the semiotics involving their coverage in stories appearing online on the 5th of August 2010 and I had mixed reactions. I became sad and happy. Sad because it is saddening to hear a cocktail of words such as ‘violence, ethnic, and tight security’ being repeated several times by the international media across the board in their stories.

Reports from Aljazeera news online and TV on the elections utilized such words and emphasized the idea that ‘the government and their security forces’ assured voters that there will be no incidences of violence. As if Kenyans are that violent by nature and do not understand their civic duties in a democracy pertaining the idea of elections and change. They need “security” forces to understand their responsibilities. Analogies were used where the referendum is compared to the ugly incidences of the 2007 election violence, often superficially, in reinforcing the discourse of violence that, apparently, ‘characterize elections in Africa’. Such discourses could lead to tension.

The BBC news online also reported that “it appeared that the elections were conducted peacefully,” paradigmatically, I am sure there is a better choice of words. Simply reporting that ‘it appeared,” leaves a lot to be desired. The CNN reported that “there have been no reports of violence so far,” as if they expected some forms of violence at some point in the immediate future. The CNN went further to argue that “Security -- especially in potential hot spots -- has been beefed up following concerns that violence would once again break out during the voting period.”

Despite all these reports, I am still happy. Happy because Kenya is the real winner in the referendum. Clearly, with the new constitution, I believe Kenya will achieve its vision 2030. Majority of us in the Diaspora are already making major home coming plans. My friend Bobby in Vienna posted something on facebook. Yah, I think it was “let green be the color of love.” The post was spot on. I am sure Spidy in Toronto is smiling because the last time we met during the holidays in December, he complained of how he needed a Visa to come to his country of birth. He had become a Canadian Citizen. Well Spidy, there’s nothing to worry about now…you will regain your Kenyan citizenship in December and still retain your Canadian one. I am sure you will have the best wedding thereafter. God bless Kenya.

AB local newspapers share South Africa white famers fears of Zimbabwe style land invasions - doctoral research now reveals

2010-04-10T03:16:00.000-07:00

" We tried to, treated it [land invasions], mostly, from the humanitarian perspective on the impact of farm workers, the impact of famers, you know, farmers being driven out of the country, farmers being killed etcetera. I mean, look, there were not a lot of white farmers being killed and a lot of people had drawn comparison in this country [South Africa] where there have been something like 3 500 farmers, white farmers killed since 1994 versus how many Zimbabwean white farmers, like ten or twelve or something , maybe as many as that. So from the perspective of violence and murder, it wasn't such a big story but it was politically, as we believed that it was part of a strategy to remain in power and also it reflected here [South Africa]obviously because people, a lot of people, our readers included said this is what is going to happen in South Africa. Down the line, are we going to see farm invasions here sanctified by the government? We heard the minister of lands just the other day basically warning, as some of his predecessors have also warned, that if white farmers here do not put more effort into distributing their land to black farmers, then we are going to have a Zimbabwe here and it would be worse" Peter Fabricious, foreign desk editor, Independent Media Group.

Julius Malema was quoted in the Daily Nation Thursday April 2010 in an article titled "ANC youth leader will not be silenced" advocating for Zimbabwe style land invasions. The nation online reported "The firebrand youth leader of South Africa's ruling party made clear on Thursday he will not be silenced, demanding Zimbabwe-style land seizures from white farmers and vowing to keep singing a controversial song 'Kill the Boer'. The Nation further reported that " Malema was speaking after his return from a visit to Zimbabwe, where he met President Robert Mugabe and hailed the seizure of white-owned farms to give to landless blacks as a success that South Africa should emulate."We are in a serious economic struggle that seeks to redistribute the wealth to the people. This is what we need the ANC to champion," said Malema, who has no direct influence over party policy and also champions mine nationalisation. "Land reform in Zimbabwe has been very successful". Malema said land seizures in South Africa should be "aggressive" and "militant" but he was not calling for violence.

The fears expressed about the Zimbabwe style land invasions are therefore real but far much complex. This is due to the fact that the land invasions in Zimbabwe are actually a symptom of decaying democracy, characterized by corruption, lack of accountability and leadership. This is manifested through unfair democratic practices during elections such as violence and intimidation coupled by a culture of vote rigging. In a sense, all this factors dovetailed to what has now been commonly referred to as economic collapse - this is what echoes the South African economic-ruling-class fears, especially, the white commercial farmers.

I argue that economic collapse in Zimbabwe is, partly, driven by the political uncertainty characterized by the lack of strong democratic institutions of governance such as an independent electoral body, judiciary and legislature to guarantee free and fair elections. In contrast, these systems are well in place in South Africa and it would be interesting to see how they would deal with situations like land invasions were they to erupt. On the other hand, what currently constitute the institutions in Zimbabwe are colonial apparatuses inherited from Ian Smith’s government that protected white minority interests.

With no proper institutions of governance in Zimbabwe, then the potency for political instability, often witness before and after elections, creates low investor confidence. However, I would like to indicate that economic instability or economic downturn is not necessarily created by the ZANU-PF regime, as the selected South African press that I analyzed in my study seems to suggest, but certainly enhanced through the chaotic nature of electoral campaigns. The chaos led to poor policies on land reforms where land is utilized as a tool to win political support. This has cultivated sporadic land conflicts between white commercial farmers and black settlers often viewed as war veterans and the ZANU-PF youth Brigade. Such warnings on poor land redistribution programmes are the ones issued by the political class in South Africa that calls for a thorough scrutiny to avoid conflict.

It is clear that land is a source of wealth based on how it is utilized and therefore , there is a direct relationship between land utility and economic growth. It is quite unclear to me on whether the South African economy can be greatly damaged by pockets of land conflicts, especially, amongst white and black farmers due to the fact that the South African economy is basically technological and industry driven as opposed to Zimbabwe where investments heavily relied on raw material and semi-finished production. However, politics should show sober leadership by addressing land issues in a manner not likely to harm the economic gains and the democracy that South Africa has realized so far.

In Zimbabwe, there are several issues that accounted for the economic free fall. Apart from the legacy of colonially inherited debts , failed Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (neo-liberal macro - economic policy shift), some of which south Africa is still experimenting on like the willing-seller willing-buyer principle of land redistribution that 'failed' in Zimbabwe, unbudgeted government decision to intervene in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the payment of war veterans, the nature of elections in Zimbabwe is, thus and by far, partly responsible for the economic free fall.

The representation of the economic situation in Zimbabwe by the South African press suggests that Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and Mugabe is the key architect of economic problems in Zimbabwe. Election politics have led to severe food shortages and high inflation, where in some instances, food has been used as a political weapon for votes while operations such as Murambatsvina, have been unleashed destroying the economic livelihood of many urban settlers. These events coupled by the cholera epidemic have negatively impacted on the economy.

The representation of the economic situation by the selected South African press, therefore, suggests that for Zimbabwe to recover economically, then ‘Mugabe must go’. The MDC, on the other hand, is represented as the new ‘Moses’ who will take Zimbabwe to the ‘Promised Land’ economically. The assumption is that a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) victory will resurrect investor confidence given its backing by the donor community.

However, I argue that economic recovery and development is not achieved by creating debt dependent nations. In fact, the land question, which is at the center of electoral violence and economic turmoil, should be equitably addressed by all parties committed to ensure a political, economic and socially sound Zimbabwe this equally applies to South Africa. The economic situation in Zimbabwe, although more complex than the superficial manner in which the selected South African press represents it, sheds light into how bad politics can destroy a nation and acts as a strong warning to South Africa - these are the fears expressed by the AB press that I studied in my doctoral research. The selected AB press in South African that I studied areThe Sunday Independent, The Sunday Times and The Mail & Guardian

You are not alone

2009-07-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

Indeed, no one should be alone in the fight against HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination. Many years into the world of HIV/AIDS research, it seems as if stigma as a theme will still dominate in discussions on how to cope with the pandemic. The just opened HIV/AID arts exhibition at the Museum Africa in Newtown Johannesburg gives hope in the fight against HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination and calls for the support of the treatment of those living with HIV/AIDS.

The keynote speaker in the opening of the sessions, Justice Cameron said that people must work together to promote treatment and fight HIV/AIDS stigma and to reverse the idea of HIV/AIDS as an uncontrollable pandemic. He said that treatment is essential to bring life to those who are infected with HIV/AIDS and should be encouraged and promoted.

The exhibition was attended by people from all quarters of the South African community and will still be on in the next couple of days and people are called upon to attend and show their support.

On the display, are marvelous pieces of artistic works including photographs, video and audio information containing real life experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS, those affected including those that are coping with treatment and how they are doing this.

However, the pieces should have done much more in their representation of the face of HIV/AIDS by showing a variety of races and how they are coping with infection and affection as well as treatment. The photo gallery was heavily dominated with black faces men, women, young and old and this risk sending the wrong idea in the minds of the public.

The idea is that this kind of representation could amount to othering and the pointing of fingers on one hand, further contributing to stigma, and sending the wrong messages to other racial groups who might think they are not vulnerable and increase their vulnerability in the process on the other.

There should therefore be holistic representation of different racial groups and how they are coping with HIV/AIDS infection, dealing with stigma and treatment in the exhibition to represent a more genuine commitment in promoting its theme “treatment”.

Otherwise, there is no denying that The art exhibition, the first of its kind in Africa having originated from the US and exhibited across different continents, is worth seeing and will go a long way in supporting other initiatives that are already in place to address the problematic issues in HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa and Africa as a whole.

Mbeki's legacy conference at Wits University exposes 'realities' in South Africa

2009-04-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

The recent conference on Mbeki's legacy exposed the raw realities of the socio-economic, political and cultural experinces in South Africa. Central to this debate was a general theme related to political ideologies that have shaped political governance,accountability of political leadership and life experiences of citizens in South Africa from government policies that have emerged.

From the ideas of the left to classical marxism and economic determinism to market driven neo-liberal ideologies, privatisation versus protectionism and regulation of the economy, it was clearly a minefield of ideas.

Ofcourse, all this ideas were central to the discussion about Mbeki's legacy because Mbeki as a person did not box himself to one corner of ideological thinking, at least according to one panelist in the coference. His ideas were organic and dynamic and seemed to be diffused such that it becomes difficult to pin him down on one particular school of thought.

But central to Mbeki's thinking has been the idea of a free market economy which attracted heavy critisisms from the left wing partner of the ANC, COSATU and perhaps contributed to his unpopularity and defeat in the party leadership race in Polokwane.

Why do I say that Mbeki could not be conered in a box concerning his ideological intellectualism? While he advocated for a pro-business rightist mentality to the economy, which critics argued only favoured the rich, he also adopted leftist ideas into policy such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP)which led to the creation of Black Economic Empowerment, that has since been critisised to favour those who are already privileged and acted as one of the bones of contention between ANC and COSATU.

The core values of the RDP are based on the fact that the centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid have plunged the South African society into a deep seated crisis. Every aspect of the country from political institutions, the economy, social life, the very moral fabric of communities has been deeply affected by the legacy of the arpatheid past.

According to the ANC website www.anc.org.za, the RDP thus anchors itself in meeting human needs. In other words, it is self-consciously people-centred. The RDP is not rooted, in the first place, in this or that political or economic ideology, it submits all such ideologies to the practical litmus test of meeting the fundamental human needs of the South African society.

The RDP asks to be judged in terms of its capacity to provide jobs, shelter, safe water, health-care, nutrition, relevant education, and safety and security to the people of South Africa. All other ideological considerations (for instance, socialism or the "free market"?), and all other technical considerations (for instance, optimal annual growth rates, or budget deficit reduction targets) are secondary to the overriding concern of meeting human needs, in a sustainable manner.

In taking its stand on a people-centred approach, the RDP is not underrating the importance of technical competence, or budgetary discipline, nor does it undervalue the great importance of ideological debate, and the potential opportunities and risks of choosing one or another perspective. But the RDP refuses to lock itself into either preconceived technical or ideological dogma.

The ANC has been basing its election campaigns and victories on the basis of a vision of "A Better Life for All" through the RDP which outlines the strategic path towards, this better life. But ofcourse one would question the idea of 'a better life for all' given the socio-economic, cultural and political ralities that are still challenging this vision.

Further, what would possibly happen if people loose their trust in the ANC's capabilities to better their life given the challenges that still face the RDP programme? Will they vote another party? Which one? Maybe Congress of the People (COPE) is banking on the days when public perceptions would shift againist the ANC based on whether the RDP and other policy programmes of the ANC like GEAR are succeeding or not.

There is no doubt that the Reconstruction and Development Programme as a government policy has uplifted the living standards of a number of poor South Africans in terms of the expansion of the economy over time and the provision of formal shelters and running water and electricity which has in many ways succeeded in the formalisation of shacks in major cities especialy in Gauteng province. But is this all? For instance, many poor South African are yet to see the benefits of the RDP houses, given the the backlogs in RDP house provision and massive unemployment rates, despite a record economic growth.

Andile Mngxitama's, one of the panelists in the conference, argued that the RDP houses are apparatuses that are still being used by the 'managers of a racist system' to continue marginalising the black people. He pointed out to the fact that only black poeople live in RDP houses.

He also mentioned other areas that the black people still lag behind, considering the ANC's vision of a better life as stated in the core values of the RDP given the major challenges still being faced in areas such as housing, education and health to jobs, economic growth, and safety and security. Can this factors influence the way we think about Mbeki and his legacy? Are these challenges as a result of Mbeki and his ideas as a person or the policies of the ANC as a party?

Another issue that emerges out of Mbeki's legacy is the idea of African reinnaisance, which reccommended African solutions to African problems. Mbeki has been very instrumental in rejuvinating the African voice through African Union. Ofcourse the visibility of AU led to Africa being listened to even by the strong and mighty who form the G8 and it is not a surprise that South Africa represented the voice of Africa in this year's World Economic Forum.

Mbeki's involvement in Africa contributed to the inclusion of South Africa as a member of the United Nation Security Council, something which has now assisted the AU to gain more muscles to negotiate the African agenda especialy in the global free market. Ideas such as NEPAD and peer review mechanism which are related to fair trade, transparency, governance and accountability, although they are being frustated in some countries in Africa, can also be related to Mbeki's effort and vision to see a united African voice that can find soultions to its own problem.

His contribution to the continent can be seen through the involment of South Africa in finding peaceful solutions to troubled countries in Africa such as the DRC, Liberia, Burundi, Sudan, Zimbabwe and most recently Madagascar which has since been suspended from the AU due to a coup that ousted the former elected president Marc Ravalomanana recently. However, it is worth stating that neo-liberal democracy and a push to the New World Oder is a global ideological battle.

Recently, democracy has been shaken in many countries of the world, especialy in Africa, and there is no any other era that capitalism has been under extreme pressure than most recently. So, perhaps the questions can shift from the idea of 'a political figure and his legacy' to questions of societal political and economic power structures and whether or not they are capable of sustaining the growing resentment among people of diffrent gender,ethnic groups,religions, cultures, races and classes on the realities that neoliberal ideologies have constructed and made them experience.

As a result of global recession, and as the wallets are closing in the West, we are begining to see power (economic)shifting to the East. Investors are puting their hopes on the East and many western componies are now exapnding eastwards. China's role as a major player is now beeing acknowledged in the global financial market. For example,China is to contribute 40 billion US dollars of the total 500 billion dollars proposed economic stimulus package while the EU and Japan are to contribute 100 billion both.

According to the Financial Times www.ft.com, future of Capitalism- Awider order comes into view, although the next 20-30 years will witness two global economic superpowers-China and the US, China still has got alot of work to do at home. Domestically, it has to create a local market for its products, which is a high political call, and stop the reliance on the export market, especialy the US market. The US on the other hand has to stop relying on china to support or fund its excessive reliance on credit.

It a delicate balance that requires harmonisation of global finance between major players under the auspices of global financial institutions like IMF and World Bank-the two have be sharply critisised by Mbeki for coming up with programmes that are unworkable for Africa like structural adjustment programmes which contributed to poverty and unemployment in Zimabwbe in the early 1990's.

Generally as the capitalistic system continue to loose its reputation among global citizens through recent events like recession etc,perhaps some form of socialisation are neccessary to manipulate the consent of people from an early childhood through Personality Assessment Systems (PSA)-very much entrenched in different apparatuses of the US society- through dissociation and mind control by skillfully manipulating human emotion especialy fear through the manufacture of a problem for instance, recession to cause public reaction and thereafter prescribing a solution (commonly known as problem-reaction-solution) and thus proponents of the systems emerging even more powerful in the aftermath. This is in order to brainwash and make people more submisive to their ideas of a global world.

These growing recentments are visible in the civil society and other quaters such as pressure groups evidenced by the magnitude of demonstration that accomponied discussions by the G20 countries concerning the socio-economic and political state of the world. However, it is important to note that the civil society has also been plagued by the same divisions that characterise the ruling political elites having emerged from the same ideological power structures.

Jane Duncan, one of the panelists, explained the need for the civil society to be rebuilt and developed and the need for them to stop operating from the ivory tower for them to support the needs of those they represent. Mark Heywood added that "some parts of the civil society is not a preety picture". The civil society's agenda has been vacuos, untheorised, fragmented and lacks proper approach and consesus.

The civil society has fallen in an undefined space and all this need to change if the civil society is to deliver. Heywood indicated that people have hope in the civil society, the fact that the civil society is diverse and plural is very impornatant and prhaps it should look at what is it that is in this diversity and plurality that can be unified in order to make a claim of socio-economic rights for the benefit of the poor people in South Africa and elsewhere in the world.

Mngxitama however disagreed that the people of South Africa have placed their hopes in the civil society, he calimed that the civil society in south Africa has failed due to partisanship and with no options left, people have resorted to popularism in the name of Jacob Zuma, who they think will be a soulition to all their problem, because he is a man of the people and a true born African unlike Mbeki who was considerd aloof and an intellectual who asserted his Africanness by quoting other reknown scholars.

The other ideological structure, which has got nothing to do with Mbeki but perhaps has everything to do with the public image and construction of how Mbeki is seen today and consequently his legacy, is the media. Ferial Haffajee, Editor-in-Chief of the Mail & Guardian posed a question at the conference on Mbeki's leadership and what it said about 'us'. She later agreed that perhaps the question should have been who is responsible for the representations about Mbeki that we now use as yardsticks or reference points when debating his legacy?

Haffaje accepted that the media plays a crucial role in myth making and perhaps the media should improve on its political reporting by ensuring they understand that they play a functional among other roles in shaping people's perception and their understanding on how they make sense of the world and people arround them, moreso politicians- it is understandable though that media ownership is a factor that influences media content and it actualy plays a big role in media represenation of socio-economic, political and cultural 'realities' in the world and South Africa is no exception.

As far as Mbeki himself is concerned, there was a general consesus at the conference that he has left behind powerful policies and institutions that will go a long way in deciding South African geopolitical positioning as an African economic powerhose and will go a long way in shaping her international relations, particlarly as the champion of the African voice and a model to admire depending on whether or not his successors will pursue this agendas with caution, dedication and determination.

SABC 1 sport discriminates againist sports

2009-03-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

I am seating infront of my television after a very long and hard day of work only to be dissapointed with what is meant to ignite my energies and make me relax in the name of Sports.

You might all be aware that African cup of nations qualifiers, which are also world cup qualifiers are underway and there were different matches palyed across the continent over the weekend between different groups for the cup's qulifier. For instance, there was a match palyed between Togo and Cameroun which Togo won 1-0, another match between Nigeria and Mozambique which ended in a draw 0-0, Ivory coast and Malawi, Rwanda and Aljeria and another match between Kenya and Tunisia which Tunisia won 2-1.

This were all important matches given that the teams are all competing for qualifications in the Africa Cup of Nations. Now, why is it that SABC sport prioritises all matches but the Kenya Vs Tunisia match? If they used the criteria of broadcasting the 'African giants' as a condition for coverage presumably because people would be interested in watching the "giants" ... the likes of Cameroun, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, then I think Tunisia also falls under the same category of 'giants' and whenever Tunisia is playing, it would be a match worth broadcasting. Or was it not broadcasted because it was playing another "underdog"-Kenya?

From my own exprience as a fun of African soccer, I have always known that underdogs fight their way up to the quarter, semis and even the finals to emerge one of the most respected teams on the African soil and some of them going as far as making Africa proud in the world cup-Senegal did- through impressive perfomances. Look at teams like Senegal, Togo, Angola and others. There is the need to encourage soccer through the media by making sure there is equal coverage of those teams that have fourt hard and are still fighting for a position in the African cup of nations and eventualy the world cup irrespective of where they come from.

