...REGIONALISM IN AFRICA : A PART OF PROBLEM OR A PART OF SOLUTION Margaret LEE AAPS INTRODUCTION Regionalism, as defined in this paper, encompasses efforts by a group of nations to enhance their economic, political, social, or cultural interaction. Such efforts can take on different forms, including regional cooperation, market integration, development integration, and regional integration. African leaders have long envisaged regionalism as a viable strategy to pursue with a view to uniting the continent both politically and economically. While regionalism in Africa has taken on different forms to accommodate the changing national, regional, and international environment, all organizations that aim to integrate regional economies in Africa have adopted market integration as a component of their strategy, with a view to increasing intra-regional trade. Market integration is the linear progression of degrees of integration beginning with a free trade area (or in some cases a preferential trade area) and ending with total economic integration. The model for such integration is the European Union (EU). Notwithstanding the fact that market integration has failed miserably on the continent,1 it continues to be highly regarded by most African leaders as a solution to Africa’ growing marginalization within the world economy. The creation of NAFTA s (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the movement toward EU monetary integration, only served to reinforce the commitment African...
Words: 11675 - Pages: 47
...One of the reasons why Africa was and is so highly appealing to outsiders is because it is amongst the world’s greatest water and mineral resources(381). The modern European colonization of Africa was begun by the Portuguese. They established trading stations on the coast in the 15th and 16th centuries. The interior of what Europeans called "the Dark Continent", however, was not explored or colonized until the 19th century. By the early 20th century nearly all of Africa had been subjected to European rule. During early explorations Europeans, the Portuguese to be specific, took immediate notice to the wealth of the African continent by building forts at coastal trading posts in Western Africa, where ships could be loaded with the local slaves, gold, ivory, and palm products in exchange for alcohol, guns, and sugar; the vast wealth of certain areas in the Western African coast were given nicknames such as, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, and Slave Coast for their chief products. Portuguese ships took gold from Eastern Africa to pay for the silks and spices of Asia(389). This world region has clear, mainly coastal, boundaries. In the colonial late 1800s and early 1900s, trade routes and connections moved away from the land crossing of the Sahara that connected northernmost Africa with the rest of the continent and toward the ocean routes linked with the expanding European global economy(380). Africa has a wealth of natural resources. Overall, however, Africa's potential mineral resources...
Words: 519 - Pages: 3
...Kleptocracy Economics of corruption Electoral fraud Legal plunder Nepotism Slush fund Plutocracy Political scandal Corruption by country Europe Albania Armenia Austria Belgium Bosnia Denmark Finland France Germany Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Georgia Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Moldova Montenegro Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine Asia Afghanistan Bahrain Bangladesh Cambodia China India Indonesia Iran Iraq Jordan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Malaysia Myanmar North Korea Pakistan Philippines Singapore South Korea Sri Lanka Thailand Uzbekistan Vietnam Africa Angola Botswana Cameroon Congo Egypt Equatorial Guinea Ethiopia Ghana Kenya Liberia Mauritius Morocco Nigeria Senegal Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe North America Canada Cuba Haiti Mexico Nicaragua United States South America Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Paraguay Peru Venezuela Oceania and the Pacific Australia New Zealand Papua New Guinea Transcontinental countries Russia Turkey v t e Political corruption in the post-colonial government of Kenya has had a history which spans the era of the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi's KANU governments to Mwai Kibaki's PNU government. In the Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 Kenya is ranked 139th out of 176 countries for corruption, tied with Azerbaijan, Nepal...
Words: 390 - Pages: 2
...Firstly, women were affected by the alienation of land experienced by most Africans. However, women appear to have been more personally affected by this land alienation. This is because, ‘As women lost access and control of land they became more economically dependent on men. This led to an intensification of domestic patriarchy, reinforced by colonial social institutions.’ Among the Kikuyu of Kenya women were the major food producers and thus not only had ready access to land but also authority over how land was to be cultivated. Speaking about African women in general, Seenarine, in quoting Sacks explains that, ‘the value of women’s productive labor, in producing and processing food established and maintained their rights in domestic and other spheres – economic, cultural, religious, social, political, etc.’ The advent of the British colonialism and the settler economy negatively impacted Kikuyu women because the loss of land meant a loss of access to and authority over land. Kikuyu women found that they no longer had the variety of soils needed to grow indigenous foodstuffs. Traditionally, certain pieces of land were associated with the growth of certain crops. Thus the variety of soils was required to ensure food security . Moreover, land loss meant women were restricted to smaller tracts of land for cultivation. Continuous cultivation of these areas of land led to soil exhaustion and nutrient depletion which ultimately adversely affected crop yields. Land alienation...
