The Wilson Center on African (Global) Governance Challenges

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Boring Political Analysis, Fana Gebresenbet Erda, Ghana, Ghana think tanks, Mike Jobbins, Monde Muyangwa, Paul Mensah, Search for Common Ground, Southern Voices, Wilson Center

Lots of folks taking notes and listening more intently than I

After watching the Heart of Iron on the Wilson Center’s 6th floor, I walked down one flight of stairs for an event sponsored by the Center’s Africa Programs, ‘Patron – Client Relations: A Challenge to Africa’s Development and State Building.’  Although I was a minor in political science, I’ve been out of school for several years, so I’m not even sure what Patron – Client relations are. Paul Mensah, a Wilson Center Southern Voices scholar and Programs Officer at the Center for Democratic Development (CDD), one of Ghana’s most respected think tanks, was very erudite in his analysis of clientelism and Mike Jobbins of Search for Common Ground served as discussant.

Mining the Congo Basin at the DC Environmental Film Festival, Glorifying Gabon

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Africa, Ali Bongo Ondimba, Cameroon, Congo, Congo River Basin, DC Environmental Film Festival, DC Israel Embassy Protest, Gabon, Heart of Iron, Leo Bottrill, Republic of the Congo, Tridom, Wilson Center, World Wildlife Fund

Bottrill at Right (I need a new camera phone)

The ongoing Environmental Film Festival has screened numerous flicks with an Africa focus (how had I not heard about this annual event before?). Yesterday, I got my day started with a voyage to the Wilson Center, to watch a double feature of Forests on Film, sponsored by Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP).  The second film, Heart of Iron: Mining in the Congo Basin, examined Tridom, a remote region 6x the size of Belgium, straddling Gabon, Cameroon, and the Republic of the Congo, rich in iron ore reserves.

The Despicable Esteem for Blaise Compaore & Guest Posts

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Blaise Compaoré, Charles Taylor, Ernest Bai Koroma, Rutgers University, SAIS, US - Burkina Faso relations, Wilson Center

Readers,

Next week has an array of African heads of state in town in association with the opening of the UN General Assembly.  Many will be making the rounds at public events, so many that I’m not going to try to list them all here, but check the public schedules of SAIS, the Wilson Center, and the World Bank for more info.  A congratulations to President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone who seems to be making a particularly strong effort to connect with the public.

I welcome guest posts on these events from readers, please just check in with me first.

I’ve previously railed about Washington’s false commitment to its professed agenda of democracy and governance on the continent – with Burkina Faso and Uganda being among the most notable examples (our relations with both the Congo and Rwanda are also likely in the mix).

A particular target of my ire has been Burkina Faso.  Thus, it is much to my chagrin that its President, Blaise Compaore, will speak on ‘Consolidating a Culture of Peace in Africa’ next Friday.  HOW THE HELL CAN A MAN WHO CAME TO OFFICE BY MURDERING HIS PREDECESSOR BE GIVEN A FORUM TO SPEAK ON THIS TOPIC?????  A few years later, this man  went on to play a crucial role in the Liberian civil war, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands.  Why is Charles Taylor in prison and Compaore being feted by the Wilson Center?

I won’t be able to attend, but dearly wish that I could.  Burkina Faso is ruled by a dictator who has controlled the state since 1987, it is one of the poorest countries in the world, yet it enjoys great relations with the US.  As an American, that relationship makes me feel ever so pathetic.

‘You Can’t Have Capitalism Without Capital’: Kingsley Moghalu, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria on why Africa Matters

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Africa finance, Africa Rising, AllAfrica, BlackBerry Babes, Carl Levan, Kingsley Moghalu, Nigeria, Wilson Center

I heard one of the best public speakers that DC’s think tanks have hosted in a long time at the Wilson Center’s (AllAfrica co-sponsored) ‘Africa as the Last Frontier: Why it Matters in the Global Economy‘ yesterday.  Kingsley Moghalu, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria is almost certainly destined for increasing prominence.  Moghalu was on hand to ‘talk about Africa’ and promote his new book, Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s ‘Last Frontier’ Can Prosper and Matter.  Despite the rather tame name of this book, Moghalu gave us two reasons to read it:

Why is the Regime in Burkina Faso Respected Abroad?

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Blaise Compaoré, Burkina Faso politics, Chad foreign policy, Djibrill Bassolé, Foreign Minister Burkina Faso, gold production in Africa, Sahel, Wilson Center

Unfortunately, my work schedule tomorrow will prevent me from hearing Djibrill Bassolé, the Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso, speak at the Wilson Center.  I did however hear the Minister speak there last Spring, just after the coup in Mali.

While he sounded all of the appropriate notes then, the rhetoric just does not match the reality.  Blaise Compaore come to power after leading a coup and killing Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s visionary and personable leader who made great strides during a four year administration.  Compaore continues to meddle callously in African politics – Burkina Faso played a significant role in the civil wars in Liberia and Ivory Coast.  Despite this authoritarian heritage, Burkina Faso is well respected in the West and is looked to as a mediator of west African conflicts.

Although it is Africa’s 4th largest gold producer, Burkina Faso lags at the very bottom of the human development index, with the other states of the Sahel.  I resent the Wilson Center’s close relationship with the Compaore regime (as evinced by these repeated visits by Bassole) and I particularly resent the fact that the West has come to view Burkina Faso as an authority on west African foreign policy (why do we need a briefing on Mali’s elections from Bassole?  Are no Malians able to come to DC to do this?  Have we ceded that much ground to China?).

Through its military support of the French intervention in Mali, Chad looks to be joining those ranks as well.  These are not developments that one wants to see in the Sahel, the poorest region of Africa.

(Guest Post)* SAWIP – Driving the African Century: Youth, Technology, and Entrepreneurship

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Africa Rising, African youth, entrepreneurship in Africa, impact investing in Africa, SAWIP, South Africa, technology in Africa, Wilson Center

* Guest Post by Sharon Czarnek

On June 26th, the Wilson Center hosted the South African Washington International Program (SAWIP) event.  While I wasn’t able to attend all 3 of the speaker series’, I did make it to two out of three. The first was entitled Business, Technology and Entrepreneurship in Africa.  The moderator was Tom Wheeler, the Managing Director of Core Capital Partners and the two panelists included Andile Ngcaba the Executive Chair of Dimension Data and David Frankel the Managing Director of Founder Collective.