If Kenya manages to make it in the African cup of nations, does Walter Mokoena et al want to tell me that they will not cover their matches just because it's another underdog? We must stop this sports discrimination and encourage soccer all across the continent from Cape to Cairo. Furthermore, it is understandable if SABC 1 sport does not cover the whole match live due to the audience ratings and the technical expences, but it is totaly unforgivable, unacceptable and idiotic for the SABC 1 sport not to feature the game between Kenya and Tunisia, which was equaly very exciting, in the Coca Cola soccer Zone. Here the SABC 1 sport discriminated againist sports news.

Which Zone is this Coca-Cola soccer centred on then? SADC or West African Zones? What about the East African Zone? Does this mean there in no soccer in East Africa? Idon't think so. Why then does the SABC cover Kenyan runners in the Olympics live and even in news bulletins? is it because they are undoubtedly the best African performers in the Olympics (Kenya emerged the best team in the last Olympic games)and therefore the SABC takes credit from them as Africans- only when they think it's necessary? You see, it's a puzzle.

As a matter of fact, we are tired of the old African soccer 'giants', it's time we promote new soccer giants in Africa to encourage diversity and improove the quality of soccer in Africa and the media should play a leading role in promoting such talent. As a Kenyan living in South Africa, I get so dissapointed everytime Kenya is playing another team in the African cup/world cup qualifier, because I am sure I will not be able to see the match.

Food crisis: A symptom of failing democracy in Africa

2009-03-21T03:45:00.000-07:00

Abstract
This paper argues that the leadership failures of many African regimes accounts for a significant increase in the prevailing food crisis in these countries. The fact that most African communities still rely on Agriculture as a sustainable way of livelihood has been taken for granted and failed to be recognised by political regimes in Africa. While little has been done to invest in agriculture, political rivalry and a struggle for a nations limited resources has cultivated a tribal monster in the public sphere. Consequently, survival depends on loyalty to particular individuals, often members of an elite tribe in powerful political position, controlling state resources and governing the country. There are cases whereby this rivalry has caused a natural decline to some cash crops that play a crucial role in sustaining the economy and feeding the nation. African governments have failed to come up with proper legislations/policies on land reforms for posterity. The colonial individual land tenure system, which ought to have been addressed by now, has benefited some communities particularly the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin tribes during Kenyatta and Moi regimes respectively at the expense of others. This has cultivated ethnic rivalry that culminated into violence in the December 2007 general elections. With the current global food crisis enhancing the problem in developing countries, it is difficult to establish whether or not ‘democratic regimes’ in Africa are ignorant of their failures. Arguably, they could be using food crisis as a powerful political weapon in achieving their interests to maintain the status quo. This paper draws from the case of Kenya to show how African ‘democratic regimes’ and their western counterparts have contributed to the problem of food crisis. It recognises the challenges existing in implementing national food policies in Kenya and suggests how they can be reconstituted for sustainability in food production under the development model of Comparative Advantage in the process of democratisation in this global era.

Key words: Democracy, democratic regimes, food crisis, poverty, politics, corruption, policies, tribal-politics, Land legislation, Land grabbing, ethnic violence, comparative advantage, Luo, Kikuyu.

Introduction

This paper argues that the democratic/leadership failures of many African regimes accounts for a significant increase in the food crisis in these countries. This is due to the fact that most African communities still rely on Agriculture as a sustainable way of livelihood. This has been taken for granted and failed to be recognised by political regimes in Africa. Almost all the 42 tribes in Kenya for instance rely on Agriculture which forms the backbone of the Kenyan economy. Neighbouring countries like Somali, Ethiopia and Sudan (the horn of Africa) are characterised by seasonal droughts and famine and they mostly rely on livestock for their survival. In South Africa many countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho and even Botswana and South Africa, despite being rich in minerals, still value and depend on Agriculture. While little has been done to invest in agriculture, political rivalry and a struggle for a nations limited resources has cultivated a tribal monster in the public sphere. Consequently, survival depends on loyalty to particular individuals, often members of an elite tribe in powerful political position, controlling state resources and governing the country.

There are cases whereby this rivalry has caused a natural decline to some cash crops that play a crucial role in sustaining the economy and feeding the nation. This is due to governments’ failure to come up with proper legislations on land reforms for posterity. These patterns were visible in countries like Kenya during the leadership of President Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi which failed to address the land question for the benefit of all ethnic communities after the departure of colonial leadership leading to ethnic rivalry. With the current global food crisis enhancing the problem in developing countries, it is difficult to find out whether or not ‘democratic regimes’ in Africa are ignorant of their failures. Arguably, they could be using food crisis as a powerful political weapon in achieving their interests to maintain the status quo. This paper draws from the case of Kenya using the development model of comparative advantage to show how African ‘democratic regimes’ and their western counterparts have contributed to the problem of food crisis and suggest options/changes that can lead to sustainability in terms of food production.

The paper begins by giving a historical overview of land and land policies in Kenya. The paper then discusses the political relationship between land and elections and how this relates to severe food shortages in Kenya. By so doing, this paper argues that the food crisis is as a result of lack of political will by African leaders to come up with cultural sensitive policies on land and agriculture to protect small scale and other famers for sustainable food production on one hand and failure of western countries to acknowledge their role in ensuring they support African countries in developing sophisticated agricultural techniques having benefited from colonial and post-colonial land ownership in Africa . It is at this point that this paper sees it as a failure by African leaders to implement the western concept of democracy by simply borrowing western cultures without integrating them with the African culture in a manner likely to be feasible and relevant given the African context.

The paper draws from various works done on development and the ideal concept of democracy in its approach by suggesting possible measures that can lead to sustainable democratic growth and sustainable food production. Conclusively, the paper calls for a change in attitude among African leaders towards a more political willingness to amend colonially inherited policies through the constitutions to create institutions that protect and respect democracy while making those in power/leaders accountable for their actions if Africa is to realize her millennium development goals. Ending poverty and hunger (food crisis) is one in a list of eight other important goals identified by the United Nations.

The Kenyan case - land question

The colonial legacy of partitioning created Abstract boundaries that assisted in the running and administration of colonial states and can therefore not be assumed to be realistic given post independence African states. In Kenya, colonial settlers partitioned the most fertile regions of the countries, commonly referred to as highlands and utilised native labour for the mass production of cash crops such as coffee, tea, pyrethrum, maize, beans, and millet. Subsequently, and after independence, some of these farmlands were inherited by the black political elite mostly from the Late Jomo Kenyatta’s family and others were owned by the state. This is still the reality in Kenya to date and demonstrates a large degree of inequality when it comes to land redistribution as many white settlers opted to go back to England with a few exceptions like Lord Delamare.

The acquisition of land in Kenya has always been politicised with those in the government often demarcating large portions of land for themselves and their kinsmen and this came to be ordinarily known as Land grabbing a term that I will refer to a number of times in this paper. In Kenya, there are certain areas in Nairobi (the capital city) that were earmarked for the construction of infrastructures such as roads, as the city of Nairobi expanded into a metropolitan, that are currently owned by private individuals. How they came to own such land remains a mystery. This was a bone of contention after the defeat of the then president Daniel Arap Moi (One of Africa’s strongmen) with a coalition of parties (rainbow coalition) that led to the formation of National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government. One coalition member, Raila Odinga, whose party was considered the strongest partner in the coalition, was appointed the minister for roads and public works. Odinga began his duty by bulldozing all houses that were constructed on road reserves (grabbed Land) for the construction of bypasses in the city. Of course, he was sacked from office. This indicates the level at which land is still a question in Kenya. So what has the Kenyan government done to solve the land problem since independence in 1963? Well, as we shall see, not much.

Kenya is a case where land issue has been a critical component of the post colonial development process. Research done on land policy in Kenya indicates a particular colonial categorisation of land for production from the most to the least productive land with agricultural activities suitable for those areas (Fox & Rowntree 2002). Land was classified according to seven categories listed below according to how they can be utilised.

• Highland and Middle cultivation
• Transitional and marginal cultivation
• Upland livestock
• Lowland livestock and millet
• Lowland ranching
• Nomadic pastrolism
• Tropical alpine and mountain

This was based on Rountrees’ 1991 study which examined the agro-distribution of land nationally based on major racial and tenurial sub-divisions at the end of the colonial period (1963). According to this study, most Kenyan land was held by British crown 58.4%. The British queen was accordingly the jural community and she held the land in trust for the nomadic pastoralist inhabitants of these areas such as the Maasai and Samburu. In post colonial period, this land became state land. The African land was the next largest group with 22% of the country’s land area. The vast majority of these was held under communal land tenure system although this was gradually changing in the mid 1950’s onwards as the Swynnerton Plan’s goals of registering land under freehold tenure was implemented. Just over 50 % of the African land lay in the three most productive agricultural zones, around 20% was highland and midland, a further 25 % was transitional and marginal for cultivation and there was a small amount of land in the upland livestock zone. National parks were the third largest categories with 11.1% of the countries’ surface area. Most of the park lay in the lowland ranching and Nomadic pastoral regions of the country. The alienated European lands colloquially known as the ‘white highlands’ were very small in terms of their land area, only 6.2 but they contained significant portions of land in the fertile highland and midland cultivation (20%) and upland livestock (20%) zones. Lastly, there were forest reserves which were very small and consisted of the country’s most fertile land in the highlands and midland cultivation category.

Fox and Rowntree unravel the interesting relationship between environmental characteristics and how they can be compared for a deeper debate on how long term development process in former colonies can be achieved. Acemoglu et al (2000) and Easterly and Levine (2002) have reopened the debate concerning the importance of geographical/environmental endowment in the development process. Their two papers have tested their relative importance of geographic variations in phenomena such as tropic allocation or cash crop potential against the significance of colonial institutions such as legal system underpinning land ownership, or the role which policies have played in the post colonial period. What they have not addressed is the political will and leadership needed to address the colonial imbalances when it comes to the three issues (geographic endowment, colonial institutions/ post colonial institutions and policy) that they focus on and the possibilities of addressing such imbalances given that Kenya still relies on a colonial constitution which largely favoured the colonial masters.

It is such arrangements that should be questioned and therefore, I see it as an increasing failure among the democratic regimes in developing countries to genuinely address these land questions that are symptoms of colonial legacy and partly account for the current food crisis in Africa. This can be well done through changing the constitution to represent the realities today that acknowledge the changes in the current geographical patterns especially climatic changes. Extreme droughts for instance, are experienced in areas that were previously demarcated as highlands and Middle cultivation due to the changing weather patterns as a result of global warming . Increasing population figures have ensured scarcity of arable land in many parts of Africa, previously scarcely populated. Therefore, current policies should be ones that address these kinds of problems shaping land utilisation for development.

Politics of land in Kenya

The land question in Kenya was visible during the post election violence indicating that it is a deep rooted problem in Kenya. According to the Humanitarian Policy Group brief 31 April 2008 titled crisis in Kenya: Land, displacement and a search for durable solutions, internal displacement is a recurrent theme in Kenyan history and it is often characterised by pre-election tensions. As we have seen above that during the colonial period, British Land policy favoured (white) settler agriculture, entailing the dispossession of many indigenous communities’ land (mainly Kalenjin, Maasai and Kikuyu) across the Rift Valley and Nyanza, Western and Central provinces – the so called white highlands. This process was legalised with the implementation of an individual freehold title registration system at the expense of customary mechanisms of Land tenure . The land grievances colonial dispossession gave rise to, were aggravated by Jomo Kenyatta independent government. Kenyatta maintained the system of freehold Land titles and did not question how the land had been acquired. To compensate the displaced, the government begun a series of resettlement which was biased towards those with financial means to acquire the land . Meanwhile, corruption and ethnic politics supported patronage networks and favoured certain communities, particularly the Kikuyu who settled in the fertile areas of the Rift Valley, at the expense of others such as the Luo, the Maasai and the Kalenjin.

This land tensions were further exacerbated by Kenyatta’s successor as president, Daniel Arap Moi. In response to the political threat posed by the advent of multiparty politics in the early 1990’s, Moi (a Kalenjin) sought to portray the oppositions as Kikuyu led, and multiparty politics as an exclusionary ethnic project to control land . This entailed evoking Majimboism, a type of federalism that promotes provincial autonomy based on ethnicity. To recover ‘stolen’ land, Kikuyus were evicted from the areas they had settled in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya . Associated clashes towards the 1990s left thousand dead and over 350, 000 displaced allowing Moi to win elections in 1992 and 1997.
Under Moi’s regime in the 1990s , the executive branch continued to wield considerable control over the judicial and legislative branches through patronage and threats. Individuals were rewarded with government posts, land and other resources, thus paralysing the economy by inhibiting any private initiative and undermining the rule of law. Patronage has been bestowed most lavishly on members of Moi's Kalenjin tribe at the expense of Kenya's some forty other tribes and contributed to ethnic polarization. Corruption sustained a culture where injustice has been tolerated and violations of human rights have seldom been punished. After two decades of sham Kenyan elections, the 1992 election were the first time that opposition parties were allowed. The largest opposition party, the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy, was split into three after failing to agree on a single presidential candidate, and Moi won easily against a divided opposition and widespread ethnic violence that was largely politically motivated and instigated by powerful individuals who took advantage of a long history of land disputes in the region to stoke tribal hostilities.

Despite the violence many civil society groups emerged in the 1990s and organized mass demonstrations to force the government to implement important reforms, most notably greater political freedom. Nevertheless, Moi won easily also in the second multiparty elections of 1997, against a fragmented opposition and political manipulation of ethnic tensions that included organized "cleansing" before the election to evict Kikuyu and Luo migrants and was carried out by armed gangs that killed hundreds of people. During the past twenty-four years under Daniel Arap Moi, Kenya had a system of governance based on highly centralized and personalized executive power. Officials appointed by the president and accountable only to him gave his ruling circle enormous control over the police, judiciary, legislature, and local administration. The unabated corruption and the plunder of public resources deterred foreign investors and plunged Kenya into a vicious cycle of patronage, corruption, and deepening poverty. Kenya's economic growth rate fell to less than 2 percent last year -- the lowest in the region, the average Kenyan was poorer in 2002 than in 1978 when Moi assumed power, and more than half the population lived in chronic poverty.

In the late 1990s however, the Kenyan parliament reached compromise on a reform plan that created an Electoral Commission which included opposition representation and registration of political parties that had been denied in the past. The 2002 election differed in many respects from the previous two elections, primarily because there has been far less violence and internal displacement . One reason for the relative calm was the selection of Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of former President Jomo Kenyatta, who belonged to the Kikuyu tribe that is the largest in Kenya, as the main candidate whom Moi has supported. Inevitably, Moi's choice of Uhuru Kenyatta angered some KANU ministers, who had hoped that the new candidate would be chosen at the party's nominating convention in Kasarani and, in protest they formed a breakaway faction known as the Rainbow Coalition that was led by Raila Odinga, former head of the largely Luo National Development Party (NDP). In October 2002, the Rainbow Coalition abandoned KANU and joined an opposition political party known as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that later united with the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) that represented many different geographical regions and all of Kenya's major tribes, and formed the main opposition alliance known as the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), with Odinga as candidate for prime minister.

Corruption has actually increased after the introduction of multiparty elections and the other political reforms, in part because international and domestic pressures for reform made it more difficult for Kenya's leaders to consolidate power through ‘conventional’ repression and induced them to turn to bribery, patronage, and theft of public funds with even greater zeal than before and have cost the Kenyan people, most of whom are hungry and lack adequate shelter, health care, and clean water, billions of dollars. The most widespread form of corruption has been the illegal appropriation of public land by government ministers, and senior civil servants that left thousands of people displaced by the illegal appropriation of huge tracts of land. This high-level corruption has not only cost Kenya billions of dollars of lost revenues and stalled all financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and donor countries.

Concentrated power in the hands of the executive president was the biggest obstacle to ordinary governance. The president was the head of the government, the state, and the ruling party and later also the head of Parliament. A long series of laws passed since independence increased the president's administrative power, particularly his control of provincial administration, and the authority to appoint all administrative officials down to the level of village chief. Constitutional amendments to restrict the president to two five-year terms in office, the legalization of political parties, and the repeal of the amendment permitting the president to fire judges were instituted during the 1990s, but the president still had only limited restrictions on his power to manipulate justice.
Corruption and plunder of public resources that might have been invested in development contributed to the exit of wary foreign investors. Kenya further plunged into a vicious cycle of patronage, corruption, and deepening poverty, its economic growth rate fell to less than 2 percent last year, the lowest in the region. The average Kenyan was poorer in 2002 than he was two decades earlier, and more than half the population lives in poverty. Deteriorating health services are unable to deal with the nation's considerable health burden, including worsening epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis. School enrollment and matriculation rates are now lower than they were ten years ago. Half of Nairobi's population of 3 million people lives on 6 percent of the land in shantytowns, and poverty is now increasing faster in urban than in rural areas.

According to a recent parliamentary report on corruption, bribery occurs in virtually every sector of society, from government ministers, the judiciary, the police, health services, and local and provincial authorities. It is ironic that levels of corruption may well have increased since the introduction of multiparty elections and other political reforms in the past decade. International and domestic pressure for reform has made it more difficult for Kenya's leaders to consolidate power through conventional repression. As a result, they may be turning to bribery, patronage, and theft of public funds with even greater zeal than before.
The recent election of 2007 was seen as much more than just choosing the next leader, but an opportunity to set new standards for democracy in Kenya and on the continent. This election that confronted two equally strong leaders, the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, was a rarity in Africa where one-party states are the norm. The Kenyan saw this as a test of multiparty democracy, but the battle was still along tribal lines in which the main selection criterion was the leader who will best serve the interests of the voters’ ethnic communities rather than about issues and policies.

According to Aidan Hartley writing for the NYT in his article titled “Democracy by other means” in January 11 2008 from Laikipia, Kenyan democracy has failed because ordinary people were encouraged to believe that the process in and of itself could bring change. So leaders-and often international observers-interpret democracy simply in terms of ceremony of multiparty elections. Polls bestow legitimacy for politicians to pillage for five years until the next depressing cycle begins. In the campaign rallies, there are no debates about policies despite the country’s immense health, education, crime and poverty problems. In their campaigns, “when they spoke English for the Western news media benefit, they talked of human rights and democracy. But when they switched to local languages, it was pure venom and ethnic chauvinism”. Raila and Kibaki, the two presidential candidates, belong to ethnic communities that have long been rivals. Kibaki is an ethnic Kikuyu from Central Province, and represented Kenya's business and landowning class. Odinga is a Luo from Nyanza province, and his appeal to the other 40-some ethnic groups.

According to Jeffery Gettleman writing for the Herald Tribune in Nakuru in his article titled “As fighting rages, Kikuyus flee the lands of rival Kenyan tribes” in January 7, 2008, ethnic conflict is threatening the decades of stability that has set Kenya apart from so many of its neighbors, like Congo, Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan. But Kenya has struggled with ethnic violence before. Its rare bursts usually come around election time."You have to understand that these issues are much deeper than ethnic," said Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. "They are political," he said, and "they go back to land."

Gettleman indicates that the last time the Rift Valley was this violent was in 1992, another election year in Kenya and a time of turbulent transition between dictatorship and democracy. Kalenjin militias, stirred up by politicians who told them that the valley was Kalenjin ancestral land, massacred hundreds of Kikuyus in a bid to steal their farms. Since then, Kiai said, "Emotions have been festering, resentments have been building and we sat around pretending ethnicity didn't exist."
In the Rift Valley he continues, the anti-Kikuyu grudge goes back to independence, when the British government bought out Britons who owned huge, picturesque farms. But instead of redistributing that land to the impoverished people who had lived here for centuries, like the Kalenjin and Masai, the newly formed Kenyan government, led by Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, gave much of it to Kikuyus from other areas.

In many cases the Kikuyus own kiosks or small patches of land or they are related to someone who does, and this makes them a little better off by local standards.
"Land is very important to us," said Anthony Kirunga, a Kikuyu, who sells spare car parts in Nakuru. "It's not our fault that other people are jealous."
This election stirred up anti-Kikuyu jealousies like never before. Raila Odinga, the top opposition candidate and a member of the Luo tribe, built his campaign on a promise to end Kikuyu favoritism and share the fruits of a growing economy with all tribes. Rampant Land grabbing further undermined customary mechanisms of land governance, while growing hardship among the majority poor and rapid population growth increased pressure on the country’s arable land.

