Now you know who's in charge!

By Desmond Milya

A few friends and i were in awe while watching Inside Africa this past week. After over 3 days of deliberations The International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) and the World Federation of Diamond Bourses made a resolution calling for legislation by all countries importing rough diamonds, requiring all imports to be polished and officially parceled by the exporting countries, in a bid to stop the multibillion dollar sale of conflict diamonds worldwide. Wonderful!!!

Definitely a step in the right direction and these are efforts the whole world should applaud. The story went on to tell about a Senator in the U.S trying to push a bill through congress to this effect. Now here we were thinking 'this is great! Somebody’s finally noticing the urgency of the situation!’, until, the Senator in question appeared on TV and when asked by Isha Sesay what the bill was all about, he said, that the legislation was geared at determining who controls these mines... need I say more?!!

My friends and I looked at each other and shook our heads in disgust! Because this is the typical African story; Africa has something we need, so let’s go to the diamond-laden villages with little goodie bags feed a few starving kids, pave a few roads in the jungle, give people clean water, throw in a few electric generators while we’re at it and decide for them what happens to their natural resources! It’s ridiculous! That just means a decision made in the U.S congress could lead to America deciding exactly who mines where, when and how.

Don’t even know why I’m surprised this is so typical, because there’s no other way to explain how a continent which lacks absolutely nothing SEEMS to have... absolutely nothing! The British enjoy a 99 year leasehold control over salt mining in my country, Kenya. They grow coffee on our land process the beans in the U.K and sell refined branded coffee back to us at absurd prices. Now the U.S wants to 'decide' who controls mines in Congo huh?

And Isha Sesay didn’t ask the Senator what gives the U.S the right to do this. The bill probably won’t make it through the committee stage because, let’s face it; Africa may be important but not really worth anyone’s time in Congress. What’s startling is the imperialistic mindset that even drew up the bill to begin with. They probably did it just because they could huh? Isha Sesay should have taken the Senator to task over this issue. You know, We like to believe it did but colonialism never really ended, did it?

Fat kids rule

You’re like the fat child that everyone made fun of, wait I was a fat child… well that’ beside the point. People only talk to you when they want something from you or when the teacher forces other kids to interact with you.

Then one fine day, one of the popular children in school, spots you being dropped in a Lamborghini and your Mum helps you out of the car, she’s not just any mum, she’s the celebrity mum. Your ranking and status goes up instantaneously. The popular children now want to be associated with you and for a while, you feel good.

It’s unbelievable, from insecurity to a trend setter in a matter of seconds. You are so taken by the moment, after years of discrimination, so you absorb the moment. At the back of your mind you wonder how long it’ll last. For the first time in your schooling life you go home excited. Your superstar parents wondering what changed and they are pleased to see you happy and positive and even having a friend.

In just a week, the fame, attention and showers of praise all dry up. The next best popular kid takes the crown. You still have your fan base of 2. Not a new batch, but the 2 friends who loved you from the start. The deprivation and mean statements sting more than before. It’s the sting of betrayal.

I’d like to introduce you to the fat, rich kid who doesn’t have friends at all; Africa. Africa’s wealth is public knowledge, but all it took was a few hundred years of domination and brainwashing to wash away a rich history. Timbuktu, the Egyptian civilization, The Stonehenge, metallurgy and other disciplines practiced for centuries, all flushed away.

I want you to take a break right now and take a deep breath. Close your eyes and envision the Africa you aspire. C’mon, close your eyes. Once you open your eyes, if you don’t have a smile on your face after seeing the Africa of your dreams. Close your eyes again till you do.

If you’ve just opened your eyes with that hopeful smile, then take another deep breath and right now, see what you can do to reward yourself with the African beauty and promise that you’ve just envisioned.

African beauty is blinding, it’s just that we’ve been blinded by it for so long that we don’t see it anymore.

Who Needs Hope when you have Entertainment?!

We are so obsessed with fickle things on this continent to the point that we lose the bigger picture. Writing today I realized; we are either narrow minded, unmotivated, hopeless or just too lazy to take the huge leap to thrive.


We are so obsessed with quick fame and everyone wants to be an entertainer. Half the time the individual can’t hold a note, can’t tap a toe let alone bob their head. It’s ridiculous. All these annoyingly bad reality shows, Project fame, that my friends and I aptly call Project Shame, and Flop, oops, ‘Pop’ Idols.

The auditions of course, are comic relief, but talent lacks. Why does everyone want to sing, act and dance all of a sudden? Then you have people with some form of falsely acquired confidence in themselves, that they have good voices to host radio shows and even anchor news. News anchoring has become a joke; there is absolutely no dignityor professsionalism in it, at least from what I see mostly in Eastern Africa.