Words: 2350 - Pages: 10
...Marigona Misini Africa Music of Africa is divided into three main regions, which includes Shona, BaAka, and Kpelle. Shona ethnic group is from Zimbabwe. Shona’s belief is that when they die their spirits will play a role in lives of their people still living. Their main instrument is called mbira, which is a thumb piano. The song Nhemamusasa shows someone teaching the song and shows the interlocking pattern of the different melodies being played. This music is a polyphonic texture because many melodies are played at once. The Kpelle ethnic group is from Liberia. This music of Africa usually plays segments of stories. The “Kalu Lee, Lee”, is an example of one episode or short segment of a full story, but the Woi epic is a series of episodes that never ends, which is why its called cyclical. African music is made up of short segments or episodes of stories that create a whole to define faceting. Facets are short and repetitive which loses the direction of their music. Most African music is simple music so not really complex. Facets allow Africans to maximize their use of limited resources. “Horn and Drum Ensemble”, describes how they use their simple instruments to organize something more complex. Call and response is an important way of organizing and forming music. This form creates conversation and interaction within the music and uses collective participation because it involves everyone. There is a lead singer and the chorus joining the leader and there are several individual...
Words: 343 - Pages: 2
...Africa: Bharti Airtel Unfolds New Partnership Strategy to Boost Service Across Africa Moses Nosike And Emmanuel Elebeke 29 October 2010 [pic] Email| Print| Comment Share: |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] | | Leading global telecommunications company, Bharti Airtel yesterday announced a new strategic partnership with IBM, Tech Mahindra and Spanco to drive world class customer service across 16 African countries where it operates. The partnership is also aimed at igniting a rapid growth in the nascent African Business Process (BPO) to deliver economic growth to many countries across the continent of Africa. Under the new agreement which is expected to be finalized soon, Bharti Airtel, which owns and currently operates the Zain brand in 16 countries across Africa, will outsource core customer service functions like call centres and back office to over 40 million of its subscribers as it prepares for significant growth in the region. Unfolding the agenda to the press in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer (International) and joint managing Director, Bharti Airtel, Manoj Kohli said "Our partnership with IBM, Tech Mahindra and Spanco is aimed at redefining and providing a world class and seamless customer experience in all 16 countries we operate in Africa" He explained that the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) model partnership would enable Bharti Airtel customers to enjoy world class customer services with the partners introducing quality best practices...
Words: 426 - Pages: 2
...Rich Summative Task HUNGER IN AFRICA Christine Mande HEOR-02 Mr.Dragan January 18th 2013 Hunger is one of the most common problems in the world. It is such a dangerous thing. It kills more people in a year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Many countries struggle with famine and they don’t have much help either. Countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Sudan are some of the countries that suffer from hunger more than others do. In Africa there are 60% of people who go to bed hungry and mainly half of those 60% barely ever eat. Still out of those 60%, only 37% get to drink clean water and the rest doesn’t. Almost more than a million of people die of hunger in Africa. It has already become a serious problem. You might ask yourself “Why are the people in Africa starving?” Well the reason why they starve is because the continent’s population is grows by 3.5% every year and therefore the food dies down by 2.5% also every year that goes by and on top of that, the people have difficulties growing crops because 47% of the whole entire continent of Africa is way to dry for rain fed crops. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Chad and Ethiopia are some of the top countries that are severely stricken by hunger. Those countries all have the same problems. Not enough water and food. Not enough money for irrigation, too much heat and not enough rain for crops to grow and too many people are unemployed. There is also...