The displacement crisis following the 2007 general elections is thus not anomaly; rather it is part of a sequence of recurrent displacement stemming from unresolved and politically aggravated land differences, in a context of population growth, poor governance and socio-economic insecurity. This situation further led to food shortages as many small scale famers were displaced from their fertile land. According to Greg Mills writing in Nairobi for the Herald Tribune in his article titled “defusing the ethnic time bomb” February 12 2008, land distribution and reforms have been shaped by ethnicity resulting, for example, in large numbers of Kikuyu settling in historically Kalenjin territory

The struggle for power to control the allocation of land and to secure jobs for a certain ethnic community were the breeding grounds for the post election violence. According to the Waki commission published by the Daily Nation 16 Oct 2008, causes of the post-election violence can be traced to injustices committed to Kenyans since the 1960s.The Waki Report says violence was part and parcel of the colonial regime and that after independence, President Kenyatta used it to maintain power.
“Opposition parties were subjected to political harassment and individuals who refused to support the status quo experienced various types of repression and even detention without trial,” it says.

The Government was also linked to the killing of politicians Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Mboya and J.M. Kariuki, who were viewed as threats to the Kenyatta regime. Opposition members were further weaned back to the fold through appointments to government, land allocations and other perks. Under President Moi, the repression became more draconian, with violence, detentions without trial and torture of real dissenters being the order of the day. There was also discrimination in appointment to political offices and jobs to public service and military. The Waki team says violence was institutionalised in 1990s during presidential and parliamentary elections.“Violence became a means of securing political power and winning elections.” It said tribal fights and political culture that used and tolerated extra violence gave birth to groups like Mungiki, Taliban, Chinkororo, Kamjeshi and Baghdad Boys and that the pattern continued after President Kibaki took power in 2002.“Once the Government itself used both its own and extra state violence for partisan political ends, it lost its legitimacy, was not seen as dispassionate, and consequently has been unable either to maintain peace and security or to reform itself,”

The report continues that personalisation of presidential power, deliberate weakening of public institutions and corruption were also blamed for the chaos. Even after the election of President Kibaki, rules were ignored within ministries resulting in Anglo Leasing and other scandals, underscoring once again the fact that the personal power of the President and his close associates trumped the law. Some Kenyans felt government institutions, including the Judiciary were not independent of presidency, were not impartial and lacked integrity. “Hence, they were perceived as not able to conduct the election fairly.”

A belief by public that a person from their ethnic community must be in power, both to secure for them benefits and as a defensive strategy to keep other ethnic groups from taking jobs, land and entitlements also fuelled the violence.
President Kibaki was further blamed for reneging on a memorandum of understanding in 2002 to create the post of Prime Minister to help trim presidential powers. The Kibaki administration was also accused of watering down provisions of the Bomas Draft.“The post-election violence therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible.”

The Kibaki regime was accused of failing to unite the country “and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence.” “He (President Kibaki) and his government were complacent in the support they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.” Corruption on land matters and unemployment among youth made them easy recruits into gang violence

In addition Peter Kimani Wrting in the commentisfree.guardian.co.uk in an article titled “Share land, not power” indicates how land has been a big question in Kenyan history and traces the colonial links to the land problem in Kenya. He says that “Land is what Me Katilili wa Meza and the Giriama people at the Kenyan coast, Waiyaki wa Hinga and the Gikuyu people in central Kenya, and the Nandi's Koitalel arap Samoei in Kenya's Rift Valley invoked over 100 years ago in their resistance against the British because land was the very basis of the people's social existence.
According to Kimani, at the height of the British rule in Kenya, less than 1,000 white farmers held more than eight million acres of the nation's best land - virtually all the available arable land - acquired through brute force or shrewd conning.

The Maasai, for instance, who were the original inhabitants of the Rift Valley, lost their land through dubious "treaties" that allowed their forcible removal from their homelands to pave way for white settlers. The land in question covers the vast Laikipia plateau stretching across two million acres of mountain, savannah and forest, from Mount Kenya in the east to the Rift valley in the west. The uprooting of the Kikuyu from their farmlands in Central Kenya triggered the Mau Mau armed insurgency that lasted one decade, one of the bloodiest periods in Kenya's history.
He adds that Kenya's founding president Jomo Kenyatta, mistakenly jailed as the leader of Mau Mau, emerged from incarceration preaching "suffering without bitterness," specifically urging the white settlers to "stay on and farm the land". And stay on and farm they did - but for the 780 white settlers who sold their land under the Settlement Transfer Fund Scheme. Under this project, the British and West German governments and the World Bank contributed £20m towards land buy-out for redistribution. Only 1.2 million acres of the eight million acres held by settlers had been distributed by the end of 1971 when the scheme was wound up. To date, up to six million acres of land is estimated to be in settler hands, as happened 60 years ago. Other lords of poverty include Kenya's political elite.

According to the Kenya Land Alliance, a consortium of local NGOs pushing for social and land reform, more than a half of the arable land in Kenya is in the hands of just 20% of the 33 million Kenyans. Sixty-seven per cent of the population is squashed in less than an acre per person. A whopping 13% of the population is landless.

To demonstrate the obscenity of Kenya's political elite Kimani continues, two influential families hold between them land the size of one of Kenya's eight provinces. A former legislator owned an entire constituency, so the people he represented in parliament were not his constituents but subjects. There are historical parallels between what's happening now and then. After the Mau Mau armed resistance, a political settlement was sought through the Lancaster House Conferences between 1960, 1962 and 1963 that among others, upheld the sanctity of the title deed, thereby legitimising the theft of the people's land. The settlers who took the people's land before independence still hold it. They use the fertile red volcanic soils to grow tea, coffee and horticulture while the expansive savannahs have been converted into eco-tourism sites where they draw the rich tourists.

In 2004, for instance, the combined earnings from tea, coffee, tourism and horticulture grossed about £1 billion, nearly half of Kenya's annual national budget. Yet only 31% ended up in national coffers as tax and real earnings to Kenyans. The rest went to largely British individuals and multinationals.
Under the theory of comparative advantage , a country should be able to maximise production in a sector where they have a relative advantage to their trading partners, in the case of Kenya then this would be surplus production in Agricultural products since Kenya is an agricultural economy.

Given the above discussion, on one hand, it is true that the most productive land in Kenya is still under foreign ownership, it is easy to see how ordinary Kenyans do not benefit from the sales of tea, coffee, tobacco and horticulture, basically because they are exported and the returns are withheld abroad. On the other hand the remaining percentage of land not under settler ownership was unfairly distributed based on ethnicity. In international trade, the principle of comparative advantage refers to the fact that although one country may have an absolute disadvantage with another, value can be created for both countries by allocating resources to the most competitive area of the disadvantaged country.

European countries have a technological advantage and less opportunity cost when it come to agricultural production. They have managed to increase the competitiveness in terms of the production of coffee, tea and horticulture in Kenya. However, this amounts to exploitation due to the fact that Kenya does not benefit out of such trading arrangements. When ordinary famers want to buy machinery and chemical fertilizers to improve food production, they pay through their nose due to the high costs of imports; this is despite government subsidies such as zero tax on agricultural products. This is not only true for chemical fertilizers, but also organic. The former have side effects, including heavy costs -- globally, the cost of fertilizer is increasing. Using fertilizer must be accompanied by knowledge of soil and fertilizer management. Sadly, this is not the case. Elimination of tax on chemicals has not been effected in Africa, despite the AU resolution. There has been a bit of that in Kenya, but this was due to post-election violence because many farmers' properties were destroyed and (they) couldn't afford the fertilizer . On the other hand, European countries benefit from cheap land and labor to obtain raw material for the manufacture of finished products such as tobacco, coffee and tea which they in turn resell at very high costs.

The government should strive to protect domestic farmers from overseas imports that might threaten agricultural production and review land allocation and redistribution policies to benefit all ethnic communities in Kenya for sustainable food production. The belly politics through corruption during President Kenyatta and Moi’s error in Kenya affected some vital sectors of production such as coffee, sugarcane, and maize due to cheap imports that saturated the market and killed local production making these products scarce and relatively expensive.

The central causal factor to the food crisis in Kenya and other parts of Africa is therefore not essentially ‘drought as a natural disaster’ but poor land policies and the inability of the Kenyan government to question “corny” land acquisitions by European settlers and the Kenyan black elites that ensure they still hold the titles to large chunks of Kenya’s fertile land, where they do commercial farming, and the lack of support from overseas agricultural investors to transfer their technical skills to ordinary famers as well as support local food production. The crisis also includes deterioration of agricultural institutions, failure to implement policies that are set to ensure food security-which are directly linked to leadership failures and the inability of African countries to integrate successful indigenous agricultural techniques from one region of the continent to another because of lack of proper scientific language for such techniques.

Furthermore, if you talk of sophisticated scientific methods of ensuring food security, Sub-Saharan African countries, for instance, are at different stages of implementing the use of GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) to improve agricultural production. The tissue culture aspect is popular among some farmers. Although there is a lot of potential for use of GMOs, it is still constrained by different approaches and policies which are at different levels in the sub-continent. Some aspects of GMOs have also not been clarified, especially the health-related aspect; (for GMOs) to be adopted, it must be made clear there are no critical environmental problems. Many people in Africa fear the use of GMOs simply because issues surrounding them haven't been clarified. Scientists too have not agreed on how GMOs can contribute to food security. GMOs must be harmonised in regard to policy and assessment of their effects on the environment and human health. The standards must also be acceptable to neighbours, because of cross-border trade and globalization.

According to an Interview done by Interpress service with Washington Ochola, one of the authors of the sub-Saharan review, and also a senior lecturer in sustainable agriculture and rural development at Egerton University in Kenya, Egypt is a good example of where local level knowledge has been used for intensive agricultural production. Despite its harsh climatic conditions, the country has been able to harness and successfully use the Nile basin for agriculture. In Botswana, communities along a river delta have come up with local management strategies which encourage intensive production and at the same time protect the environment. There are other success stories in Congo and Uganda where agricultural knowledge and technology are helping farmers to beat the effects of desertification, crop failure and HIV/AIDS.

However, beurocracy and corruption among government official characterized by negligence and ‘belly politics’ that ensure various policy issues are not implemented, typical among ‘African democracies’, defeats such initiatives in a country like Kenya. The Moi regime, for example saw the collapse of major farming institution such as the Kenya Meat Commission (KMT) and Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC) which acted as support and marketing mechanisms for Kenyan meat and dairy farmers. President Kibaki has since revived them by investing in meat processing plants. So one would question the current Kenyan food policy.
The Kenya national food policy

Arising from the shortages of essential staple food grains in 1980, in June 1981 Kenya launched a sessional paper No. 4 of 1981 on National Food Policy. The overall objects of the policy were three fold .
• Achieve a calculated degree of food supply for each area of the country.
• Maintain a position of broad self-sufficiency in the main food stuffs in order to enable the nation to be fed without using scarce foreign exchange on food imports.
• Ensure that these food stuffs are distributed in such a manner that every member of the population has a nutritionally adequate diet. The National Food Policy addresses specific issues of price policy, agricultural trade policy, agricultural inputs policy, research and extension policy' food security policy, processing and marketing policy' nutrition policy, resource development policy and, employment policy.

Many countries throughout the world were originally spurred to build national food and nutrition policies because of a call-to-action at the 1992 World Food Summit in Rome Although Kenya had a National Food Policy by 1980, it still experienced difficulty in implementing it to date. A team from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University is providing technical assistance to the East and Southern Africa Regional Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (EASRO UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the government of Kenya to build strategies for implementing Kenya’s National Food and Nutrition Policy. The Friedman team is assisting the Kenyan government with translating the policy document into a strategic, actionable plan. The scope of the plan ranges from agricultural production, strategic grain reserves, and post-harvest protection, to nutritional interventions for high-risk groups, and the interrelationship of nutrition and diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS (Gallager, 2007) .

The challenge is implementation of this policy. Taking them from paper to approved policy, and from policy to funding and effective programs is a challenging, multi-faceted process, requiring involvement from many government groups that sometimes see themselves as unrelated. The Friedman’s team facilitated two meetings in Nairobi on March 26 and March 27-29, 2007. The purpose of the first meeting, attended by senior policy makers, including ministers and regional and country level United Nations agency heads was to introduce the national policy and generate commitment to the development of a comprehensive, workable strategy. The second meeting was a working meeting, with participants from several government ministries, consultants from FAO and UNICEF, and specialists from various international non-governmental organizations and national groups who collaborated to define strategy for moving the policy forward. Some of the key areas of strategy addressed at the meeting were as follows:

• Forming a consensus on agricultural production and food trade issues
• Establishing a life-cycle approach to organize nutritional interventions, including a cross-generational approach for maternal-child nutrition issues
• Ensuring the new nutrition strategies are phased in three-to-five year periods so that goals are attainable and there is an operational research phase to build on
• Organizing a dynamic framework for the national food and nutrition policy with ongoing review and adjustment
• Promoting intersectional collaboration for nutrition and agricultural interventions
• Creating acceptance among food and nutrition ministries of the private sector as an ally
• Building capacity of various ministries to ensure sustainability of the policy

This policy, spelt out in the 2002-2008 National Development Plan was expected to prepare Kenya to tackle the challenge of food shortage. However, the famine situation in Kenya has severely cast doubts on the country's national food policy, which seeks to ensure adequate supply nation-wide and at all times. The food crisis as a result is a culmination of drought and a lack of a clear cut programme to protect local famers and lack of sufficient storage facilities and technology and most importantly lack of political will. Policy experts, however, fault government's agriculture policy, which they say does not protect the interests of small-scale farmers- .The current famine is the worst to hit Kenya in recent times. President Mwai Kibaki termed it a "national disaster" in July and appealed to the international community for food aid.

Ironically, the famine situation was worsened by an alleged sale of strategic maize reserves by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to Southern African countries in a transaction approved by the administration of the then President Daniel Arap Moi. The 2002-2008 National Development Plan notes among the main factors affecting food security in Kenya, emphasis on quantity at the expense of quality, lack of an early warning system, inadequate strategic reserves, inadequate research, weak farmer institutions, insecurity in pastoral areas and lack of effective control of crop and livestock diseases . This are among the challenges western agricultural investors can assist Kenya in addressing.

Food crisis as a symptom of failing democracy

Considering that proper policy measures need to be implemented for greater production of food, then it is clear that the food crisis is consequence of leadership failure by African government to invest in Agriculture, like in many other key areas of development. Furthermore Fisher (2001) argues that even though Authorities agree the recent movement toward greater democratic freedoms has been impressive. Widner in Fisher (2001) observes that “Between 1989 and 1992, roughly half the countries of sub-Saharan Africa either installed multiparty governments or embarked on a move toward multiparty governments or embarked on a move toward multiparty rule”.

Wiseman also in Fisher (2001) points out that, whereas in 1989 only five states in the region could seriously claim to be governed by even relatively minimal definitions of democracy, by 1995 the situation had remarkably changed in the direction of more liberal government in which people had greater freedom to participate. However, even those nations demonstrating the best progress still have a long way to go to achieve true representative democracy. Some that have taken steps forward now find themselves slipping backward like the case discussed in this paper (Kenya). Others are actually regressing. A few have yet to opt for more democratic rule.

The food crisis is one, among a list of the many, failures of African governments to implementing the western concept of democracy. Food crisis also indicates failure among the African governments to come up with policies that will protect local production from unfair exploitation from abroad in the name of cheap imports. Most importantly it is also a result of the unwillingness of the western countries to genuinely, trade fairly with Africa and to surrender back the most important factor of production (land) as the basic unit of livelihood to Africans even if it means keeping whatever profits they have made since colonial rule to date. It also demonstrates the symbiotic relations that Africa leaders (elites) forged and have since shared with their western counterparts at the expense of ordinary Kenyans for their own personal interest.

According to an article on the economist print edition on the April 3rd 2008 titled “Avery African coup- “Kenya’s president steal elections, showing utter contempt for democracy and his people” the mayhem that killed hundreds of people following Kenya's election on December 27th completes a depressing cycle of democratic abuses in Africa's biggest countries. Nigeria held its own mockery of an election last April. Scores were killed and observers pronounced it the most fraudulent poll they had ever witnessed. Congo held a more or less peaceful election in October 2006, since then the main opposition leader has been hounded into exile. And the year before that, flawed elections in Ethiopia resulted in the deaths of 199 protesters. Needless to say, the incumbents all won.

So “ it is easy to be angry, as well as gloomy, about African leaders' continual betrayal of the democratic values they say they hold so dear”. And all the more so in the case of Kenya, which has a strong tradition of holding elections, a vibrant political culture, a relatively free press and a sophisticated economy. Given all these advantages, Kenya had an opportunity to “set an example” to Africa and hold free and fair elections. But the country blew it. “As in Nigeria, Kenyans queued quietly to exercise their right to vote, reflecting the enormous appetite for democracy that exists on a continent that was until recently dominated by dictators and “big men”. But for democracy to survive, it is not enough to hold elections. Politicians must accept that they may have to give up office, and thus all the opportunities for self-enrichment that come their way.

It is no coincidence that the most corrupt politicians are also those who cling most desperately to power—as in Kenya and Nigeria. African politicians have increasingly failed the electorate who are always keen to participate during elections and advance democracy in Africa. All too often African politics is played as a zero sum game . The state is often seen as a cash cow to be captured and retained at all costs. Power-grabs particularly by particular ethnic groups are nothing new. But when combined with institutional graft and cronyism, it can be explosive

In analyzing the prospects of democracy in Africa it may be necessary to distinguish between ultimate goals and necessary instruments for achieving them . It would make sense for Africa to distinguish between fundamental rights and instrumental rights. The right to vote, for example, is an instrumental right designed to help us achieve the fundamental right of government by consent. The right to a free press is an instrumental right designed to help us achieve the open society and freedom of information.

Democracy as a means should be distinguished from democracy as a goal. The most fundamental of the goals of democracy according to the western concept can be identified as four. Firstly, to make the rulers accountable and answerable for their actions and policies. Secondly, to make the citizens effective participants in choosing those rulers and in regulating their actions. Thirdly, to make the society as open and the economy as transparent as possible; and fourthly, to make the social order fundamentally just and equitable to the greatest number possible. Accountable rulers, actively participating citizens, open society and social justice -all of which have been a fiasco in Kenya like in many African countries

Having said this, the first challenge is therefore how to achieve these goals has elicited different means. If the goals of democracy are the same while the means for achieving them differ, are there African means of achieving those same four goals of accountability of rulers, participation of the citizens, openness of the society and greater social justice? That is the challenge facing constitution makers in Africa – how to keep the democratic goals constant while looking for democratic means more appropriate to Africa (See also Obioma, 2001). The second challenge about democracy in Africa concerns its relationship to development. On this relationship between democracy and development in Africa, one crucial question has persisted. Is Africa underdeveloped because it is primarily undemocratic? Or is Africa undemocratic because it is primarily underdeveloped? Which is cause and which is effect?

There is a third dimension which is often treated either as part of the package of development or as part of the package of democracy, when in fact it should be treated as a kind of independent variable. The third dimension is stability – a social-political precondition for both sustainable development and durable democracy. Africa’s three greatest needs are development, democracy and stability – but not necessarily in that order. Alleviation of poverty is one of the fruits of democratized development. Alleviation of poverty is one of the gains when democracy and development are jointly stabilized and truly humanized . Stability also means the creation of an enabling environment to produce wealth –in cases of African economies that rely on food production, then the ability to produce food surpluses to sustain the economy

Professor Ali Mazrui in his 2002 paper titled ‘who killed democracy in Africa? Clues of the past, concerns of the future’ questions the manner in which Africa has been faring in these areas of development, democratization, stabilization and the fruit of alleviation of poverty? First he explores what these words mean. In the term development, for example he argues that Economists naturally focus on issues like resource flows, levels of economic diversification, domestic mobilization of savings and investment, national productivity and per capita income. And yet high levels of performance in those areas are achieved only after other measurements of development have already taken place. The most crucial may be partly cultural rather than purely economic.

