Unending slavery in Mauritania?

Mauritania is not one of those countries I have ever thought of visiting to pose, do nothing, and keep posing then call it a holiday. No. But it’s been on my mind, as part of my bucketlist, so I visiting it would be a mission to satisfy my growing curiosity.

I want to see slavery in their country. That is the curiosity I need to satisfy. This is a country with ongoing slavery. Slaves born from slave parents.

It’s not the slavery that we know thanks to many slave movies where we can imagine: tall, dark, male slaves chained at their hands and feet, wearing brown trousers and no upper clothes and have huge hair like afros and possibly hairy beards. Nope. Kill that image – quick plus fast minus slow.

Slavery the best kept secret in Mauritania. It is estimated that there are at least 600, 000 slaves: men, women and children. Hmmmm...…almost 20% of the country’s population of 3, 069, 000 people.

It was banned, officially in 1981, but nobody paid attention. August 8, 2007 the parliament passed the long-anticipated bill criminalizing the practice of slavery. Mauritania has two communities: the Moors, who constitute the majority, and the black, ethnic tribes like the Soninke and the Poular.

The Moors community is assumed to be the cause of this problem. The Moors are made up of two groups: the white Moors (light-skinned, mainly Arab and Berber in origin) and the black Moors or the Haratine (the slave descendants). The white Moors are the politically dominant class whereas the Haratine, who are African in origin, grew side-by-side with them, yet as their slaves.

The emergence of a whole class that is born out of slavery (i.e. the Haratine) is what builds the complexity of the phenomenon. They are victims, if not to slavery by itself, then to its aftereffect.

Slavery in Mauritania was officially banned in 1981 but the law lacked efficient mechanisms to eradicate slavery and the practice remained intact as the government stuck to the stance of denial.

There are your rights as a slave:

1. You will never earn a salary.

2. You are entitled to constant beating which is your return on investment – for the work you do.

3. You don’t own anything not even a goat.

4. Being raped is a part of the job description.

5. You will most probably not know your surname or age since your family lifeline’s career has always been slavery.

6. Nobody can save you to fight for your non-existent rights not even Amnesty International as they are not allowed into Mauritania

7. And the some officials in this country have never heard of any slavery here.

Nigeria ooo – how far?

Elections in Africa are really becoming a cauldron of absolute contagious madness.

April 2011 – Nigeria has elections. Jonathan Goodluck is standing, yes, Goodluck to him. Its only December 2010. To be precise it’s Thursday, today. Drums roll please….the drama has started.

Yes it’s the same election where Ibrahim Babangida, the one and only; IBB, wants to be president. He even has a website that called Vote IBB. I am not campaign for him but I had to put this site link here: http://www.voteibb.org/

Back to the story at hand: This is one election to watch. But the drama has started so I guess we better pull put our popcorn, soda or tea and bread (I prefer tea, some nice Kenyan tea, lots of milk, bread with some nice Kenya Gold butter and jam), sit back and observe. Why? Because the election machines have already been stolen, these are the Direct Data Capture (DCC) machines. These were stolen on Monday night, this week. The cargo plane landed in Murtala airport in Lagos and some random thugs rocked up and took the machines away.

An investigation has been launched to scrutiny. Great script for the 4 hour movies on my bestest channel – Africa Magic.

Good old Fela Kuti – maybe its time I listen to his song – you be tief (thief)

The end.

Happiness in Ivory Coast?

Out of worry and concern, I made a phone call to a good friend of mine who lives in the currently famous Ivory Coast.

‘Allo, allo’ he picked up my call in his French accent and my first question was: “Are you ok?”

And he broke into laugher.

Me: shock. Why? I had called to confirm if he is fine, but the man I had called seemed more than fine. He goes on laughing while I am also entertained by the noise in the backyard. Good noise, peaceful noise.

Me: “is everything fine? What’s going on?”

Him:”it’s so funny here. Extremely funny, let me explain.”

Me: drinking my water slowly, wondering if this is a new case of insanity.

Him: “The hotel that Alassane Ouattara is staying in, with the protection of the UN, is a hotel owned by the government. That is the Golf Hotel”

He carries on after laughing again.

“Here we find all this very funny. We have two presidents and two governments. It is very hilarious. We are saying that now we shall develop much faster with two governments and possibly this is how Africa should start doing; it’s the new model of politics. We are waiting for Laurent Gbagbo to set out his five year plan and then Ouattara will share his.”

Now, I am picturing all this information and it suddenly made me burst into laughter. .

Me: “But what is your former boss; France, saying about this?

Him: “When this drama started, Sarkozy asked Laurent to step down. Laurent asked him to write this in a letter and post it to him, and he will reply. Sarkozy then called him several times and he, Laurent did not response and passed on a message to him via his assistants saying, that ‘when he sends the letter to me, I will reply to his letter, so I am still waiting.”

I am glad that some of the Ivoirians are not depressed; after all they are a fun loving bunch. They are the same people whose discos doubled (especially in Abidjan) during the last conflict, and this was noticed when it ended.