Words: 905 - Pages: 4
...DAVID DAMIETE DOKUBO 0-7682090 THE REASON FOR THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA, AND WHY THE AFRICANS COULDNT STOP COLIONIALISM. During the scramble for Africa, the Europeans basically had a lot to prove to each other. It is very easy to understand that at the time (1800-1900) European countries still struggled in crude ways to show dominance. This fact however couldn’t have single handedly driven the Europeans to Africa. There were also very rational reasons why. In this essay, those reasons will be stated. There were economic causes. The 1800s were very economically unsettled times that even lead to a depression in 1873. During this period, every industrial country was hurt, and Britain was seriously affected. Britain relied on raw materials, thus damaging its balance of trade. It also shouldn’t be forgotten, that there was a serious competition between newly industrializing nations that had new factories, and cheap labor. There was also the problem of political direst. These issues are known to arise in a state of economical instability. Europe at the afore mentioned time, experienced that problem. Britain particularly was undergoing significant changes in their system. The country that was once used to a unified political party system, had to evolve to a more fragmented patchwork of special interest groups like labor unions, landowners, bankers, industrialists etc. The people in power were eager for a new cause to unite the people when it mattered. In the year 1871, the...
Words: 519 - Pages: 3
...change the world. Imperialism in Africa significantly altered much of the continent, both for better and for worse. European imperialist expansion in Africa, had gave them new resources that they still use today. Hospitals, school and factories were built creating more jobs for the people of Africa. The amount of local warfare was reduced greatly...
Words: 350 - Pages: 2
...April 13, 2012 Modern-day slaves can be found labouring as servants or concubines in Sudan, as child "carpet slaves" in India, or as cane-cutters in Haiti and southern Pakistan, to name instances. According to Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest human rights organization, there are currently over 20 million people currently enslaved and working as slaves. The slave trade in Africa was officially banned in the early 1880s, but forced labour continues to be practiced in West and Central Africa today. UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from this region are sold into slavery each year. Many of these children are from Benin and Togo, and are sold into the domestic, agricultural, and sex industries of wealthier, neighbouring countries such as Nigeria and Gabon. Kidnapped from their villages when they are as young as five years old, between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food. Many of the bonded labourers are shackled in leg-irons in Pakistan. In the Dominican Republic, the collection of slaves for the busy harvest season is more random. The Dominican army, with the support of the State Sugar Council (known as the CEA), drags Haitians off public buses, arrests them in their homes or at their jobs, and delivers them to the cane fields. However in the in the ancient world slavery was common. The great civilizations of the Middle East, the Americas, Europe, and West Indies all kept slaves. Slavery was also...
Words: 442 - Pages: 2
...[Name] [Course Title] [Instructor Name] [Date] Write a research paper on Poverty in Africa. Describe how/in what way it is such a big problem in the world, possible causes and possible solutions in which you think these problems can be solved. Contents Abstract 3 Introduction: 4 Overview of poverty in Africa: 4 Facts about poverty in Africa: 5 Graph: 6 Causes of poverty in Africa: 7 1. Corruption and Poor Governance: 7 a) Unbalanced Economic Systems: 7 2. Environment: 8 3. Poor Utilization of Land: 8 4. Increase in Population: 9 5. Diseases and poor health facilities: 10 Solutions to overcome poverty: 10 1. Overcoming government failure: 10 2. Education: 11 3. Population control 11 4. Focus on agriculture: 12 5. Other possible solutions: 12 References: 13 Abstract This paper will provide a deep insight into the problems of poor people and their causes of poverty. Other than that solutions to their issues regarding the government and basic necessities of live will be focused upon. The deprivation of services for the poor is another noticeable point in the paper. Introduction: Poor people are poor because of many reasons, but they remain poor because market and government does not support them. When capital markets fail, youth is unable to get loans to finance their education, they are not capable of maintaining their health and most importantly the government is unable to provide them with basic services and...