Development in promoting performance and mobilization of domestic savings and investment capital may need to be preceded by development in areas such as the enhancement of managerial skills, transformation of Gender-Relations between men and women as producers, redefinition of the work-ethic as a discipline of the education system, redefinition of the laws and rules about corruption to make them more culturally viable and reforms of Africa’s schools and universities to make them more skill-relevant and more culturally-relevant.

Mazrui further argues that the primary economic problem in Africa has never been structural adjustment. The problem has always been how to carry out cultural re-adjustment. The re-adjustment would not be a demotion of African culture. The re-adjustment which is needed in culture is a better balance between the continuities of African culture and Africa’s borrowing from Western culture. Until now African has borrowed Western tastes without Western skills, Western consumption patterns without Western production techniques, urbanization without industrialization, secularization (erosion of religion) without scientification. Would Africa have been better off if it had retained its own tastes while borrowing Western skills – instead of absorbing Western tastes and retaining its own lower levels of skills? Would Africa have been better off with African consumption patterns and Western production techniques instead of the other way round? If African governments are willing to invest in these issues of reconstitution (Kalu, 2001) then, surely, food is not an issue. African countries have fallen short of integrating the successes of other regions in the continent when it come to indigenous knowledge on agricultural production.

Agriculture production, for example, in some indigenous areas in Africa is really good. There have been political instability and wars in the Central African region for instance but rarely do we hear of famine in those countries. Why? The traditional agricultural technologies they use are rich, but because of language and our lack of responsiveness other regions in Africa are unable to harness this local technology. Science has failed to capture this knowledge in appropriate language, package and disseminate it to farmers.

As far as land and ethnic tension is concerned, India discovered in the 1950’s and Nigeria realized in the 1980s, the most promising mechanism for defusing linguistic and ethnic strife is to restructure the basic ground rules of the political game . Given the prominence of ethnicity in African politics, democratization across the continent will require more than expanding the political and economic rights of individuals. In Kenya -- and elsewhere on the continent -- accommodation of group rights must be part of the equation and this includes the right to own land.

Conclusion

The Kenyan case highlights the links between politics and agricultural policies on Land that could be indeed the root causes of the food crisis in many African countries. There should be a willingness among leaders both in Africa and in the West to genuinely address the injustices that emanate from colonial land policies by acknowledging the need for land and other agricultural reforms that will reflect the general needs of ordinary farmers/citizens.

This should be policies that guarantee property rights and freedom to utilise land for food production as well as a guaranteed support from the government and other institutions in terms of the technological and other requirements and some degree of incentives to encourage food production, particularly, the production of staple food like maize, beans and vegetables by local farmers and fair trade among different countries especially, between African countries and the west.

The general infrastructure should also be upgraded, institutional quality improved and a general investment in technology. General government inefficiency, red tape and corruption in countries such as Kenya and Nigeria, should be eradicated and a general improvement on work ethics in the country’s institutions. The government departments which manage the various aspects of agriculture do so in isolation of each other therefore, there is a disconnect between implementation and planning. As much as this is a policy issue and policies take long to change and effect, African government should attempt to integrate this.

Above all there is a dire need to protect institutions of democracy and their independence in order to put rogue democracies to task and to protect the rights of citizens which include the right to life, apparently, which cannot be guaranteed in a situation where there is no food. African governments must carry out cultural re-adjustment which creates a better balance between the continuities of African culture and Africa’s borrowing from Western culture.

The food shortages in Africa can be said to be a consequence of failed ‘democratic regimes’ that have failed to implement western concepts of democracy due to cultural and other challenges given the African context on one hand and failure of western states to acknowledged their role in the exploitation of Africa through corny land acquisitions and unfair trade that created symptoms that have given rise to ethnic chauvinism and violence.

Furthermore, western countries are often aware of the fact that some parts of Africa are marginalised and food production is not viable due to erratic weather patterns and do nothing to assist to curb the root cause of food shortages in such areas. This they can do through funding educational initiatives into better agricultural techniques such as irrigation. However, they are quick to send food aid to starving communities in Africa as a show of ‘good gesture’. African regimes, in addition, thoroughly understand the fact that food shortages, due to poor land allocation and redistribution policies, is one among their many failures in the whole political system and utilise any means (including food supply) at their disposal to stay glued in power. Little wonder the most corrupt president in Africa are the most adamant in terms of retaining their power.

Political leaders in Africa understand the relationship between land and food production given the African context and use the land card to their advantage. If the food crisis is not addressed through measures presented in this paper, then African politicians will continue using food to manipulate the electorate to ensure they ascend to leadership by pledging food donations to starving communities to get their votes during their campaigns. They will also continue to play this ‘land card’ to pursue their own selfish political interest leading to ethnic violence and anarchy. This means that the same land that is meant to benefit those resettled will fail to do so simply because land in itself is meaningless unless put into productive use. African leaders should be made accountable through the rule of law (constitution) to guarantee all the rights that are surrendered to them by citizens when elected in the so called ideal democracy.

Writers Profile: Fredrick Ogenga has a bachelors and a masters degree in Media & Journalism studies. He is an independent media consultant & analyst, a freelance writer, reporter for africanews.com, lecturer in Media & journalism and the founding director of Tazama media consultants closed corporate company. He is also pursuing a PHD in media studies at the University of Witwatersrand. Ogenga has published widely in the field of gender, HIV/AIDS, health and other socio-political issues and is listed in the UNAIDS database of consultants. His latest contribution on gender and HIV/AIDS can be found in the fourth issue of the 2008 media diversity journal at www.genderlinks.org.za. He also runs his own blog www.tazamamediaconsultants.blogspot.com

References

Acemogul, D., Johnson, S. & J.A Robinson (2000). The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An empirical investigation. National Bureau of Economics Research Working Paper.

Anthony H. Birch, Concepts and Theories of Modern Democracy , 2nd ed (London ; New York : Routledge, 2001Edition,). Specific treatments of African democracy may be found in

Balassa B, (2008). Trade Liberalisation and “ Revealed” comparative advantage. The Manchester School Journal, (p.99-123). University of Manchester: Blackwell

Blanke, J. (2007). Assesing Afrca’s competetiveness in a global context. World Economic Forum. The Africa competitiveness report 2007

Bruce E. Johansen (2002). The Global Warming Desk Reference. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Daniel T. Osabu-Kle, Compatible Cultural Democracy : The Key to Development in Africa (Peterborough, Ont. ; Orchard Park, NY : Broadview Press, 2000).

Esterly, W. & Levine R. (2002). Tropics, Germs and Crops: How endowment Influence Economic Development. National Bureau of Economics Research Working Paper 9106.

Fisher, H. A. eds.,(2001). Contending Issues in African Development: Advances, Challenges, and the Future. Westpott,CT: Greenwood Press.

Gallager, S. (2007). Kenya moves towards a National Food and Nutrition Policy.. Press statement released by Tuft University on 23rd April 2007.

B. N. Ghosh, Contemporary Issues In Development Economics (London and New York: Routledge,2001); and

Yujiro Hayami, Development Economics: From the Poverty to the Wealth of Nations, (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Humanitarian Policy Group, (2008). Crisis in Kenya: Land Displacement and the Search for ‘durable Solutions’. London. Overseas Development Institute.

Human Rights Watch/Africa. (1993). Divide and Rule: State Sponsored Ethnic Violence in Kenya. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch/Africa. (2007). Failing the Internally Displaced: The UNDP. Displaced Persons Program in Kenya. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch. (2001). Playing with Fire: Weapons Proliferation, Political Violence and Human Rights in Kenya. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Huxley E. (1953). Wite man’s country: Lord Delamare and the making of Kenya. London: Chatto and Windus

Kamungi, P. (2007). ‘Land and Internal Displacement in Kenya’, Briefing for Donors at the Canadian High Commission, Nairobi, 11TH September 2007.

Kalu, K. & Obiama , M. eds., (2001). Contending Issues in African Development: Advances, Challenges, and the Future. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Kenya Land Alliance, (2004). Righting the wrongs: Historical injustices and Land Reforms in Kenya , Policy brief (Nairobi:KLA,2004. PP.1-2)

Kenya Land Alliance, Righting the wrongs: Historical injustices and Land Reforms in Kenya , Policy brief (Nairobi:KLA,2004. PP.6-7)

Klopp, J. (2006) ‘Kenya’s Internally Displaced: Managing Civil Conflict in Democratic Transitions’ in D. Bekoe (ed.). East Africa and the Horn: Confronting Challenges to Good Governance, International peace academy occasional paper Series.Boulder CO: Lynn Rienner)

Klopp, J. (2001). Electoral Despotism in Kenya: Land Patronage and Resistance in the Multiparty Context, unpublished dissertation thesis, Department of Political Science. McGill University, Montreal

Mazrui, A. (2002). Who killed Democracy in Africa. Binghamton: Institute of Global and Cultural Studies

Dickson A. Mungazi and L. K. Walker, Educational Reform and the Transformation of Southern Africa (Westport, CT: Praeger,1997).

Dilip Mookjerjee and Debraj Ray, eds., Readings In The Theory Of Economic Development (Malden,MA: Blackwell Publishers,2001);

Obioma M. ed., (2001) Contending Issues in African Development : Advances, Challenges, and The Future.Westport, CT : Greenwood Press.

Raila Odinga see Badejo, A. (2006). An enigma in Kenyan Politics. Lagos: Yintab Books.
Roland N. Stromberg, Democracy : A Short, Analytical History (Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, 1996);

Roughneen, S. Corruption triumphs tribalism. IHT, Thursday 10, 2008

Mary A.B. Sherman, Building Consensus for Higher Education Reform In Africa: Some Reflections (World Bank:Washington,DC, May 1993) and for a regional discussion, see

Teodros Kiros ; with a preface by K. Anthony Appiah, Explorations in African Political Thought : Identity, Community, Ethics (New York : Routledge, 2001); and for a cultural approach, see

Throup, D. and Honsby, C. (1997). Multiparty Politics in Kenya. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

http://www.panapress.com/newslatf.asp?code=eng057435&dte=22/09/2004
www.panapress.com

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/tu-kmt042307.php
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5018e/x5018E0q.htm
http://www.ips.org/institutional/ips-in-action/capacity-building/
http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=42056

Life is about relationships sometimes you win sometimes you lose, you better know

2009-03-02T01:51:00.000-08:00

There have been many things happening so far in my world, many texts many realities, many media representations, many interpretations and many meanings. Ofcourse, the latter is always shaped from where I grew up and the journey that I have been undertaking in the school of life.

But the patenting of the Maasai gene, the visit of Iran and Turkish president to Kenya, the nomination of Dandala, Mugabe's birthday party, and all my posted tagged photos on face book, I enjoy the ones by Omosh, Edward and Kate, are among the leading texts in grappling with meaning and hence my realities so far.

The other day I met Shaun at the Ratz in Melville and the most interesting text that came out of his mouth, after swallowing a long sip of Amstell lager, was Serengeti.Serengeti is this lavish tourist destination in Tanzania, he also mentioned Maasai Mara in Kenya at some point. He had this orangish Tshirt written 'I am not drunk', I cannot remember the graffics but it had something to do with drinking and getting or not getting drunk, you could read it in a diffreent way, the way you liked, and there you go again... make a diffrent meaning opposed to mine. There is always another way of seeing or understanding almost everything you see arround you, dont you think so?

By that time Luke, my American friend, was impatiently waiting for his ex girfriend to meet up with him. We were chatting about reggae Music, he dissapered later. I think I should check and find out that he is fine. He infact forgot his groceries at the boot of my car. You see, it was a very Random outing.

That's life, very random at times. My friend Elke from Austria just confirmed me as a friend on facebook after almost 10 years without having an opportunity to meet her again. The last time we were having Tuskers, the leading Kenyan beer, was before my Dad passed away and she loved sweet bananas from Maseno. I did not know why but ever since I came to South Africa, I know that genetically modified bananas are a big joke, not tasty at all. Oh and Astrid, from Germany, she is now busy with some PR and journalism job..ofcourse, its not a permanent one, who gives permanet jobs nowadays, she is looking for one though, this global financial turmoil is realy making us catch a bad flu. She recently posted nice pictures of her children on face book.

Relationships are changing, COPE just nominated a real moral matchup to JZ,a journalist friend just informed me that Dandala was living in Kenya for the better part of the years serving the church. What's wrong with Rihanna, she is back with Jay Z, I don't mean Jacob Zuma, only three weeks after they had a fight, the last time I checked she was spotted with a bikini apparently healing in a private Island... she wanted to be left alone or to be alone, I wonder what Chris Brown was doing. DJ Sbu finds himself in trouble again after crushing someone's car, publicity seems to be very expensive, thanks to the media. Julius Malema knows that 'one eateth where one worketh'.

The world, oh sorry my world, not in the sense of ownership, perceptualy I mean, is realy changing.But honestly, there are new relatiosnhips being built everyday. I think it's worth it as long as these relationships are based on mutual respect. Kenya has openened up a new chapter in international relations, welcoming new partners like Iran and Turkey. Surprisingly these partners are apparently Islamic nations and dont get it twisted, I have nothing againist Muslims and Islam. Infact, the Iranian president occassionaly reffers to Jesus christ's comeback and for peace and justice to prevail in the world...he did so in London. I remember reading that on the Daily nation online, Kenya's biggst daily.

Iran and Turkey are considered enemies of the US and the West but that is based on the relationships that they have with the US and the West and not us. Ofcourse, it has never been smooth for both Iran, the US and the West. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is willing to forge new relationships with the current US president Barrack Obama and he insists, as long as it is based on mutual understanding, then it's all good. He seems to be looking for new friends in Africa and Kenya seems to be very tasty for business and expansion in other parts of Africa-It better be based on 'Mutual respect'.

Ofcourse, I do the same thing with my new found relationships, it comes naturaly. But who benefits from the patenting of a maasai gene? I read a story about this on, once again, the Daily nation. The first paragraph read "Maasai morans may not know it, but they are at the centre of a global scientific controversy over a patent application for their genetic capacity to drink lots of milk". It continued that "The row broke out a fortnight ago when South African researchers complained that the University of Maryland in the US had patented gene mutations collected from Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and South Africa"

According to the article published March 02 2009 the study in question has now identified the responsible gene mutation, more prevalent in pastoral communities such as the Maasai. Scientists using advanced biotechnology developed a process which could be exploited for industrial purposes. It is this process that is being patented. While milk seems to be a universal food, a lot of people actually cannot tolerate it as it will resort to upset stomach and other unpleasant digestive side effects. Theoretically the new discovery could lead to new medical diagnostic kits to identify those with milk taking disorders or perhaps develop enzymes that could remove milk intolerance the article concludes.

Well,the patenting issue is interesting but the question here is, how will the Maasai benefit from such patents? Are they aware of such scientific discoveries and can they claim something out of such discoveries? Again, you can make any readings of such texts but how can a Maasai possibly read it? And what can it mean to him/her?

I saw Mugabe opening his mouth wide to swallow a piece of cake at his 83rd birthday party, ofcourse the unity government is something to celebrate and at least the party was for a good course, raising funds to jump start the ailing Zim economy. You can syntagmaticaly substitute Mugabe's picture in the article with maybe, Morgan Tvangirai or Tendai Biti because afterall, they eat from the same plate now that they have formed a coalition government. But Bob should give up the land seizures, it will make a huge difference.

Kibaki and Raila are reportedly the pillars of the Kenyan coalition, although it is said they respect each other, they have never reached and agreement concerning their salaries and they will never voice their opinions explicitly about taxing cabinet ministers. Like in Zimbabwe, they also eat from the same plate. If you cannot beat them join them so they say. But, history shall not treat those who do not respect human life in Kenya, Africa and any other part of the world kindly.I was actualy impressed that Gadaffi was elected the AU chairperson, you see the world is changing. I hope Gadaffi will fast track the idea of a USA- I mean the United States of Africa.

As for the battle between ANC and COPE, "someone must come out with a bleeding nose" not literally though, at least according to a story I read on the Sunday times yesterday. Who will you vote for? Almost forgot, I realy like the pictures of me posted by my friends on facebook, they realy capture the momments. Hey, Shaun and I know that the Beuty about facebook is that you can put your face and invite friends and they will decide whether they want to relate to you or not depending on whether or not they like your face. You can also get invitations and do the same thing, the point is, you are the one to decide whether someone else has invited you or vice versa. Then later you can get rid of them or block them if they become a pain in the ass. That's how it is.

Victory for Obama is victory for Kenya

2008-11-09T04:42:00.002-08:00

President Kibaki did what every other Kenyan could have done if they were in his position as president. That is to declare a public holiday in honor of the son of the son of the soil Barrack Obama. Barrack Obama is Kenyan American and no one can change that. So please E-news channel, leave Kibaki alone and let Kenyans enjoy an Obama victory, after all, they were celebrating the whole night after Obama won and surely, many could have missed work the following day and therefore the holiday was well deserved.

I am responding to a programme that I have seen earlier today on E-news channel claiming that president Kibaki of Kenya is the failure of the week in their list of failures, just because he granted Kenya a holiday in honor of Obama. This guy, in a suit, continued that in January Kenyans were fighting because of the disputed elections and it was foolish for the president to declare a holiday when Kenya needed to go back to work to rebuild itself.

Honestly, this guy in a suit is shortsighted. Firstly, he sees the forest and not the trees. His judgment is based on what is actually on the surface without taking a minute to think about the underlying issues. Obama’s victory for one, is a chance for Kenyans to reunite holiday or not, and defeat tribal alliances that plagued the recent elections, it is a chance to celebrate unity in a man who is not only Kenyan but American at the same time.

It is a chance for them to see that anyone can be president of Kenya and break the perception that presidency only belong to a group of people based on their race or tribe. This is a lesson that comes when memories of tribal hatred are still fresh in the minds of Kenyans, and it is a beckon of hope for peace, tolerance and stability in the country. Perhaps the holiday will help Kenyans reflect on such things. This is what an Obama victory means given the Kenyan context.

As for E-news channel, and the guy in the suit, this is the question; why are you only concerned with petty things such as holidays in Kenya and yet there are serious issues that need further analysis and interpretation and media leadership in Africa such as the crisis in the DRC and the war in Southern Sudan and Ethiopia?

This guy in a suit was clearly lazy and the fact that he has to come up with a story to catch up with the institutional mechanism, work structures and the political economy of the working environment of E-news channel such as time pressure and deadlines versus audiences thirst for news, he simply linked Obama (given that the name Obama is news) to a case in Kenya that is not even worth analysing.

Why? The guy in a suit had to come up with a quick feature to earn a living... “If you don’t come up with a story... you get fired” says the media owners/ and or editors. After all, the seed of humility, greatness, unity and tolerance was conceived courtesy of Kenya.

Thanks to Barrack senior who hailed from Kogelo- Rural Kenya for the seed he planted. Kibaki is just watering the tree. After all, I can bet my life that Obama himself accepts Kibaki's gesture as a great honor and you know why? He is so in love with Kogelo (his Kenyan Village) such that, as the US president elect, he will be bypassing Nairobi to land in Kisumu next to Kogelo whenever he visists his relatives-little wonder the tiny Kisumu airport is being upgraded to international standards, do you see such benefits?

After all, he will be the only US president to have set foot in Kenya given that Clinton visited Uganda and Bush Tanzania. If Kenya could have such useless public holidays like Moi day which mean nothing to Kenyans, then, surely, Obama day should not be contested. E-news channel, please leave Kibaki alone, he is a Kenyan Honoring a Kenyan American. Clean up the political mess at home first before you begin pointing fingers. As for the guy in the suit, I hope you got paid.

Magical super concentrated pheromones, try it yourself !

2008-09-28T03:21:00.000-07:00

In Africa the sun is too hot especialy in East and central Africa and particularly in equitorial countries. Here I will refer you back to a small city in Kenya called Kisumu. This city lies next to the second largest fresh water lake in the world,lake Victoria. One fascinating thing about this city is that the sun is so hot for atleast 12 hours of the day and that's basically from sunrise to sunset. So you can imagine what happens to human beings, they sweat terribly.

One other thing is that the community that dwell in the city are Luo people (Obama is half Luo), and this people are fishermen by nature. So you can figure out the smell of armpits combined with the smell of raw fish under the scorching sun of 35 degrees celcius-not pleasant.

In other major cities like Nairobi (Kenya's capital) and Johannesburg, where I am currently living, people work hard to make sure they smell fresh. This they do through buying expensive perfumes the likes of Sean John, Calvin kein, Tommy Hillfigure, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss and so forth to smell good but guess what? It ends there, you smell good. Atleast you are not going to be smelling like the fisherman in Kisumu.