This Africa of ours, there will never be another one like it.

Social media is too entertaining. On Twitter one of the fake personalities who entertains me is the fake Alfred Mutua, our government spokesman in a fake version.

These are some of Alfred Mutua’s tweets.

alfredmutua Alfred Mutua

His Excellency Mwai Kibaki will shortly be sworn in after winning Tusker Project Fame

5 Dec

alfredmutua Alfred Mutua

Congratulations to Samuel Kivuitu. President Gbagbo was sworn in at 3 AM this morning by candle light

4 Dec Favorite Retweet Reply

alfredmutua Alfred Mutua

Government commends Ivory Coast on its vibrant multi-party system where they now have two presidents

4 Dec

Nadina yoooo

In the late eighties and early nineties, Voice of Kenya did us a lot of good. Unforgettable and valuable good it did to us by broadcasting URTNA show. Back then the word choice was unheard of in regards to TV programming. Which is not a bad thing because today we can all sit together united in a discussion of the music we watched from URTNA show.

URTNA show informed us at an early stage of the great artistes we had from our continent such as Aurlus Mabele, Kanda Bongo Man, Papa Eyango, Papa Wemba, Tshala Muana (the Queen of Mutuashi), Yvonne Chaka Chaka ( I am burning up, I am in love with a DJ), Mbilia Bel, Tabu Ley (Mongali), Wenga Musica, Koffi Olomide, Oliver Ngoma (Adia), Kassav and many others.

Oh yes, there was also Mory Kante and his famous Yeke Yeke. We grew up appreciating our music unlike today where we listen to les of our own gifted artistes and have a choice of the foreign artist. It’s so rare to get a glimpse of Mbilia Bel on today’s TV music shows smoothly singing Nankei Nairobi…….Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu….Harambee…..

Soothing soulful music, with beautiful rhythmic moves.

Then she had this other fabulous track called Nadina that had some of its lines going like this…Nadina yoo Nadina yoo Nadina…tuombe Mungu Baba atuhurumie thambi zetu mama…tumsifu Mungu baba….I feel wistful listening to this track on Youtube I can see myself in my dad’s car as he drove to Muranga to take us to see my grandparents. Well he played this cassette; among certain other cassettes, all the time. It was a form of force majeure, no democracy in the car. And any other cassettes that played that rap sound were thrown out into the bin.

But I never forget the words of most of these artists. Life was good. Beautiful music. I know that many of you share these same memories with me.

Nostalgia at its finest form.

What happened to good old URTNA? Where is it? Who is watching it? And how can we access it?

I went to the URTNA site, must be honest, quite an awful site. Visually, it fails. It is such a pity that today’s channels and PAY-TV do not play some of these memorable tracks….Kanda Bongo Man’s Kwasa kwasa song, with his oversize trousers and hat…his music could have ended any tribal conflicts. The music did not give you an opportunity to be annoyed.

Maybe I need to find the one and only Fred Obachi Machoka…maybe DSTV should give him a show to take us back back back to those days in Nairobi, when we played cassettes, and filled our ears, souls and hearts with the sounds of lingala, sokouss, makossa, ndombolo……life was good even if it was only on though Voice of Kenya, URTNA and playing cassettes….

Mixed flavours....I be on fire today!

I love MTV Base; addicted. Possibly, I signed an oath with them in my sleep to watch their music, daily. It has revolutionized the way we Africans view music from various countries in the continent. It is an excellent example of the power of media. MTV Base has played a role in forming positive views in most of us about one certain country, Nigeria. Honestly, MTV has done wonders in making us accept Nigeria (despite the common negative views we read frequently on drugs and 419 scams). If well used, it can be a very powerful tool to influence our perception of the country, positively. Thanks to the MTV Base, more and more people can sing along to Wande Coal, D’Banj, P-Square, etc. But, I just have one question. Seriously, can someone tell me, in this continent of at least 55 countries, minimum; MTV can only gives us access into less than 10 African countries though their music? Namely, SA, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, a bit of Tanzania and the DRC through Fally Ipupa. Did I say 10 African countries? Sorry I meant less than seven. Surely? Is their technology that limited or they lack sufficient access to information about music in other countries such as Ivory Coast, Senegal, Zimbabwe, etc or those countries do not have music that is suitable for MTV Base Africa? Or is that those countries do not have any artistes?

Actually, I have another question. Evidently my math is quite questionable as I stated that I have one question. I love Nigerians artistes; everyone knows that. But if you watch MTV Base Africa you will be convinced that Africa has very few countries that produce music for that channel and Nigeria being one of the top countries on this list. Could it be because their VP is a Nigerian? Hence the reason we have been watching Naija tracks since the inception of MTV Base Africa? Hmmm so much for equal distribution of music from various countries on that channel. The channel has created African super stars from these few countries, should it not do the same to other countries in the continent? Sudan? Gabon? Botswana?

