Antoinette Sayeh, IMF Africa Head at SAIS: ‘The Region is Catching Up’

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African agriculture, African governance, Antoinette Sayeh, Burkina Faso, Deborah Brautigam, IMF, Infrastructure in Africa, Liberia, SAIS, Shanta Devarajan, Uganda, World Bank

The last time I heard the head of the Africa division of a global financial institution speak on Massachusetts Avenue (Shanta Devarajan of the World Bank at Brookings), I was thoroughly displeased.  Yesterday, I heard Antoinette Sayeh, former Finance Minister of Liberia and currently the Director of the Africa Department at the IMF speak on “Drivers of Growth in Middle and Low-income sub-Saharan Africa.”  Although one can almost always find a bone to pick (keep reading for what it was this time), on the whole, I found her macro-economically focused remarks to hit most of the notes I would like to hear.

SHAFR Conference, South Sudanese Rap, & Whither Uganda?

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Kampala Mayor, SHAFR, SHAFR annual meeting, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Uganda, Uganda politics, Uganda Protests, Yoweri Museveni

Dear readers, I may be quiet this weekend.  There are several Africanist panels/presentations at the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations that is currently taking place in Arlington, but I am not sure if I will be able to drop by (and I’m not registered, so I’d technically be crashing).  For any readers who attend, I do, as always, welcome guest contributions.

I may or may not attend the free performance of the South Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal tomorrow evening.

I’ve recently read about a police beating of the Mayor of Kampala, Uganda.  I will predict here that in the coming year, unrest in Uganda will become fairly significant again.  It is very difficult for me to envision Yoweri Museveni quietly carrying out the final two years of his current term.

Mobile Phones for Better Governance in Uganda

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Africa mobile technology, Guy Grossman, SAIS African studies, Uganda

SAIS continued their stellar array of Africanist events this week with a talk this afternoon titled,“Does Information Technology Flatten Interest Articulation? Evidence From Uganda” by Guy Grossman of the University of Pennsylvania.  Grossman discussed the results of a pilot research project that covered all of Uganda’s 248 political constituencies (can’t remember what level that is).  Grossman suggested that the results of this study show that mobile phones (which have been primarily celebrated in Africa as a tool to assist in agricultural commerce) can also play a meaningful role in connecting citizens to their elected representatives.

‘Musevenism – Militarism’: CSIS Explores Politics and Protest in Uganda

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CSIS, Luce Foundation, Religion & Politics in Africa, Uganda, Uganda Protests, Yoweri Museveni, Zac Niringiye

CSIS delivered again this afternoon, with extremely compelling remarks (references to Ugandan President Yowerei Museveni as a militaristic dictator set the tone) by Bishop Dr. D. Zac Niringiye, currently a Fellow at the Human Rights and Peace Centre of Makerere University.  Bishop Zac, as he seems to be known, spent a lengthy career in ecumenical service, recently retiring as Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Kampala to focus on political and human rights activism, an activity that has drawn the vigorous ire of the State.  His academic pedigree is just as impressive as his oratory skills (although I am not of the proper generation, I could not help but think of the black American civil rights leaders based in the Church when hearing him speak).  His first degree was in physics (Makerere), he received a master’s degree in the US (Wheaton), and his doctoral/divinity degree in the UK (Edinburgh).

The Deputy Director of CSIS, Richard Downie, stated in his introduction to the talk on the theme of ‘Politics & Protest in Uganda’ that the country is generally seen in ‘glowing’ terms in DC.  Bishop Zac certainly served as an efficient spokesperson for the campaign seeking to undermine that consensus,