This is why I am so excited to discover a product that does not only make you smell good, but it does soemething else. Makes the opposite sex want to hug you, kiss you and believe it or not, make love to you? How wonderful! Honestly, I have never tried the product but having checked out their website, and from what they say, once you use it, presto, you are surely going to be hugged kissed and get laid and not only with one partner but many, depending on your sexual orientation.

I would like to believe this is true because from my experience with Sean John cologne, I had a girflriend commenting that I smell divine everytime I was wearing the perfume and ofcourse, I recieved a couple of hugs in reward. So I would like to Imagine what pheromones can do because from its description, its smells absolutely great.

But what are pheromones? they are chemical odor signals that every human produces. These pheromones send out subconscious scent signals to the opposite sex which trigger strong sexual urges to reproduce, and induce natural romantic cravings, or chemical attraction. Previously thought of as only "Animal Magnetism", introducing mass quantities of these pheromones into the airspace surrounding you will greatly enhance your love life.

The pheromones are nearly odorless, but the added fragrances and pure essential oils produce an awesome clean smell. You would want to wear this product even if the sex attractant pheromones were not added. It smells clean and fresh. It's almost unfair!For more on human pheromones Link to - http://www.best-pheromones.com

Just like all mammals, human beings produce pheromone naturally however, through tens of thousands of generations, (evolution) the human animal no longer produces much of this chemical signal naturally. The active pheromones in Super Concentrated Pheromone are more than 10,000 times stronger than you could ever produce on your own and that's why it is important to supplement it.

Acoording to pennsylvania researchers topical application of synthesized male pheromones increases the sexual attractiveness of men to their partners. Winnifred Cutler, Ph.D., president of the Athena Institute for Women's Wellness in Haverford, says the odorless, clear alcohol-based liquid contains a chemical copy of "the natural substance given off by healthy virile men in their 20s that makes them so attractive to women,". See pheromones for men at http://www.best pheromones.com/women_home.html. There are also those that are designed for women to make them attractive to men see pheromones for women at http://www.best-pheromones.com/men_home.html

When I first learnt about this product, I was thinking of possible side effects based on the manner in which it is administered, but there are no reported cases of any side effects according to these researchers. The product works like magic according to testimonials from clients as one clients remarks "I am a medical doctor in family practice and have been single for the last 4 years. Not dating very much. Since using Super Concentrated Pheromone, this has changed. I've tried it and the results have been phenomenal. Thank you, Susan !".

Personaly, I have known that there is something about how men smell that can attract women, even heard of ocassions where some women claimed they liked the natural smell of some men and I did not have a clue what this meant. After recieving a mail from the webmaster of Pheromones.com I developed an immediate interest on this product. The interesting thing is that I recieved this mail a day after I met a very attractive woman of arround 30 years old while dancing to some cuban music as part of the Arts Alive fetival at the baseline in newtown Johannesburg, South Africa.

By then I knew nothing about Pheromones but I felt a very strong chemical attraction towards this lady. When I met her the following day, I was telling her that I am a writer and I write about different issues then I rememberd the idea of pheromones and told her that I want to write something about it on my blog. I was shocked to find out that she knows about this product and she even expalined to me how it works. She once told me over the phone, on a particular ocassion, how she recieves many proposals all the time from men who find her attractive and I though that was great, but she said she doesn't think there is anything great in that.

Anyway, on this day when I was explaining about pheromones and that I wanted to write about them on my blog she gave me the back of her hands to smell, It smelt very devine and I suspected that could be the smell of pheromones. I have to confirm that she uses pheromones, but I have no doubts that there is a very strong chemical attraction that I get everytime I am with her. I will definately want to try this product and definately carry it home to Kisumu where the sun bakes and makes you sweaty and smelly especialy when you least expect a date. According to the their website the product costs arround $50 approximately R350 relatively affordable for an average South African, could be a little expensive for an average Kenyan, nevertheless, it's worth trying. For more information about pheromones visist http://www.best-pheromones.com by clicking on these site on the left middle of the page under favourite blogs and websites and you will link to the sites below.

Links
Keyword - human pheromones
Link to - http://www.best-pheromones.com

keyword - pheromones for men
Link to - http://www.best-pheromones.com/women_home.html

keyword - pheromones for women
Link to - http://www.best-pheromones.com/men_home.html

The website is http://www.best-pheromones.com/

A sigh of relief for comrade Mbeki

2008-07-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

Morgan Tsvangirai shakes hand with Robert Mugabe in Harare after reaching an agreement that set grounds for further negotiations on Monday.(File picture from www.aljazeera.net/english)

I was curious, watched the media, saw Zimbabweans flooding all over Johannesburg and watched them being attacked in the recent xenophobic attacks, even heard some of them criticising Mbeki for entertaining Mugabe. I was even more curious and decided to buy 'the dream deferred-Thabo Mbeki. This book gave me a clear background and contextual knowlege on the relationship between Mbeki and Mugabe. It is here that I once again came head-on with words such as comrade,neo-imperialism and the famous anti-imperialism debate came to my mind.

On reading Mbeki's debates on African reinaissance, it is clear that what Mbeki is arguing is that Africans must find African solutions to their own problems and should avoid relying on the west for help. It is also clear that he is emphasising that the west should trade with Africa in the increasingly expanding global capital market as equal partners and not just act as a dumping site for excess products of the west some of which are not useful, and others hamful given the African context.

The Africam market should be sustainable, and this self sustainability should be supported by the IMF and other regional trading blocks to reduce Africa's dependancy on the West for financial assistance like SADC, COMESA and EAC. Ofcourse, this has led to a few breakthroughs such as the establishment of the AGOA Africa growth and opportunity Act which is actulay encouraging African manufactuirers to find market for their products abroad at a fair price.

Another issue in Mbeki's debate is the muscling of the African Union which is a manifestation of the idea that Africa must strive to work towards unity to find solutions to the African problems.

His involvement towards this goal has been directed towards finding solutions to the problems facing Africa. Ofcourse, with South Africa as an economic giant in Africa, he has succeeded in negotiation peace settlemets in Sierra leone, Liberia, Sudan the DRC, Somali and now in the neighbouring country Zimbabwe.In Liberia, his efforts led to the first democratic elections in that country that saw the first female president in Africa elected.

Some of this countries have now found peace while others are still battling to find a solution, however, South Africa's and therefore Mbeki's presence is still felt in those countries as they strive to help them come to some form of an agreement through the African Union peace keeping force. And so AU has been quite active in Africa over the past couple of years.

The African Union was involved in helping find a peaceful solution to the Kenyan crisis through the help of the United nations. The African Union is also teaming up once again with the united nations to find a local solution in Zimbabwe. This is what Mbeki meant in his African reinnaisnace bebates that Africa should unite to find local solutions affecting the continent.

I don't mean to sound as if the African reinaissance debate was crafted by Mbeki, what I mean here is that Mbeki is following the vision of our African forefathers/leaders like Kwame Nkuruma of Ghana and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya who saw the need for pan-africanism which saw the birth of the Organisation of African Union which later became African Union as it now stands.

There is no doubt that Nkuruma or Kenyatta would be happy at the way in which the AU is excersising influence in world politics on affairs concerning the African continent and furthermore, African countries are more bound to trust a deal brokered through their very own body (the AU) because of the percieved suspicion of the so called neo-imperialism.

And so many people raised concern about Mbeki's efforts in finding a peaceful solution to the Zimbabwe crisis and the efforts were later named 'quite diplomacy'. This term was very common in South Africa when reffering to Mbeki and can account for the loss of Mbeki's popularity in some quaters of South Africa despite his economic achievemnts.

Nevertheless, Mbeki has been adamant in his approach, which is, that the people of Zimbabwe must seat together and come to some form of agreement that will be for the benefit of Zimbabwe and that South Africa and SADC will do everything necessary to support such efforts for a peaceful settlement.Ofcourse, this was also dismissed as an emty rhetoric in dealing with Harare.

The idea that Mbeki had here, was to get both sides to reach an agreement to pave ways for a lasting soulution rather than regime change parse. The current brokered deal wich some suspect might use the Kenyan model has impetus for posterity because it will result, for one thing, the change of the current constitution that will pave way for the building of institutions that are there to protect democracy-such structures are lacking in Zimbabwe and many countries in Africa.

I will refer once again to an article published by Nyaga Munyi titled Kenya's crisis and challenges of democracy in Africa, in the article he argues that Africa’s democratic honeymoon is fast coming to an end, and Kenya’s sudden drift into chaos is a wake-up call across the continent for a more concerted investment in governance programmes.

After a decade of democratic gains, Africa now finds itself in a marshland, and Nigeria, Kenya and even South Africa (Africa pillars) are in a defining moment. The next five years will mark a watershed in the continent’s democratic consolidation.

He claims that the violence in Kenya due to political discontent brings into sharp focus the challenges of democracy in Africa and the need for heterodoxity in political governance among African governments and institutions working “to promote democracy” in Africa.

As far Zimbabwe is concerned, Mbeki has emerged as the best mediator because no doubt, and in his biography 'the dream defered' Mugabe reffered to him as 'young man'that he therefore sees Mugabe as an African elder. Him and Mugabe are comrades and therefore he is more likely to convince him of the impontance of finding a soulution to the crisis in Zimbabwe afterall, comrades trust each others.

Contesting the public sphere in the current democratic crisis in Kenya-Who sets the media Agenda, why and what next?

2008-07-21T05:17:00.000-07:00

This article will discuss the recent political crisis in Kenya and the position of the Kenyan media following the 27th December election dispute between two main rival political parties ODM and PNU. The critical question here is which voice were being heard from the media and why and the way forward for African democracy.

In an attempt to address these issues, a critical approach is taken to the various views on theories of the press such as agenda setting and bullet theories. This will be looked at in the context of theories of democracy, particularly ‘rethinking public sphere by Jurgen Habermus and the alternative ideas of the public sphere championed by Ghanaian Stephen Appiah with a special look at his work on the views about cosmopolitanism

The public sphere
According to Harbermes, this is a political space created only in the electioneering period where the ruling class position themselves to convince the electorate (proletariats and bourgeoisies) through campaigns that they are fit to be their leader

Daily nation edition Lucy Oriang’ in her article dated the 01st Feb. 2008 writes that “only a month or so ago, this country (Kenya) was awash with posters, huge spending on billboards and a massive assault on our senses in both print and electronic media. The political parties spent billions trying to win us over to their side. We were inspired, and the turnout was more than even the most optimistic of pundits could have anticipated”.

Two issues arise here

• The media
• The money

Clearly, campaigning and advertising is an expensive task. In the United States for instance according to Fox news US senator Barrack Obama had raised $52 million by June and Senator McCaine raised 21.5 million for their campaign respectively. Huge chunks of money spent here.

But what happens after elections?
Unlike Kenya, the US president to be is likely to deliver more on issues of policies preached during the campaign. However, they too are bound to inherit institutionalised state machinery that, over the years of American existence, has been formed through tight foundations that defines American existence and socio-economic strategic positioning in world politics and is unlikely to change. With this in place, the famous ‘change campaign’ by Barrack Obama will be a little bit more of a change in the ‘actor’ at the level of the presidential figurehead and a different style of handling certain policies, especially the US foreign policy than a radical shift. We already see Obama visiting Afghanistan and pledging to increase the number of troops there. He actually claims that the ‘war on terror’ should shift from Iraq to Afghanistan. Of course, terms such as war on terror are ideological and propagandistic and were coined by none other than Bush and his administration. Obama will therefore inevitably inherit this war (whether he likes it or not) and the manner in which he handles it is still to be seen.

Harbermus see election as the climax of the public sphere contest. In his (1962) paper on the structural transformation of the public sphere “rethinking public sphere” Jurgen Habermus defines the public sphere as a political arena created only during the electioneering period to create a public space to contest for power. He therefore, sees it as a very seasonal, semi-permanent, almost artificial arrangement where the so called ruling class emerge to make promises to the bourgeoisie if elected.

One interesting thing is that in order to make it to this arena, you must have wealth. In other words, you must be rich. In third world countries as in the Kenyan case and even western countries, it is mostly the rich who will make it to this arena. However, the majority-the citizens, will be faced with limited options come elections because they have to choose from this limited group of people that have already occupied that space (public sphere). Any new entry to this space is highly criticized and fought through propaganda and other means. They come with a dozen of promises if elected. In the case of Kenya Oriang has the following examples of promise that were given by Kenyan politicians
• Bad politics will inevitably breed bloodshed. Throw money into the mix, and there’ll be hell to pay. So there’s tension in the teaching ranks and the election is just around the corner? Give them a juicy pay raise, but let it be known that it is only effective after the election. That way you get to keep them on a leash.
• So the community next door is feeling that “one of their own” is not in a high level government position? Well, give a slew of them the shadowy title of assistant minister. That will take care of the shared national resources issue, never mind that they don’t really do any serious work and that they will not be sharing their pay with their constituents. Hell, no!
• AS FOR FREE EDUCATION, AN ELECTION is hardly the right time to refer to the small print to do with class sizes and all the extra costs that come with children going to school.
• Are the long suffering people up in the north complaining about “development” not reaching them? A handful of boreholes should do the trick. Better still, transfer some bulldozers to the district headquarters — and keep them there until after things have gone quiet. That way, they will not be asking how life is down there in Kenya.
I am sure you can find your own local examples of how cash campaigns have corrupted our politics. I will add another one not in Oriang’s list. And this one came from President Kibaki himself when he was still campaigning…and I tuned on on this day, and saw him saying it on TV and I will loosely quote him in his typical Swahili “ na hakuna haja ya mimi kuweka picha yangu kwa pesa nikikuwa Rais , la, mimi sita fanya hivyo” Here Kibaki was saying that there in no need of him introducing money with his potrait on it and claiming that no, he will never do that. Guess what? Unashamedly, this was the first thing he was doing weeks after being elected president. Kibaki introduced a Sh 40 coin that the economy really did not need and to justify this controversy, he claimed it was a souvenir. That’s when I knew we had another Vulture.
What next then for the electorate (Bugeossies and ploretariates)

This being the case, and according to Harbermus, the bourgeoisie creates their own space almost like a culture which he calls “the subaltern counter publics” . This is created as an attempt to resist the domination by the ruling class and to topple it if need be. It manifests itself through the formation of civil rights groups which spearhead civil disobedience, demonstrations, and strikes and sometimes creates lawlessness. However, in the absence of strong civil societies and workers union in Kenya, the public ‘take the law into their own hands’ and arrange planned demonstrations and protest. In the absence of security and order then violence and crime is an obvious option.

This is exactly what happened in Kenya. Yes, according to Harbermus this is a step towards democracy but only when the demonstrations are peaceful and with no violation of Human rights. However, all this should be allowed to happen in an ideal democratic situation and should not be banned. Part of the reason why there were violent protests in Kenya was due to the fact that there were a brewing tension among members different tribes which can be related to a history of poverty and inequality. Habermus argues that in ideal democracy, there should be a multiplicity of thought/opinions and therefore, different voices should be given a chance and be accommodated in attempt to reach a common good. In addition’ he advocates for greater equality among the citizens but, however, accepts that real equality is difficult to achieve and talks of a move towards greater equality between the ‘haves’ and ‘have- nots’.

If we mirror this to what is happening in Kenya, clearly, the country was moving against the grain -ideal democracy.

• Firstly, due to the fact that the government had no room for multiplicity of thoughts and had made the right to demonstrations and protests illegal therefore’ killing the subaltern counter public (a very crucial public in ideal democracy) and the culture so to speak.
• Secondly, the gap between the rich and the poor has become even worse in Kibaki’s regime and lastly, which brings me to the focus of this discussion, is that the press had been muzzled and therefore, the basic fundamental freedom of expression had been threatened thanks to the internet blogs.

What then is the role played by the Kenyan Media?

The media has well been known to set agendas and to use values such as prominence in the efforts to report news stories to satisfy the interests of the public. How then did the Kenyan media report this crisis

The media in KENYA did a tremendous job prior to the elections covering campaigns and providing air time and space for candidates to reach the masses. The media equally, to some extent, did well in releasing opinion polls that largely predicted parliamentary election outcomes which came to materialise. Part of the contested presidential election outcome can also be related to the fact that the media had an extensive coverage of the voting process and had been releasing unofficial results that Kenyans religiously believed. The contest therefore emerged when the official results did not match what the media had predicted earlier but withdrawn later. Being so influential, Just minutes after being sworn in, the government banned all live broadcasting, a move that undermined freedom of the press and the very fundamental freedom of expression. Why? Because the media is still considered powerful and can send messages in the ‘Bullet’ manner that audiences absorb and believe. However, this did not stop the violence between rival tribal groupings.

During this period the Kenyan Human rights Watch member Mr
Maina Kiai in an article pubished by The Star, Tuesday 10 2008 titled Kenyan media spurns violence and calls for peace was quoted as saying that the kenyan media failed to search underneath the surface to look for the root cause of a political crisis". He was accusing the Kenyan media of hiding the reality, especially related to what many saw as tribal cleansing related to the disputed presidential elections in Kenya. He continued that “The only way to peace is through truth and justice. It’s not enough to be calm; we need the truth".

Two issues arise here

First, is that one of the role of the media is to inform but within the boundaries of social responsibility. Even as the media strives to report the truth to the public by giving out facts and real objective accounts of events that take place to satisfy there interest, it has to do this in a manner not likely to incite the society into more violence.

Secondly, that the idea of tribalism is an identity problem and it is worsened by the stereotypes attached to the "other" whether negative or positive. Identity issues are ideological and one of the ways in which ideology thrives is through propaganda and naming or blaming of the "other". The worst cases become violent and have in them, elements of tribal cleansing and genocide. The Senegalese president addressing this years AU summit in Ethiopia equated the Kenyan situation to some form of Genocide.

However, the Kenyan media avoided the naming of either the victims or perpetrators of the violence and chose to preach peace. This was a positive move as the Kenyan media abandoned the notion of commercialising news content for the sake of profits and resorted to investigative/critical journalism that later helped in the re-unification of Kenyans.

This demonstrates the maturity of the media. It further proves that the Kenyan media really upholds and respects its role in the Kenyan society as a socially responsible media.

In any human rights issue related to two or more conflicting interest groups, the rule of law anywhere in the world will defend the idea of balancing rights to see which right outweighs the other, or which one infringes on the other. In this case, the Kenyan media seems to understand that the right to peace outweighs the right for Kenyans to know (freedom to receive information) which tribe was killing which one and in what manner, something that would only aggravate the whole situation
However according to Sisule F. Msungu, writing from Geneva on the 24th of Jan 2008 there are ways in which the Kenyan media failed Kenyans. Kenyans have always known the weakness of the ECK and the courts, which is why looking at the conduct of the media becomes important in thinking about what went wrong.
Msungu argues that in successive polls over the years, Kenyans have consistently ranked the media as the most trusted institution coming ahead of even the church. Public institutions such as the courts and parliament have never won the confidence of the country.
While there has been intense discussion about how the international media reported the post election violence, there has been little discussion about how the local media handled the whole situation.
The media could, and should have provided credible and useful information regarding the issues and numbers in the disputed constituencies.
The media also failed to appreciate the importance of the dispute, and reduced it to a two-man affair. The "it depends on Kibaki and Raila" approach did not, and would not help.
Why did the Kenyan media fail to play the role of a watchdog and use the publicly announced results at the polling and constituency level to ensure that there was no fiddling or allegation of fiddling?
Hours before the ECK declared Kibaki the winner, it was clear that the mainstream media -- with their extensive network -- had possession of most, if not all, the publicly announced results and could therefore independently come up with the tally.
He closes the article by claiming that both the Daily Nation on its website and the Kenya Television Network (KTN) did in fact display advanced figures on Dec. 30 before suddenly withdrawing the figures. The Daily Nation's figures, for example, showed Odinga with over 4.5 million votes and Kibaki at just over 4.2 million. Why did they withdraw such tallies?
What then is democracy? Is it all about elections?

Democracy ideally, simply means the freedom to choose a leader that every citizen of a sovereign country should enjoy without being intimidated nor forced or threatened. In the west, and in countries like the United States, democracy goes hand in hand with the first amendment in the American constitution which means freedom of expression. Of course this includes freedom of religion, association, and a couple of other rights that are human rights and are embedded in the constitution. Within this context therefore, comes the right to vote and choose the leader one personally feels suitable to govern the sovereign state.