Words: 2300 - Pages: 10
...Conflicts in Africa Terrell Campbell English 103 Professor Duguay March 31, 2015 Despising the decades of conflict, death and tragedy, coverage of issues in Africa has often been ignored, overgeneralized, or unreasonably focused on limited aspects. There is a deeper analysis, background and context that has often been lacking, so regardless of what seems like constant images of starving children in scarcities, news of billions in aid to Africa from generous donor countries, the background context and analysis is often missing. Whether aid makes the situation worse, or why there is scarcity and hunger in Africa when African nations are exporting crops to other parts of the world are rarely asked by the mainstream. Why is Africa so violent? There is a reason why some of Africa’s bloodiest, and brutal wars never seem to end is because they’re not really wars. Not in the traditional sense, at least. The soldiers don’t have much of an ideology, not much of a clear goal. They couldn’t care less about taking over capitals or major cities — in fact, they prefer the deep bush, where it is far easier to commit crimes. Today’s rebels seem especially uninterested in winning converts, content instead to steal other people’s children, stick axes in their hands, and make them do the killing. Most of today’s African fighters are not rebels with a cause, but predators. That’s why there are stunning slaughters like eastern Congo’s rape epidemic, where armed groups in recent years have...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...The role of NGO”S in development Africa The literature on development has long recognized the importance of the third sector. Throughout the 1980s there was an evident and growing enthusiasm for the contribution of NGOs particularly for their ability to work directly with the poor and with grassroots organisations (Turner,1988; Gorman,1984). According to Carroll (1992), it was in 1985 that official development agencies arrived at the same conclusion that the advantages of NGOs, such as flexibility, informality, commitment, and participatory style, outweighed their disadvantages and made them especially suited for the complex task of rural development projects aimed at alleviating poverty, in which physical capital is combined with human and organizational resources. By the end of the 1980s, reports from the OECD (1988), Asian Development Bank (1990, 1991) and World Bank (1991) all argued that NGOs have a particular ability to work effectively with the poorest communities. The early 1990s saw a distinct change in emphasis, with greater weight being placed on the term civil society than on non-governmental organisation. Although this change cannot be attributed to any single factor, a number of emerging concerns may offer some insights. The work of authors such as Putnam (1993) showed the importance of non-governmental and non-private sector institutions and demonstrated that it would be useful to work with wider definitions than were typically being used. Third, it was recognized...
Words: 830 - Pages: 4
...or not taking off at all. It is indubitable that the need for effective leadership in Africa is skyrocketing. It is bad leadership that has led to most of the problems that Africa is facing. Why do Africans languish in poverty yet Africa is so rich with natural resources? Why is brain drain on the rise in Africa? Why are our skilled intellectuals deserting mama Africa? Why is Africa isolated from social and economic development while other continents are developing at the speed of light? Do our leaders ever stop and think about the genesis of all these? We must stop whining, complaining and blaming the West for our problems but look at what we can do to salvage the pitiable situation. The solution lies in good leadership. Africa needs more than just foreign aid to solve her problems. If foreign aid would develop anywhere then Africa would be the most developed continent in the world because Africa has been awash in foreign aid. But that’s not the case. Africa’s medicine is good leadership; leadership that can channelize socio-economic development, a leadership that is visionary and is passionate about alleviating the myriad of challenges facing this lovely continent, while setting their priorities right. If I was an African leader, whether a political leader or a business leader (that doesn’t mean am not yet a leader or one in the making) then what I would want to do to bring change in Africa is to nurture and empower the young generation to become effective leaders of tomorrow...
Words: 1030 - Pages: 5
...Bandit In every essay that we have read over the past few weeks, all of the authors talk about how colonialism has ultimately destroyed Africa and their hopes of ever being as great as the other leader nations. Authors like Maria Mies, Walter Rodney, and Jerry Kloby all contribute different explanations as to how the European colonizers have basically destroyed Africa. Mies explains how Africa has no chance of “catching-up” to the other developed countries because of European colonialism. Rodney disputes the claims that colonialism has modernized Africa and how the new advancements being brought in by the colonizers were being more used against Africans than to help them. Then Kloby helps us look at real examples of different times in which colonialism has hurt Africans more than helped them. All of these authors have come to one clear consensus: colonialism has ultimately destroyed Africa’s chances of becoming a great and powerful continent. In Mies’ essay, she tends to be very pessimistic about the Africa being able to “catch-up” to other already developed countries. Mies says that, “the poverty of the underdeveloped nations is not as a result of ‘natural’ lagging behind but the direct consequence of the overdevelopment of the rich industrial countries who exploit the so-called periphery in Africa” (151). She denies that possibility that Africa can catch up by following the same path of industrialization, technological progress, and capital accumulation as the more developed...
Words: 1195 - Pages: 5