From MTV Base Africa….to zee French

Meet Mr. Nichola (as the French say it) must be having a PhD in foot and mouth disease and this will explain why. In French, this is what he said:….vous êtes un pédophile!" I guess from this sentence you have a slight idea on what the topic is about, so here goes:

Sarkozy was recently questioned by journalists over the Karachi affair, about his role in allegedly overseeing illegal kickbacks in the Karachi affair. The comments, reported by the magazine L'Express on Monday were quite shocking…

"You're a paedophile, I'm deeply convinced of it, I've seen the secret services but I won't say which ones, I saw someone but I won't say who it is, and it was verbal. But I'm deeply convinced you're a paedophile!"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/18/sarkozy-kickbacks-pakistan-arms-sales

Sarkozy was criticizing the media's use of secret sources and what he sees as a willingness to report on political scandals without proper verification.

After the briefing, his people tried to insist the comments were off-the-record, no doubt realizing that the joke could be understood in a different light by journalists. Seems like he has a pathetic sense of humor.

…..his ‘witty’ comment came at the wrong time. Well, I quote witty according to him not me, being called a pedophile by a person of such authority is not near witty. But the saga continues …there have been a of suspicious burglaries targeting French reporters working on politically-loaded investigations, not to mention allegations that Sarkozy has personally given the order for journalists to be spied upon. Really?

Claude Angeli, Le Canard's editor-in-chief, wrote that Sarkozy phones Bernard Squarcini, the head of the DCRI, every time a journalist pens an article touching on topics he considers out-of-bounds to ask that that journalist be monitored.

Under French law, private phone records can only be accessed by filing a request with an independent body, the National Commission for the Control of Security Intercepts (CNCIS). By passing the CNCIS to obtain telephone records directly from phone companies - as the DCRI is accused of doing - is reserved strictly for cases of terrorism.

The members of the fourth estate are getting it rough this week….not only from Sarkozy….across one of the borders in the country I currently I reside in, the home of one Uncle Bob. Not my own personal uncle Bob.

The editor of a weekly newspaper has been arrested and is on lock down, as rappers would explain it. Reason? He stated that that “war veterans” were recruited for senior posts ahead of elections in 2011. And who said that the truth will set you free??

As for the Moroccans…..pity as the thought of Casablanca always sounds like paradise away from paradise….ok snap, back to reality…..

The Moroccan government denounced the “dishonest” behavior of Spanish reporters from “El Pais” and “El Mundo” after its “goodwill gesture”, by allowing them to go to Laayoune and cover the follow up to the recent events in the region.

So their minister, Morocco’s Minister of Communication, Khalid Naciri, said that good faith of Moroccans was again betrayed and the newspapers published lies about Laayoune.

It’s such a pity that we have so many illnesses that require a vaccine, I am not referring to Malaria or Aids or cancer. I am referring to the 4^th estate. Whether it’s a 3^rd world country or a 1^st world country, the media still struggles in several ways: being blatantly shut down e.g. in Zim, or subtly, through useless laws to curb it from disseminating crucial matters to the common public. Yet, one would assume that technology has enabled us to pass these barbaric acts. Meet China, where the government shuts down the internet, when it deems it important for the public’s sake. I won’t go on with this topic just in case my visa applications to Morocco, France or China are revoked.

Mo money mo money money!!!

Being rich, very wealthy must be a fantastic thing in Johannesburg especially if you love cars. I came across this nice information:

Private Supercar Club gives its members the opportunity to drive a fleet of 15 vehicles for up to 52 days in a year depending on membership type. With Supercar Club, there is no pain associated with ownership and running a supercar such as Depreciation, Cost of Capital, Services and Insurance.

Private Supercar Club vehicles are split into different groups ranging from the Group S Lamborghini Murcielago, Ferrari F430 Coupe through to the Group B BMW M3; some of the Italian Exotics are naturally in upper tiers (Group S and Group A). However, there are very exciting vehicles in Group B including the stunning Porsche Cayman S and the powerful Mercedes Benz C63 AMG, Skyline GTR.

Private Supercar Club will always endeavour to take members opinions into account as well as to make sure that the latest models are available. Therefore they will make certain that the cars are continually refreshed and kept up to date with the latest models available.

I won’t pretend to be modest. I would not mind being able to access these babies: Lamborghini Murcielago, Ferrari F430 Coupe…..top down, the wind blowing through my hair….sigh….it can’t happen I trimmed my hair.

What did you say?

Interesting facts: $46 million is the amount paid by a London jeweler for a rare pink diamond, the most expensive stone ever sold at an auction.

300, 000 – estimated number of sharks killed off the Brazilian coast since 2009 because of the popularity of shark-fin soup.

4,287 –number of times the US government asked Google for user information in the first six months of 2010.

600, 000 – number of species names cut from the world’s plant inventory

Time to go and listen to some Zouk music….and imagine myself dancing in Martinique, in the sand, fire orange horizon as the sun is setting….palm trees in the back yard…..