Freedom of the press therefore, is an extension of individual freedom and rights as stipulated or as should be stipulated in every 'democratic country's' constitution. Note that the word democracy is in quotes, this is because democracy itself as an ideal system does not actual exists, at least according to Habermus.

According to Habermus, there is nothing like democracy in world politics, especially in a country like Kenya, it is just another utopia. However, he claims that a move towards ideal democracy is when there is multiplicity of thoughts for common good and greater equality among citizens and perhaps this is the situation in the United States and Britain but still they also have their own versions of inequality and seclusions.

According to Nyaga Munyi’s recent aricle titled Kenya's crisis and challenges of democracy in Africa, Africa’s democratic honeymoon is fast coming to an end, and Kenya’s sudden drift into chaos is a wake-up call across the continent for a more concerted investment in governance programmes. After a decade of democratic gains, Africa now finds itself in a marshland, and Nigeria, Kenya and even South Africa are in a defining moment. The next five years will mark a watershed in the continent’s democratic consolidation.

He claims that the violence in Kenya due to political discontent brings into sharp focus the challenges of democracy in Africa and the need for heterodoxity in political governance among African governments and institutions working “to promote democracy” in Africa.

The situation in Kenya he continues exposes the fragile nature of the country’s democracy and points to the role the international community should play in developing African politics which, like its music, moves in sweeping waves.
Thus, the democratic disillusionment has produced two major trends in African politics, which will complicate the continent’s democratic development in the next decade — the ethnic and the socialist appeals.

These trends he concludes reflect responses to a sense of economic exclusion where ordinary people feel that the political institutions are not aptly responsive to their problems.

The trends he argues are best demonstrated by events in the three African “pillar” countries — South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. The recent elections in Kenya and Nigeria highlight an ethnic appeal.
As far as Kenya is concerned, the government has a difficult task and a long rugged road to go.

• The first on is to leave the media alone,
• The second one is to ensure that the biggest slum in Africa (Kibera) and others cease to exist and
• The opposition is allowed to stage peaceful protests and their agenda be included in our constitution for common good.

The second point above is unlikely to materialize any time soon but for the last one, at least there is the government of National Unity running to ensure there are some radical shifts in the way the institutions that defend democracy like the legislature, the judiciary and the media operate through constitutional amendments that are already taking shape.

So what next for Kenya and democracy in the world?

In His writing on cosmopolitanism, Appiah talks of a situation where there is interaction through intelligence and curiosity as well as engagement. This means that people are driven through shared commonalities, human values and do not regard each other as strangers “othering”. This can be made more practical through media interaction, especially through new media such as internet blogging where people can interact and other sites as a way towards reaching a common goal. No wonder Kenyans kept the world informed through internet blogs when a ‘state of emergency’ was issued on the media by President Kibaki and his Mt. Kenya henchmen banning all live broadcast at the height of the post election violence. For Appiah, when this happens, it is more of a move towards cosmopolitanism as a better version to democracy.

Writers Profile: Fredrick Ogenga has a bachelors and a masters degree in Media & Journalism studies. He is an indipendent media consultant & analyst, a freelance writer, reporter for africanews.com, lecturer in Media & journalism and the founding director of Tazama media consultants closed corporate company. He is also pursuing a PHD in media studies at the University of Witwatersrand. Ogenga has published widely in the field of gender, HIV/AIDS, health and other socio-political issues and is listed in the UNAIDS database of consultants. His latest contribution on gender and HIV/AIDS can be found in the fourth issue of the 2008 media diversity journal at www.genderlinks.org.za. He also runs his own blog www.tazamamediaconsultants.blogspot.com

Tsha Tsha entertainment-education series challenges masculinity among HIV-positive men in Soweto

2008-07-15T04:39:00.000-07:00

By Frederick Oduor Ogenga.

I am currently working as an independent media consultant, freelancer and lecturer. I am also pursuing a PHD in Media Studies at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Abstract
This article is an excerpt from a study that aimed to examine the production of HIV/AIDS lessons on Tsha Tsha Entertainment-Education and their reception by HIV-positive men in Soweto, and to find out whether this response impacted on their perception of their roles and responsibilities in HIV/AIDS. The rationale behind this study was that gender and HIV/AIDS has been critical in interventions aimed at combating the disease. Studies in South Africa on gender have revealed that versions of masculinity can be implicated in the increasing infection rates of HIV/AIDS making efforts to combat the disease problematic. A qualitative methodology was used. This method included interviews and focus group discussions. Five interviews were done with programme producers and researchers of Tsha Tsha to find out the major considerations in production. An average of seven HIV-positive men were exposed to 12 episodes of Tsha Tsha to find out their responses in six focus group discussions, and whether these indicated a changed perceptions in their roles and responsibilities in HIV/AIDS. Their responses were then examined under Bandura’s (1971) social learning theory and Hall’s (1977) encoding-decoding theory .This theories explain the considerations in the production of lessons in Tsha Tsha and how audiences respond to those lessons respectively. The findings revealed that audiences (HIV-positive) men identified with lessons around HIV-testing, disclosure, support and those that challenge stigma and masculinity in HIV/AIDS. Disclosure emerged as a major theme and was compared with sub themes of testing, stigma, masculinity and social support to form categories that were presented as the findings. While HIV-disclosure is seen as challenging HIV/AIDS stigma and masculinity, where men accept their condition, and take responsibility to continue occupying their space as men, E-E production is seen can reinforce lessons around disclosure and other coping strategies to combat HIV/AIDS.

Key words: HIV/AIDS, testing, disclosure, support, gender, masculinity, South Africa, Entertainment –Education

I have spent many years as part of the media audience about different forms of HIV/AIDS campaign and messages but one really got my attention. However, this was when I used to work in Nairobi, Kenya, for a Non Governmental organization Known as Population Communication International (PCI). At our PCI menu, we offered an Entertainment–Education (E-E) Programme called Ushikwapo Shikamana which translates to “if assisted, assist yourself”. Although this was a series appearing on radio and broadcasted in Kenya and Tanzania, it had a remarkable impact on the audiences based on the characters (models) that embodied HIV/AIDS and other lessons. I was therefore curious to find out to what extent, in terms of audience effect, can a similar TV programme elicit. I therefore began my research by studying (E-E) as a genre for addressing HIV/AIDS but realised that I needed to have a holistic knowledge of the complexity of HIV/AIDS which goes beyond a simplistic media (television E-E) intervention.

Masculinity
During the process, I found out that the study of gender and HIV/AIDS has been critical in interventions aimed at combating the disease. In South Africa, studies have been done under African sexuality in the area of HIV/AIDS. These studies have revealed that masculinity around sex and sexuality depicted women as more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS than men, and men as the drivers of the epidemic (Kometsi, 2004). Masculinity is visible around issues such as having multiple partner, fear of testing, fear of disclosure, men’s ‘Macho’ attitude that ensures they don’t seek treatment, and rejection of their partners when they realize they are positive. According to anthropologists, masculinity is a core set of activities or traits which are transculturally associated with men (Morell, 1991. p. 5)

The perception towards traditional gender roles partially constructed by culture, where notions of masculinity thrive, ensures that men don’t take responsibility in HIV/AIDS. These notions have disempowered men, leaving them vulnerable and making it difficult for them to cope with the epidemic. The perceived vulnerability of women has led to several efforts to empower women with little efforts focusing on men’s vulnerability (Kometsi, 2004; Gupta, 2000; Mane & Aggleton, 2001). The empowerment of women in South Africa on gender equality has perhaps threatened and disempowered men. The ‘New Gender Order’ amidst traditional masculinity has left men confused. They have lost their traditional roles dictated by power positions in the society. This is evident in the increase of domestic violence and sexual abuse of women and children including baby rape (Morell, 2001; Reid &Walker, 2005)

However, as my research is now indicating, there is a changing masculinity particularly in HIV/AIDS that is now penetrating the spaces of traditional masculinity, especially around men’s roles and responsibilities in HIV/AIDS. (Reid & Walker, 2001; Morell, 2004; Garson, 2004). I found out how masculinity crumbles in the face of the epidemic, by the fact that men become weakened by the disease and they lose their dignity due to the association of the disease with ‘bad sex’ that leads to ‘bad death’ (Posel, 2003). These men are forced to forge a new masculinity especially around their roles and responsibilities, through taking certain actions at a post infection level. These are the decisions and roles they play following the disclosure of their status to significant others to ensure their well being and those of their partners. These are actions such as testing for HIV, living positively with HIV disclosure, Stigma and opening up for support for themselves and their partners at different levels (partner, family and community level).

Change, seldom happens in a vacuum, there has to be social forces that drive the change. One of the possibilities of bringing about change is through the media. Entertainment- Education (E-E), has been used as one of the most effective vehicle for social change. This is evident through the evaluation of audience response of E-E programmes like Soul City and evaluation of the first 26 episodes of Tsha Tsha which contributed in the change of the audience member’s perception in HIV/AIDS (Kelly et al, 2005). I conducted this research in Soweto and therefore I looked at the production of HIV/AIDS lessons on the Entertainment-Education television programme Tsha Tsha and their reception by HIV-positive men in Soweto.

The objectives of this research were two fold: Firstly, I wanted to assess the production of HIV/AIDS lessons on Tsha Tsha Entertainment-Education and their reception by HIV positive men in Soweto and secondly, to find out whether this response impacts on HIV-positive men’s perception of their roles and responsibilities in HIV/AIDS.

The questions I was addressing in this research were; what lessons in HIV/AIDS did producers encode in Tsha Tsha? How did HIV-positive men respond to these lessons? And whether these lessons helped them change their perceptions on their roles and responsibilities in HIV/AIDS?

While reviewing the background literature in the field of African sexuality studies, I realized that most scholars agree that there are different forms of masculinities. From a historical perspective, masculinity as a key concept in gender studies has impacted on HIV/AIDS in several ways. This is because masculinity has defined and shaped the nature of heterosexual relationships and has also impacted on HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Masculinity is seen as heterogeneous and there is nothing like a single version of masculinity practiced by all men. There are different masculinities and an increased awareness, by some men, of their identity as a gendered construction which is open to change (changing men).

The nature of relationships between men and women in South Africa and their general perception of their roles and responsibilities within those relationships should be contextualised. They have partly been shaped by notions of masculinity and they include culturally defined gender roles in heterosexual interactions between partners in South Africa. These roles are partially defined by culture; they are patriarchal and legitimate men to exclude themselves in certain critical aspects of HIV prevention, testing, disclosure, care and support (Kometsi, 2004. p. 31-32). Culture constructs certain traditional gender roles which shape the way men and women interact. The major reason why there is a perceived lack of participation in HIV/AIDS interventions by men can be linked to how men perceive their roles and responsibilities in their relationship with their partners and in HIV/AIDS. Some traditional constructions of masculinity creates negative power over women and other sexual partners, acting as a setback when looked at in terms of combating HIV/AIDS (Kometsi, 2004. p. 37).

Gender plays a big role in the relationships between men and women. In the literature scholars have pointed to “a crisis of masculinity” characterised by instability and uncertainty over social roles and identities, sexuality, work and personal relationships (Frosh et al in Reid &Walker, 2005. p.161). Bob Conell, an Australian sociologist argues that men enjoyed the “patriarchal dividend” the advantage men in general gain from the subordination of women. Being a man, Conell argues, conferred power but not all men shared this power equally and not all were individually exploitative (Conell in Morell, 1991: p. 5). He cites men who are exploitative to other men, driven by the force of hegemonic masculinity. This is a form of masculinity that dominates other masculinities. It succeeds in creating prescriptions of masculinity which are binding (or at least partially so), and which create cultural images of what it meant to be a “real man” (Ibid). This masculinity is dominant in the society exercising its power over other rival masculinities and regulates male power over women and distributes this power differently amongst men. Hegemonic masculinity does not rely on brute force for its efficacy, but on a range of mechanisms which create a gender consensus that legitimates the power of men (Morell, 1991. p.7).

However, Morrell argues that even though most men profit from hegemonic masculinity, not every man holds this kind of masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity therefore tends to exclude marginalized groups in the society. Women hardly benefit from this form of masculinity. Donaldson (in Zlotnik 2000.p.12) notes that “a fundamental element of hegemonic masculinity is that women exist as potential sexual objects for men”. Men gain sexual validation not only by pursuing women but also competing for them. This is where hegemonic masculinity is associated with sexual conquest and having many sexual partners partially accounting for the rising infection rates of HIV in South Africa.

Masculinity socializes men to be macho risk takers and to crave for social power. Campbell (in Kometsi 2004. p. 84) claims that “frequent and unprotected sex with multiple partners may often be one of the few ways in which men can act on their hegemonic masculinity”. The active and conscious pursuit of real manhood or prescriptions of masculinity create anxiety precisely because of the shifting nature of the boundaries and its instability over time and place. The socialization described earlier creates men and women as opponents. It creates the perception that masculine power and status are under threat from those who are not masculine (Hooks in Kometsi, 2004. p. 85)

The effects of this hegemonic masculinity are severely felt in relationships between partners. Their sexual health is severely affected especially when they are HIV/positive. For example, one participant mentioned that he did not use condoms despite the fact that he was infected for fear that his manhood will be questioned by the partner, something that led to re-infection. In other cases, this situation is often characterized by men’s negligence in parental roles and their negligence of other roles and responsibilities such as HIV testing, disclosure, care and support. All participants found these issues problematic

Considering the fact that men are the ones that make many decisions in the family, it is imperative to ensure that they contribute wisely in decisions concerning their health and that of their partners. The burden that couples face due to HIV/AIDS is associated with the feeling of social rejection and stigma is difficult to deal with. This is the moment when men and women are required to work jointly, to support each other psychologically, emotionally and financially. It is likely that the kind of relationship existing between partners can influence the choices they make regarding their health.

With sex being central to the self-imaging of men as real men, which is men with power especially over women, women’s insistence on practicing safer sex might be seen as a challenge to the power of men (Kometsi, 2004.p.83). Therefore, in looking at men’s perception of their partners in their relationships and within the broader aspect of HIV/AIDS, it is clear that some decision regarding sex for instance decisions about condom use are problematic (Kometsi, 2004. p. 12). Nevertheless, both men and women (the society) participate in ensuring certain masculinities are privileged and not others. Both men and women are active participants in the perpetuation of some forms of masculinity depending on whether they are favoring them or not.

Changing masculinity
However, masculinities are fluid and should not be considered as belonging in a fixed way to any group of men. They are socially and historically constructed in a process which involves contestation between rival understandings of what being a man should involve. Masculinities are constantly being protected and defended, are constantly breaking down and being recreated.

Deaux (in Zlotnik, 2002. p. 9) observes that masculinity is socially constructed and changes as relationships between societies do, rather than being a natural attribute. Masculinity as a construct or set of attributes does not apply only to men. Rather, it is a construct that may constitute part of the identity of both men and women to some extent.

“Unreal” Aids review (2004) research done by Kometsi on masculinity and HIV/AIDS in South Africa, University of Pretoria indicates that men’s perceptions on masculinity influence their relations with others especially their partners. There is a link between some of men’s practices and the spread of HIV (Kometsi, 2004. p. 81). Power as an operational concept is essential in examining how some men relate to themselves, and more importantly to women. Traditional masculinity therefore becomes some men’s practices in such relationships. This are practices that dominant images of manhood are associated with (Kometsi, 2004. p. 81).

Connell (in Kometsi, 2004. p. 82) suggest the importance of looking at how men and women lead gendered lives as a lead into what the concept of masculinity means.
Masculinity represents not just an idea in the head, or a personality identity. It is also extended in the world, merged in organized social relations. Concepts of masculinity and femininity therefore become useful instruments in looking at men, women and their gender experiences in the context of HIV/AIDS. Considering that some men are rendered more powerful than women in patriarchal societies, it is important to look at the gender power dynamics. This can help us understand men’s perception in their relationships with their partners and their roles in HIV/AIDS especially in testing, stigma support and care.

Furthermore, the socio-economic and political context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, where HIV/AIDS testing, stigma, disclosure, support and how they relate to masculinity have contributed greatly in the shaping and reshaping of these masculinities. In the political context, there have been debates about the casual link between HIV and AIDS and the crossfire between the government, pharmaceutical companies, civil societies and people living with HIV/AIDS about treatment options, and safety and efficacy of the drugs used for treatment. Within such a complexity, Tsha Tsha as an entertainment-education is used as a case study. Tsha Tsha strives to highlight on issues related to sexuality facing South Africans within a broader framework of addressing the problematic issue of HIV/AIDS.

Men are centrally implicated in the shifting sexual landscape in South Africa. There is a perception that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is driven by men, and men are blamed for the prevalence of domestic violence and child sexual abuse (Reid & Walker, 2005. p. 9; Mane & Aggleton, 2001). The recognition that it is men who spread the epidemic to women was ignored until the late 1990s. This is when it was recognised that since men have some power in sexual relationships they should shoulder the responsibility of preventing the transmission of HIV, protecting their own health as well as that of their female partners. Tsha Tsha presents new ways of targeting and addressing men that are not simply reinforcing traditional stereotypes of gender roles and masculine identities.

In the five interviews that I conducted with the producers of Tsha Tsha, there was an indication that they encode messages based on the assumption that human beings learn from their social environment through modeling (Bandura,1977). They use models that audience can identify with and learn from. While the producers come up with TV messeges in form of lessons through the programme, audiences (HIV-positive men) on the other side respond to such messages in a similar fashion. This explains the relationship between production and reception of such messages in the programme

After being exposed to 12 episodes of Tsha Tsha that had HIV/AIDS lessons purposely designed by programme producers about testing, disclosure and social support (encoding), the HIV-positive men indicated in the six focus grouped discussions, that followed the viewing, that they have learnt lessons about HIV-AIDS disclosure, testing social support through models in the programme. However, disclosure was the dominant theme as they explain in the following excerpts.

There is no any other way, you just have to disclose to the person you are concerned with and see what’s happening. Then you will get the support or you will get the negative response, it will depend. But it is better to stick to disclosure, you just have to disclose. Wellington. W. FGD.

Yah it’s good to talk to avoid thinking too much. WI. FGD.

This indicated that there is a level of success in changing audience perceptions if entertainment-education programmes are purposely designed with HIV/AIDS themes. Other lessons that they indicated to have learnt through the programme were the need to discourage multiple partners, living positively with HIV/AIDS disclosure and stigma, and having a better relationship.

Tsha Tsha therefore followed a theoretical approach that allows us to understand and partly explain production of lessons in Tsha Tsha, and largely explain the responses of HIV-positive men (audience) to the lessons presented. In this theoretical approach encoding is done within the genre of E-E, determining the product that appears in form of lessons. This genre (E-E) is defined by certain professional rules and regulations that define it. Therefore, the intention of the producers was for the audiences to share their version of meaning to the lessons they present when decoding these lessons.

Encoding-decoding theoretical approach therefore helps us understand how Tsha Tsha programme producers design lessons that encourage shared reading. It also explains how HIV-positive men respond to these lessons depending on several other factors. These factors include for instance, their HIV- positive condition. They identified with the lessons about HIV testing, disclosure and stigma out of the fact that they were already infected. Morley (1980), Fiske (1978) and Ang (in Downing et al 1990). Tsha Tsha audiences (HIV-positive) men had a preferred reading (shared reading; according to producers’ intentions) of lessons around HIV-disclosure, testing and stigma, and opening up for support and supporting others (their partners) in HIV/AIDS.

Disclosure
HIV-disclosure is seen as challenging HIV/AIDS stigma and traditional masculinity, where men accept their condition, and take responsibility to continue occupying their space as men. This they do through actions that promote their health and well being as well as those of their partners. The line between gender roles thus becomes invisible when it comes to HIV/AIDS.

Disclosure was repeatedly shown in the episodes through different characters at different contexts. Disclosure of HIV/AIDS in the programme was presented across many episodes as a necessary step towards coping with HIV/AIDS for those infected.

Most participants emphasized the need for HIV disclosure as a way of opening up for support and of helping infected people to cope with the physical and psychological stressors that come with the virus as they explained:

Disclosure has helped us to be strong… in such a way that we are getting the support that we need in the support groups. W.FGD

After knowing my status, I told myself I am like that and I will never change and I must give others the word…. S1. FGD.

The Focus Group Discussions by seven HIV-positive men indicated that they had a changed perception on various problematic issues in HIV/AIDS like testing, stigma, disclosure and social support. The HIV-positive men identified much with the character Viwe (model) due to her courage to test and disclose openly to her family and community, as well as starting a support group to help others. They saw Viwe as their hero because she was strong and, therefore, gave them hope as one of them noted:

Yah for me according to the role that they play I think Viwe is the hero because she is the one who talks about disclosure she is not afraid. W.FGD.

Tsha Tsha encouraged HIV-positive men to talk about certain important issues in HIV/AIDS such as reduction of sexual partners, using safety measures, seeking treatment and the need to live humanly with those infected. The HIV-positive men saw the programme as very encouraging because it teaches people and gives them information about HIV/AIDS.

I see only one thing that this cassette is very good to show people […people must] go and check their status, maybe this cassette can be used to teach to change that disclosure is normal. S2. FGD.

In line with supporting their partners (their roles and responsibilities), most of them were abandoned and were no longer in a relationship because their partners had ‘ran away’ after they disclosed, and perhaps Tsha Tsha should have addressed the issue of partners being abandoned after they disclosed. However, out of watching Tsha Tsha they indicated a changed perception of their roles in a relationship. Most importantly, the findings in this research indicated that masculinity is changing with some men taking responsibility of themselves and ‘partners’ (others), through disclosure after testing. It has also indicated Tsha Tsha’s contribution in providing lessons that brings about a change in perception in men’s roles and responsibilities in HIV/AIDS.

References

Bandura, A., (1969). Principles of Behaviour modification. New York: Holt Reinehart, Inc.
Bandura, A., (1971). Social Learning Theory. Morristown, N.J: General Learning.
Bandura, A., (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall
Bandura, A., (2003). Combating Aids: Communication strategy in action. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage.
Downing, J., Mohammadi, A., & Sreberny- Mahammadi, A., (1990). Questioning the media: a critical introduction. Newbury Park: Sage.
Gupta, R., (2000). Gender, sexuality and HIV/AIDS: the What and How. Washington DC: International Center for research in Women.
Hall, S., (1977).. Culture, the media and ideological effects In Curran, J., Gurevitch, M., & Wollacott, J. (Eds). Mass Communication and society. London: Edward.
Kometsi, K. (2004). Unreal. Pretoria: Center for the study of AIDS University of Pretoria.
Mane, P., & Aggleton, P., (2001). Gender and HIV/AIDS: What do men have to do with it? In current sociology. Nov. 2001, Vol. 49. No. 6: 23-37.
Morley, D., (1980). The ‘nationwide’ audience: Structure and decoding. London: British Film Institute.
Morley, D., (1986). Family Television: Cultural power and domestic Leisure. London: Routlegde.
Morell, R., (2001). Changing men in South Africa. London, New York Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Posel, D., (2004). Sex, Death and embodiment: Reflection on the stigma of AIDS in Angincourt, South Africa. Paper presented at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research seminar, Johannesburg.
Reid, G., & Walker, L., (2005). Men behaving differently. Cape Town: Double storey
Zlotnick, D., (2002. An exploration of male sexuality with respect to sexual orientation and sex role characteristics, Johannesburg: university o

Kwaito: Sexual semiotics and representation of women in the media

2008-07-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

As a media analyst and consultant, I have been keen on understanding how media covers and represents certain societal issues. On top of my list has been how the media represents identity, particularly gender issues. Owing to the fact that there are real power relations, in terms of gender, that define social order in both ancient and modern societies, we have seen patterns that seem to perpetrate the notion of patriarchy and the male domination being reinforced.

Due to the fact that the media, at least to some extent, simply reflects what society is, it has not escaped the reinforcement of gender stereotypes in its modes of address (how the media invites viewers into particular viewing habits) through kwaito music. The media is one of the most powerful forces for influencing societal attitudes and perceptions. It has therefore become subject to many criticism and studies.

Most interventions addressing the gender gap, particularly the under representation of women in the media, have mainly focused on news. Although news events represent reality, media effects cannot simply be measured in terms of news. Even when reading news, audiences carry with them texts from different media, channels and programmes (intertextuality).

There is increasing global popularity of music as a popular culture. In South Africa, special reference can be made to Kwaito music which is dramatically shaping the urban youth culture. It has been argued that women are represented in Kwaito music through the lyrics and the use of signs (signifiers and signifieds) to create a narrative that portrays them as submissive and sexual objects of the ‘unseen man’s gaze’.

Often the lyrics are normally sung by the male and women respond to the male voice while dancing in a sexually explicit manner. The emerging female artists that contest this male dominated “Kwaito space” also seem to perpetrate this trend through their lyrics and dancing. It is important therefore to consider the extent at which this popular culture represents women in an attempt to address the gendered construction of power and the perpetuation of stereotypes about women through the media. With Kwaito increasingly becoming popular and celebrated in the SADC region, it might be a very subtle way of legitimizing gendered stereotypes.

But what really is Kwaito?

According to Simon Stephens, Kwaito music is a contemporary black dance music that has emerged over the past decade and become intensively popular in South Africa. It is an evolution of music known as “bubblegum” or South African disco and other international sounds thrown in. The music is created in the studio using synthesizers and computers and is performed live using CD backing tracks. Many of the producers of Kwaito are DJs, either from radio or clubs, and they are exclusively male. The music usually consists of a male rapper with mostly female singing, and generally it is rapped and sung in tsotsitaal, a township slung that combines various South African languages.

DJ Diplo described kwaito as poor South African kids’ form of slowed-down garage music."Kwaito's lyrics are usually in indigenous South African languages or in English, although several languages can be found in the same song. The name kwaito itself is derived from the Afrikaans word Kwaai, meaning "angry". This Afrikaans word is derived from the Isicamtho, South African township slang, word amakwaitosi, meaning "gangster".

Arthur Mafokate, one of the founding fathers of kwaito describes the relationship between kwaito and "gangster" being because it is "all about the ghetto music". Kwaito was born in Soweto, one of the townships where blacks were forced to live during the time of apartheid. Similarly, kwaito has been referred to as the "sound of the ghetto", and emerged from the most economically depressed areas of South Africa.

Kwaito is the music associated with the black youth of post-apartheid South Africa. Essentially a form of dance music, in its most common form kwaito is intentionally apolitical and represents music "after the struggle". However, the term "kwaito" also has recently refered to a whole youth culture complete with the vernacular and fashion norms. Various competing opinions debate the origin of the word Kwaito.

From Isicamtho; the South African township slang, composed of different indigenous languages integrated with the languages of colonial English and Afrikaans, comes the word amakwaitosi, meaning “gangster”, driven from Afrikaans’ “kwaai”, which means strict or angry. M’du, one of the pioneering Kwaito artists says the word derived from the Afrikaans slang word “kwaai” which is parallel to our slang English words "cool" or "hot." However, Stephens’s translation of the Afrikaans word ‘kwaai’ means excellent.

Party Music
Kwaito is therefore seen as party music however, its lyrics and live performances are renowned for sexual explicitness of the dancing. In a research conducted by Stephens, most male respondents insisted that the lyrics in Kwaito are irrelevant and many claimed that they only listen to Kwaito for the beat and the instrument. This is something I must agree with because it reminds me of my first head-on encounter with Kwaito in Botswana, at a famous place in Gaborone called Kofifi. This was my first outing in Gaborone after my friend Aldo, a Kenyan of Somali origin, offered to buy me a couple of drinks and some roasted meat.

In Botswana, people normally have a culture of driving and gathering around a small trading centre next to a butchery and a liquor store to refill their stomachs when they are short of meat or beer respectively. This happens amidst a hectic musical noise of a number of kwaito songs, mostly imported from South Africa, from the parked vehicles with plenty of female company who always dance in a sexual manner next to the flashy cars. On that occasion, I recall, the only thing I enjoyed was the beat or the instrumental and I must confess, the female dances. However, this could have been due to the fact that I did not understand the language combination that forms Kwaito.

Kwaito songs often take the form of a dialogue between a man and a woman, where a man says certain sexually explicit words and the women respond to those male voices in agreement. A good example is the DJ Cleo’s song Sis Nghamba Nawe. In this song, the video shows a scene in a bar with DJ Cleo trying to convince one of the ladies he has just met to come home with him after a couple of drinks and identifying other girls for his friends to go home with too. The irony in this song is that the friend to the lady DJ Cleo wants to go home with is quick to respond ‘that she’s coming with him too’ without being asked. She does this with a sexy desperate voice.

This song has been criticized, mostly by women for portraying them as cheap, promiscuous and ready to sleep with a man they just met after a few rounds of alcohol. Another song by Mandoza called Sigelekeke meaning ‘cutting the cake’ was banned out from the airwaves due to its sexually explicit nature. ‘Cutting the cake’ here referred to “f*****g” and the video was composed of women dressed in a sexy manner showing sexually explicit dances on top of the bed. Arthur Mafokate‘s song Vuvuzela is also ranked in the same league of sexually explicit lyrics.

Club and radio DJs are the popular men behind Kwaito. DJ Cleo started composing albums in 1995 and has since used his composing skills to make hits for artists like Mandoza, Brown Dash and others. One interesting thing is that his song Sis Nghamba Nawe has been a hit to both women and men and it has helped him renew his confidence with kwaito fans as the savior of kwaito music, which, according to him, is dying.

On the other hand, kwaito star Arthur Mafokate is seen to be one of the pioneers of the Kwaito music genre. He is credited with creating the first kwaito hit with his 1995 song Kaffir. While the song itself is notable musically for spearheading a new genre of music, its lyrics reflect the new freedoms that emerged after the political changes of 1994, including the implementation of a new constitution and democratic election system. The title, "Kaffir," is a derogatory term used mostly in South Africa as a racial slur to refer to black people. In his song, Mafokate protests against the use of the word "kaffir,” The song sold in excess of 150,000 copies and largely influenced the state of kwaito today.

With such popular Kwaito producers and artists perpetrating gender stereotypes through their music videos and lyrical content, and they still enjoy popularity through the media that boosts their record sales, there is a danger that they could just be legitimizing certain stereotypes about women and their sexuality through their songs.

The sad thing is that the women who emerged to contest this male dominated space such as the late Brenda Fassie and Lebo Mathosa, and most recently Kelly Khumalo and Chomie have also been caught up with the idea of ‘sex sells’ for the sake of profit and therefore, have done little in freeing the female body from sexual objectification by men. They seem to have their own version of portraying sexuality which seems to reinforce what their male counterparts are preaching and seem to find majority support from the male audiences.

Blessed Ngwenya, a junior lecturer in media studies at UNISA and a close friend agrees that “music should consider contemporary cultural issues”. In the case of kwaito, there is an urban youth culture that identify with the sexual expression and body politic that symbolises a greater degree of freedom in post apartheid South Africa. He says furthermore, “the album has to sell, try not to consider the sexual content and the lyrics and see how much you can sell”.

He adds that “kwaito, as a product, has been caught up in the market (music business), just like other brands and it is simply trying to survive through strategies that will appeal to its target audience”. Ngwenya argues that “we cannot be singing about ethics all the time if they don’t appeal to the target audience”. He suggests that perhaps the ethical work should be left for gospel music, which is also gaining popularity amongst the youth in South Africa. “Perhaps gospel music counter and capitalise on the ethical gap created by kwaito”, he suggests.

Some Kwaito ingredients in the media
It is obvious that the media gives popularity to certain artists and songs. Just like kwaito, the media can sacrifice ethical content for the sake of profit. Urban youth radio stations, and magazines, many of which have been founded and influenced through kwaito as a youth culture, depend on Kwaito as a building block for their survival. To them, Kwaito is what the listeners want to hear and the strengths of Kwaito are in their sexually explicit nature which appeal to the audiences- the two are indivisible.

There is no doubt therefore that there is very little that the media can do concerning the choice of “ethical Kwaito” music for its audiences. There cannot be gospel time slots in Y fm scheduling for instances to replace Kwaito because this will be interfering with the target market. It seems as if the entertainment media both print and broadcast has some kwaito ingredients in their very nature that determined their existence and will go a long way in shaping their destiny.

Conclusively, the society is yet to willingly accept (hegemony) the many gender stereotypes popularised and perpetrated or even born by kwaito that seem natural and acceptable because ‘the times have changed’. Through Kwaito therefore, suffice it to argue, the media invites and positions audiences into particular viewing habits as subjects of the sexually explicit content that they find acceptable beyond reasonable doubt and cannot contest.

Writers Profile: Fredrick Ogenga has a bachelors and a masters degree in Media & Journalism studies. He is an indipendent media consultant & analyst, a freelance writer, reporter for africanews.com, lecturer in Media & journalism and the founding director of Tazama media consultants closed corporate company. He is also pursuing a PHD in media studies at the University of Witwatersrand. Ogenga has published widely in the field of gender, HIV/AIDS, health and other socio-political issues and is listed in the UNAIDS database of consultants. His latest contribution on gender and HIV/AIDS can be found in the fourth issue of the 2008 media diversity journal at www.genderlinks.org.za. He also runs his own blog www.tazamamediaconsultants.blogspot.com

My views on Appiah's Cosmopolitanism

2008-01-24T04:38:00.000-08:00

My friend Kat from Germany today mentioned to me an idea that I haven’t heard before about cosmopolitanism. I know the word cosmopolitan therefore, my curiosity led me to read on Obaze Osoleka’s views on Appiah’s work on cosmopolitanism. A quick note that I made is that even shared commonalities in terms of human values, norms, culture, traditions etc that he mentions do not take place in a vacuum and neither do they occur in an ideologically free zone. They are all relative to the boundaries, physical or otherwise, that are present and real in our global societies irrespective of nation, race, class or even gender that dictates our versions of realities. In this context, therefore, anything beyond and different from what the values, based on this functions, that our so called shared commonalities have allowed us to access within our boundaries is strange to us.

If Appiahs’s claim is to be tested in this modern world, then you will agree with me that “intelligence and curiosity as well as engagement” is impossible to achieve in a world driven by market place computer technology, where there is still division among those able to access such devices and those that can actually access them. How many people can access computers in my rural Kadem constituency in Kenya to share ‘our’ intelligent thoughts about fish and the myth,which is almost like a fact, that my people believe in that if you eat the brains of a fish you will be intelligent? (statistically, Luo’s are the most intelligent tribe in Kenya). Now, whether this is a result of years of fish eating from Lake Victoria is unreliable and still needs scientific validation.

If Appiah’s cosmopolitanism intellectual engagement means people actually travelling to other places in the world and experiencing new insights as strangers and does not include communication devices like the internet, blogs ect, then I am afraid that the world has almost 100% chances of being hit by a meteorite from space than realising cosmopolitanism. If we put technology in the picture, then I am equally afraid that we fall at risk of sliding into Marxist territories where market forces determining the nature of communication, that is, primitive and rural societies will always remain information malnourished due to political economy that involves ownership of communication devices dominated by multinational giants like Apple, Microsoft on one hand and Google and yahoo on the other, CNN and BBC on one side and Alajazeera and SABC- Africa on the other and the complexities in installing such devices. I addition these global communication giants have their capitalistic ambitions in terms of what their gatekeepers allow them to pass through or not to the public and this is not a space free of ideologies.

It is in this space that old notions of identity and 'othering'such as stereotypes, xenophobia, tribalism, racism are still being exercised and will continue to thrive. Clearly, there cannot be cosmopolitanism in a world without technological and other interactions. Traditional human interaction is already in jeopardy. While there are claims about free movement of people and commodities, there are even more severe measures put in place in terms of Visas and immigration policies that make it difficult for strangers to meet and thereofore, rendering such claims meaningless. In South Africa for example, there is a new Visa requirement for international students that requires them to posses a South African Medical cover to be accepted at Wits. Previously, they could come with their own cover. While this might look convenient, especially when one falls ill, it is expensive making, it difficult to get admission and thus, exclude some foreign students from poor countries. These problematic issues are still fresh and real in my brain. I think Appiah’s thoughts on cosmopolitanism are quite sexy and seductive but are, just like many others, still romanticised, idealistic and far from reality. However, they are quite engaging and interesting.

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Kenya is the real clinic to rethink Harbermus' Democractic thoughts

2008-01-21T02:31:00.000-08:00

What is Democracy?

Well, while democracy seems to thrive as an idea, though still leaves a lot to be desired, in most western countries, the fashion in the African countries is a negative thrive and I will tell you why. Democracy ideally, simply means the freedom to choose a leader that every citizen of a sovereign country should enjoy without being intimidated nor forced or threatened. In the west, and in countries like the united states, democracy goes hand in hand with the first amendment in the American constitution which means freedom of expression. Of course this includes freedom of religion, association, and a couple of other rights that are human rights and are embedded in the constitution. Within this context therefore, comes the right to vote and choose the leader one personally feels suitable to govern the sovereign state.

Freedom of the press therefore, is an extension of individual freedom and rights as stipulated or as should be stipulated in every 'democratic country's' constitution. Note that the word democracy is in quotes, this is because democracy itself as an ideal system does not actual exist, at least according to Habermus. I will highlight why much later but first, let me explain to you why I think that for democracy to thrive in Africa, is a complete fiasco. When the concept of 'free will was being introduced in Zimbabwe, most ordinary people thought that they will be receiving free things from the government. Little did they know that democracy works hand in hand with capitalism which has actually cultivated a 'a man eat man society’. On a national context in the so called democracy, the rich people like Robert Mugabe accumulate more wealth which enable them contest and occupy positions of power leaving the majority (the citizens) on the receiving end.

Globally, the same pattern has been observed in situation where rich countries dominate other countries via multinational companies and news channels through unfair trade and unfair distribution of information reinforcing their power position. This is true for particularly countries such as the US and Britain, which have been strong allies in preaching democracy while at the same time, warmongering for oil and other benefits to suit their interests. I seem to fight my subjectivity when I am writing about the G8 countries and I will reserve, at least for now, my arguments and save them for a radical subjective writing next time.

Let me embark on the clinic that gives enough evidence to Harbermus’ popular arguments about ‘rethinking democracy’ and explains why democracy cannot thrive in Africa. The clinic is no other than Kenya. Kenya has been known to make global headlines on issues such marathon and maybe tourism and perhaps the terrorism that took place couple of years ago masterminded by Osama bin Laden targeted at ‘Americans’ in the American embassy in Nairobi which, of course, killed more Kenyans than Americans. Kenya is now making headlines as the country that is now facing ethnic cleansing/genocide similar to atrocities only seen in Rwanda and Burundi and in parts of the then Russia. Why? because two political interest groups are fighting for power. Why? Because one group manipulated election results through the abuse of state machinery and emerged victorious? Why? because it has been there for the last five years and it was so sweet for them to leave so soon? Why , because they have been eating and so, being out of power will mean starvation. Whether, the opposition will utilize the same strategy if given a chance in the future still waits to be seen.

In his (1962)paper on the structural transformation of the public sphere “ rethinking public sphere” Jurgen Habermus defines the public sphere as a political arena created only during the electioneering period to create a public space to contest for power. He therefore, sees it as a very seasonal, semi-permanent, almost artificial arrangement where the so called ruling class emerge to make promises to the bourgeoisie if elected. One interesting thing is that in order to make it to this arena, you must have wealth. In other words, you must be rich. In third world countries and even western countries, it is only the rich who will make it to this arena. However, the majority, who are the citizens will be faced with limited options come elections because they have to choose from this group of people that have already occupied that space (public sphere). Any new entry to this space is highly criticized and fought through propaganda and other means.

This being the case, the bourgeoisie creates their own space almost like a culture which Habermus calls “the subaltern counter publics” . This is created as an attempt to resist the domination by the ruling class and to topple it if need be. It manifests itself through the formation of civil rights groups which spearhead civil disobedience, demonstrations, strikes and sometimes creates lawlessness. This is exactly what is happening in Kenya. Yes, this is a step towards democracy. However, all this should be allowed to happen in an ideal democratic situation and should not be banned. Habermus argues that in ideal democracy, there should be a multiplicity of thought/opinions and therefore, different voices should be given a chance and be accommodated in attempt to reach a common good. In addition he advocates for greater equality among the citizens but, however, accepts that real equality is difficult to achieve and talks of a move towards greater equality between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.

If we mirror this to what is happening in Kenya, clearly, the country is now moving against ideal democracy. Firstly, due to the fact that the government has no room for multiplicity of thoughts and has made the right to demonstrations and protests illegal therefore’ killing the subaltern counter public (a very crucial public in ideal democracy) and the culture so to speak. Secondly, the gap between the rich and the poor has become even worse in Kibaki’s regime and lastly, the press has been muzzled and therefore, the basic fundamental freedom of expression has been killed. According to Habermus, there is nothing like democracy in world politics, especially in a country like Kenya, it is just another utopia. However, he claims that a move towards ideal democracy is when there is multiplicity of thoughts for common good and greater equality among citizens and perhaps this is the situation in United states and Britain.

As far as Kenya is concerned, the government has a difficult task and a long rugged road to go. The first on is to leave the media alone, the second one is to ensure that the biggest slum in Africa (Kibera) and others cease to exist and ODM and other protesters (sabaltern counter publics) are allowed to demonstrate and their agenda be included in our constitution for common good. The last two are unlikely to materialize any time soon. Kenya will thus remains an ideal clinic to reinforce Harbermus’ thought about democracy for generations to come.

Who said this is Kikuyu-Luo battle?

2008-01-17T05:05:00.000-08:00

"Tawala Kenya, tawala...Rais odinga tawala Kenya tawala.."

This were the words that formed the song chanted by protesters in Kisumu, the opposition home turf. The words of the song translated as "Lead kenya, lead us...president Odinga". This was done despite the governement stern warning that the so called nationwide "peaceful" demonstration were illegal and they will not allow people to demonstrate. The roudy youths carried leaves and branches and barricaded roads. Some youths set fire a coffin with a potrait of president Kibaki symbolising the death of democracy in Kenya.

It was not only in Kisumu that protest took place, the three day nationwide protest called by the opposition leader that is meant to push the government to meet their demands was also taking place in other parts of the country. In Nairobi, police guarded the famous Uhuru park (freedom park) where opposition leaders called for a massive rally. There was alot of tension and most busineses renained closed. Police fired teargas and live bullets in the air to disperse a group of chanting opposition leaders and their followers as they attempted to make their way into uhuru park. Elsewhere, in mombasa and eldoret, the police had to deal with similar situations.

What is surprising in the violence that has since rocked the country, following the disputed presidential election, is that the focus has shifted. It is now not a kikuyu- luo war so to speak, but a war between a government which does not want to compromise and respect the will of the majority (the people of Kenya) and citizens. A governement that is employing military tacticts as a depserate means to cling onto power. Who said this was a Luo-Kikuyu tribal war? If so, why is it that all over sudden the focus is now between the governement police and the demonstrators? I am now hearing more of the government shooting and killing innocent demonstrators than the early reports of Luos or Kalenjins killing the kikuyu.

Yes, the kikuyus are displaced, why? because they fear that they may, like so many were in the begining of this crisis, victimised by the actions of an irresponsible leader who is power hungry and thinks about his personal interests. Infact, if Kibaki cares about the kikuyu tribe, then he should clearly resign for the sake of his community. Most of the kikuyus are now refugees in their own country because of Kibaki. Infact, even the kikuyu's themselves do not approve what he is doing. It is only a handful of his loyal supporters that are supporting him in using goverment machinery to unleash terror to ordinary 'wanainchi' who are just excersising their democratic right to protest just as they did when they voted.

This is why I insist that this is not a tribal battle, it is a battle to salvage the country from the arms of capitalists and economic vultures that are sucking the bloods of kenyans while they are still alive. The EU, US and UK should impose heavy sanctions on this regime and ban Kibaki and his entire cabinet from traveling in those regions for the sake of democracy and respect for human rights. Kibaki is certainly between a rock and a hard place and the only good thing he can do to Kenya now, is to accept that the people of Kenya did not elect him as the president.

Kibaki and his entire team support the orders to "shoot to kill" protesters. They should not be spared for the killing of innocent Kenyans. Accountability for such actions should be extended to any other people involved whether in government or oppossition. Kenya is a democracy not a military state with a military ruler. If the current violence continues, the economy, just like democracy, will face a natural death. Eventualy, push shall have come to shove and guess what? Kibaki, his family and cabinet will all relocate abroad with the money they have been stealing from the tax payer via corruption and leave ordinary Kenyans to suffer.

Rape and HIV/AIDS

2008-01-16T03:05:00.000-08:00

South Africa's twin epidemic

" South Africa has two epidemics, one of HIV and the other one of sexual violence, " says Marlise Richter, a researcher at the Aids Law Projec (ALP) at the university of Witwatersrand. " And the two are closely linked, " she adds.

According to the most recent available statistics from the South African Police Servise, 52,733 cases of rape were reported in 2003/2004 and this slightly increased in 2005/2006 to 54,926., reafirming South Africa's unenviable claim of being the rape capital of the world. South Africa also has an adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 20 percent , giving it another unenviable title, that of the country with the highest number of HIV infected people. The two figure are not coincidental argues Richter. Indeed, she says rape and HIV/AIDS are closely linked and the linkage happens at the level of gender.

However high the number of rape cases are in South Africa, my independent research with perpetrators of rape awaiting trial at the sun city prison (Jahannesburg Prison) indicates that some of the reported cases were false cases. This is a situation whereby some women consent to sex and later, due to disagreement with their partners, the women go and report that they have been raped. In some incidences, this interviewees claimed that their girlfriends, wives or simply put, long term partners report them for rape for simple financial reasons in cases where the two have financial dispute over property and othe material things. Although this responses may be biased, they cannot be dismissed and to some extent, they complicate statistics that solely rely on cases that have been reported to the police and do not indicate statistics of actual convitions depending on whether the perpetrators were found guilty or not in a court of law. This is where the problem lays.

Nevertheless, the mechanics of rape , characterised as it is by force, violence and trauma, combined with the biology of HIV transmission through semen and blood, create an ideal opportunity to spread HIV infection. '" From a medical perspective, rape is characterised by bleeding and considering the fact that there is high HIV prevalence in South Africa, it is only logical that those who are raped are at high risk of contracting HIV," says Richter.

Although understanding the mode of infectious transmission may be relatively straightfoward, explaining South Africa's alarming rape statistics is much more complicated. Sadiyya Haffejee, a researcher with the Gender Unit at the Centre for the Studdy of Violence and Reconciliation, says the widespread prevalence of rape is a legacy of the culture of violence that sustained arpatheid and a product of the current pace of rapid and ongoing social transformation. " South Africa is traditionally a male dominated and patriarchal society and research suggest that rape is more prevalent in such societies. A culture of violence has also dominated South Africa for years and the current level of criminal and political violence, rooted in arpatheid and the political struggle to overthrow it , has left many with a sense of powerlesness."

This sense of powerlessness among men as South Africa transforms into a democratic society that is rapidly redefining traditional gender roles and especialy relationships is manifetsed in extreme examples of antisocial behaviour, least of all rape. According to Dr Hellen Jones, a senior lecturer in criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, " rape is not a gender neutral activity. People do not rape, men rape. Rape is also about power and control, not about sex." Jones also argues that the many 'rape myths' widely propagated in South Africa, such as the belief that men rape because they cannot control their sexual lust and that women enjoy being raped, contribute to the sense of social permissiveness around rape.

While changing the social conditions that underlies South Africa's horrific rape statistics and the consequent implications for spreading HIV/AIDS remains a long term and profoundly complex challenge, anti rape and HIV/AIDS activists are persuing a number of campaigns to effect immediate changes to adress the twin epidemics of rape and HIV/AIDS, including legal responces, educational campaigns, and more rigorous application of health policies.

" The Department of Health has very limited guidelines on rape and that is why we at the Aids Law Project are pushing for an extensive guideline. The current guideline for instance does not deal with the relationship between violence againist women and the risk of HIV transmission, "says Richter. The ALP is also pushing for better implementation of existing health policies that entitle women to post exposure prophylaxis to prvent HIV transmission following a rape. The ALP also publishes a handbook that provide critical legal and medical information to rape survivors to prevent HIV transmission.

HIV/AIDS…tell people that they must be normal; they must take care of themselves.

2008-01-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

Rape accounts for a number of HIV/AIDS cases in South Africa. Some of these incidences go unreported or untold. With high rates of rape in South Africa, it is never very far from your doorstep. Dorcas Ndou came face to face with rape two years ago when she was only 20. She was raped and worse still, infected with what so many people still consider a deadly Virus, HIV.

Like any other rape survivor, she was confused and traumatised at the time,
“When I went to the clinic after they raped me I tested positive. I was sic, I was stressed, I got cancelled… they cancelled me at the Baragwanath Hospital”.

After dealing with the trauma of rape, Dorcas had to deal with yet another reality-HIV/AIDS. “I was like confused and stressed then I got canselled, I am coping good, like Iam used to this infection…I got it …I was raped, I got that infection from rape there is nothing good, like I am used to this disease”.

Although Jane found life difficult after being raped and infected with HIV, she explains what enabled her to cope “ I was eating healthy foods …and I take some herbs. I was drinking tablets but now I don’t take tablets because they make me sic … the only disease that makes me sic is flu…then I eat garlic…I boil garlic then I pour fish oil then I drink it”.

Apart from eating healthy foods, Jane was lucky because, unlike many other people who disclose, no one rejected her and she got the necessary support from the family members when she disclosed to them, “My parents and my colleagues adviced me…like I must not be scared, I must be normal like other people…eish … I become happy like when they talk to me like that. No one has rejected me”.

She claims that people must disclose and take care of their bodies by eating healthy food. “… People who are infected must be themselves, like they must be like other people, they must not be scared to this disease”. Jane claims that she can help other people by counselling them about HIV “they must feel free, eat healthy food and disclose to other people, telling other people about this disease”. She gave a brief example of her diet on a typical day, “Vegetables, fruits like fruit juices… I eat liquid food … like juice which have lots of fruits… they are expensive…like my mother is trying to buy them”

“I am used to this disease”, she says. She admits though, that the future seems bad for her, but she is trying to make it better, “ Now my future is bad, but I want to make it better by studying and getting advice from other people, from my brother, other sisters like nurses and my educators at school and advising other people too”.

Jane is neither planning to have a boyfriend nor sex anymore. “Eish because like I am infected, I don’t want to infect other people. Condoms are not 100 percent effective”. She says. “ I am studying tourism and Mathematics at Naledi secondary school.
When I go out, I want to be a social worker. I would like to tell people that they must be normal; they must take care of themselves. They must eat healthy food and they must not have unprotected sex they must use a condom”. She adds.

The story of Jane is a story of hope. It shows how so much can be done to combat HIV/AIDS. Voicing the experiences of those who are infected and involving them in HIV/AIDS interventions is now a must. As the English saying goes, “Who feels it knows it”.

Our Media

2008-01-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

Which media tells the truth? I have to thank the kenyan media for striving to be objective while exposing the truth in what has since robbed Kenya it's international reputation as a stable democracy and a model in Africa. The events unfolding in Kenya were uncalled for, untimely and quite unexpected. However, as much as they seemed to have surprised the world, I was not very surprised because I already had a bad feeling about the elections, sepecially when the Electoral Commission of Kenya delayed announcing the winner of the presidential votes and eventualy suspending the process due to " public pressure".

I remember how I was roaming everywhere to get hold of the latest news about the elections, being a kenyan living in South Africa. I still do. I simply could not be satisfied by Aljazeera, sky news, BBC, dont even mention CNN. In many occassions, I was channel hoping and not even SABC Africa, which I wonder how prominent African issues are to them-they seemed to be focusing on other issues and proximity to them did not count as a news value, could satisfy me. CNBC-Africa should just delete the word "Africa" attached on CNBC, because everytime I am tuned in, they are always reporting on stories in the united states and europe. Anyway, the internet came in handy and thanks God the Kenyan Daily newspaper online (Daily nation) is available.

On this day, while busy reading nation online, a female kenyan friend walked in shouting " hey Fred, I thought I would find you here" she sounded happy, but at the same time had an empty expresion on her face. Then, well, we had to update ourselves on whatever news we had about the elections. Knowing that I am a Luo by tribe, she told me that Raila, the Luo opposition leader was still ahead of Kibaki, the Kikuyu. She was not literaly mentioning the two tribes but what she said later, convinced me that she realy wants victory for Kibaki, since Kibaki belongs to her tribe. She said Raila is now leading with a difference of 200,000 votes and continued that the government is planning to delete names starting with letters "o" and "A", which happens to be Luo names, in Raila's Lang'ata costituency so that he can loose his parliarmentary seat. She seemed not to have any problem with such fraud.

For you to be president in Kenya, you have to be an elected member of parliament as one of the requirements by law.I was shocked to find out from the news that Raila's name was actualy missing from the voter register just like she said and several other names. Raila's second name is Odinga. From that point, I knew things will terribly go wrong in this year's election. I remember telling my friend at the cybercafe that I also suspect, due to the delayed announcement that Kibaki will be declared the winner, but I also warned her that if such is the case, and given the support the opposition has in Kenya, it will create violence. That is why I was not shocked when violence erupted in Kenya.

Then very heavy focus by the international media followed. This focus included heavy critisism and reminded me of majopr stereotypes the west still has about Africa and Kenya in particular. A blanket statement about their reporting is that they presented the Kenyan situation as nothing different from the tribal war in Rwanda and Burundi and othersuch wars that take place in most of the countries in Africa. It was simply the Luo fighting the Kikuyu as a result of the disputed elections and not a war as a result of people's democratic rights being infringed. Infact, it turned out to be the Kalengin killing the kikuyu in Rift valley, a fact that they quickly corrected by claiming that it was actualy the Luo allies.

However, thanks to media diversity, because while this kind of reporting came largely from Sky news, BBC and CNN, Aljazeera reported more accurately, putting issues into perspective and in their right context. All Kenyans know that this is not a tribal war, it is a war for economic empowerment of the poor who have been langushing in poverty for a long time and who are fed up with the empty promises of selfish politicians. Little wonder that the core of the clashes are in areas where poor people live, and that is, the slum areas of major cities and rural areas. As it is, it only heighted tribal suspicions in such areas which later turned into physical battles, as accusations and counter accusations among rival tribes based on their economic positions in the current economic situation in Kenya.

The victimised here obviously, are the kikuyu because they, over the years and since independence, have accumulated wealth and are better off than other communities in the country. This exposed the consequences of tribal alignment, whereby the other minority communities in Kenya believe that others, in this case the kikuyu, who apparently form the governement, have to blame for their poverty.Nothing can justify the killings that took place in Kenya. Whether it came from ODM suporters or PNU suppoters is immaterial. What remains clear now is that Kenyans will not allow selfish leaders in office anymore in future because they are educated and have matured democraticaly.

This perhaps marks the death of rigging in future elections, and marks the begining of a mature democracy where the people's voice is respected and leaders are ready to leave office after being defeated in elections. The Kenyan media should be given a thumbs up in not taking sides in this crisis but standing for what the people of Kenya now desperately need, peace. The Kenyan media should keep on preaching peace irrespective of what the foriegn media reports. Afterall, as the first president of Kneya, the late mzee Kenyatta use to say "Kenya is marwa nobody can tunya's" an expression that combines Luo, Kikuyu and english to represent the diversity of the kenyan people, let us protect Kenya.

How journalists should work with scientists in health reporting

2008-01-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

By Fredrick Ogenga
Former MA student, HIV/AIDS and the Media Project.

Recently, I was one of the delegates at a 2 day health care media exchange seminar at Hackle Brooke in Craig Park. The exchange was sponsored by Mescheme and co supported by Africa Media assd the media projecte is the level at which scientists and journalists find it difficult to speak the same language about health issues particularly HIV/AIDS.

Often, these two groups of people are suspicious of each other. Kanyi Ndaki a health reporter from IRIN plus news briefly describes it as “mistrust between the scientific community and journalists”. She says journalists find it difficult to deal with people who don’t trust and respect them. She however accepts that yes, journalists have a problem in understanding science. This results in overstating, dumping down statistics and figures.

Although there are several health issues that affect us, one that we cannot escape mentioning is HIV/AIDS. In retrospect, HIV/AIDS in the media has been, time and again, portrayed as a “killer”. Messages on TV, radio, print and other forms of media “scared the audience off”. Rachel Jewekes, director Media Research Council’s Gender and Health Unit and one of the panellists in the exchange, observes a situation where the media focuses in portraying those infected as innocent victims leading to stigmatisation.

The linking of HIV/AIDS to horrible death has made those infected resist rather than accept their status, she says. This encourages denial limiting testing and support for those infected. Jewekes explains that HIV/AIDS reporting has led to the dissemination of harmful myths such as virgin cleansing and rape (the infected raping virgins believing they will be cured of HIV/AIDS) including baby rape. This area of reporting (rape) has been uncritical. There is very little educational component is such reporting.

The idea of baby rape she adds has been repeated several times in the media perpetrating the myth. Journalists should take clear responsibility in what they report. Increasing example of good reporting involves utilistaion of various sources and angles including educational angles and what she calls “social value based journalism” which present ways in which people make real meaning of AIDS in their lives.

Problems in reporting often lie in accuracy in statistics and media accuracy. Journalists should have a critical reflection of their sources of information (mainly scientists). They should be health experts and act as social leaders in HIV/AIDS and other health issues. They should challenge attitudes and values through rigorous fact checking, and searching for underlying issues rather than attention grabbing parts of a story.

Marietje Myburg regional coordinator (communication), Governance and AIDS Program talks about “what journalists need to know from science to enable them tell citizens what they need to know”. This is a situation where journalists hold scientists responsible to give citizens power to know. They should not simplify what is complicated and not complicate what is simple”. Reporting on science requires honesty, she adds. Journalists should ask if they are sure about what they wrote. They should know the extent at which the story accommodates the experience of strangers.

As far as journalism is concerned, this is a tall order indeed. Journalists can try and include all the recommendations discussed above when reporting, particularly on HIV/AIDS. But it does not necessary mean that their reporting will lead to behaviour change. Dr Soul Johnson, managing director of Health Development Africa suggests enforcing certain standards on reporting (by law) and the way advertising present issues of national importance. However, he adds that people’s perceptions of social norms influence how other people behave. HIV/AIDS being a complex issue, a simple media intervention or reporting can hardly address such a complexity.

HIV/AIDS involves issues of gender relations – perceived societal cultural norms and traditions and how to overcome such issues are beyond the ability of a media intervention. Johnson suggests solution hrough ethical standards in reporting by giving a story a human face. In the case of HIV/AIDS then it should have some information on how to cope. Journalists can work with scientists in the science of health if they are expected to be active participants in the process.

Even peace is a human rights issue

2008-01-10T04:07:00.000-08:00

I strongly disagree with the statement made by a member of the Kenya National commission for Human Rights mr Maina Kiai that " The kenyan media failed to search underneath the surface to look for the root cause of a political crisis". He was accusing the Kenyan media of hiding the reality, especialy related to what many saw as tribal cleansing related to the disputed presidential elections in Kenya. He continued that " The only way to peace is through truth and justice. Its not enough to be calm ; we need the truth". I am reffering to the article titled " Kenyan media spurns violence and calls for peace" pubished by The Star, Tuesday 10 2008

There are several issues that Maina should thoroughly understand. First, is that one of the role of the media is to inform but within the boundaries of social responsibility. Even as the media strives to report the truth to the public by giving out facts and real objective accounts of events that take place to satisfy there interest, it has to do this in a manner not likey to incite the society into more violence. Secondly, that the idea of tribalism is an identity problem and it is worsened by the stereotypes attached to the "other" whether negatiove or positive. Everyone knows that identity issues are ideological and one of the ways in which ideology thrives is through propaganda and naming or blaming of the "other". So the fact that the kenyan media avoided the naming of either the victims or perpetrators of the violence in Kenya and chose to preach peace only demonstares the maturity of our media. It further proves that the Kenyan media realy upholds and respects its role in the Kenyan society as a socialy responsible media.

I can continue arguing to inform Mr Maina that in any human rights issue related to two or more conflicting interest groups, the rule of law anywhere in the world will defend the idea of balancing rights to see which right outweighs the other, or which one infringes on the other. In this case, the Kenyan media seems to understand that the right to peace outweighs the right for kenyans to know (freedom to recieve information) which tribe is killing which one and in what manner, something that will only aggrevate the whole situation. Therefore, Mr Maina should rethink his position and agree that the Kenyan media is playing a critical socially responsible role to see us through in the current problematic situation.