It’s all about good looks, literacy (read, I can read from a teleprompter) absolutely no effort in back ground checks on stories. Questionable angles on stories, everything is politcal. On radio, the two predominant topics that people seem so absorbed in, are either politics or sex. It is so frustrating.

I just think we are so absorbed in the microwave era; instant fame, instant cash, instant appeal, instant clothes, instant meal, instant car, house, courtesy of loans. What if the land your house is built on was a road reserve, about to be reclaimed? The car you owned was an SUV, guzzling fuel and polluting the environment or your meals were made from genetically modified foods?

I hope you are seeing where I am headed with this? GM foods have caused hell in the so called ‘developed’ world over the hormonal implications and related disorders. As for the cars; America and other developed countries are getting rid of their fuel guzzlers for 'greener' and more economical cars. That’s why Toyota is the world's leading car manufacturer. This has left General Motors grappling in debt, yet in 2008 when the Hummer was launched in Kenya,a whole batch of brainwashed Kenyans were first in line to feed their steel and polluted exhaust fetish. Just proving that we are sponges that just absorb all the refuse of the West with so much glee. It is to our own detriment.



We complain about what is not being done, what are you doing about it? We are hungry and the politicians are arguing. Solution, find out what agricultural methods work for your rural area or neighbourhood, huddle around with friends and family, and over the weekend cultivate the land and show people how it’s done. Work with the community.

The sewer system is spoiled? Contact the local authority in charge and follow it up. The education system lacks proper co-curricular activities. Approach the principal of your local school and see if you can start a co-curricular program. Writing, debate whatever it is.

The school doesn’t have a feeding program, start one. Fundraise for it. You don’t know how to fundraise, Google it. Find out which organizations contribute to your cause. For crying out loud ask REAL journalists or even email newsrooms.

With all the instant things we have, one thing that can work to help us all is the internet. Quit trying to figure out how you can help yourself, when the solution just lies in helping others around you.

There’s nothing wrong with some fun, but you can’t let it rule you, at the risk of an obliterated future.

Forget 'Roots'; This is the Real Deal..

It’s the 21st century and Slavery is not a history, it’s with us in the year 2009. I am not talking about Africans and Asians being lured by lucrative jobs in Dubai, China and the likes, which is also slavery. I am talking about the good old fashioned kind. You are at someone’s beck and call.


You are sold and bought, your children go to school if ‘the master’ approves. You will marry when and if the master decides; your children are born as slaves and live the family legacy as servants and third class citizens. In other words, you can say 'Slavery runs in your family.'

Slavery in Mauritania has been going on for centuries. It has primarily been the domination of the light-skinned Moors over the rim of sub-Saharan black Africans.
Unlike other parts of Africa where domination was through political leadership in the post colonial Era like the Kikuyu in Kenya, Ibo in Nigeria, Tutsi’s in Rwanda, in Mauritania it was enslavement. Slavery was officially abolished over (just) 20 years ago.


It is estimated that 20% of Mauritania’s 3.3 million people are slaves. The slavery that is practiced and entrenched in Mauritania is the kind that is referred to as bonded labour. This is where people are enslaved to clear debt, that at times is not of their own making. (Above Left: Freed slaves in 2001)


Like every typical African government, denial is the Mauritanian government’s defense, they deny that slavery exists. The word ‘slave’ has been banned from use by the media, and the use of the word puts many foreign journalists at risk of arrest and deportation.

Though it has been pointed out that slavery cuts across the race divide; both black and white Mauritanians own slaves. Mauritania’s most powerful families are black as is the case of the country’s second – ranking leader, the president of the national senate who’s a black Moor.

The government is also alleged to have a history of instituting racist policies. In 1987, the army and police force went to the extreme of removing black officers.

Then yet another 60,000 blacks were deported at gunpoint two years later to Neighbouring Senegal. There are Mauritanian refugees living along the Senegal – Mauritania border. The notion among many is that the pre-dominant white Moors are trying to create a state of their own. They support this with the fact that the former French colony has adopted Arabic as the country’s official language.


(Right :1863 slave, with scars reulting from whipping)

Elsewhere in Niger, slavery is part of culture, not so much an institution of government, but it is open. Since its independence in 1960, Niger has had quite a bit of ups and down especially in the 80’s and 90’s. Democracy was finally restored in 1999, with the constitution and the penal code prohibiting slavery and slave trade, but that hasn’t stopped it. It’s only in 2007, you read right, 2007 that Niger criminalized Slavery.


Asibit, (shown) a former slave escaped in June of 2004 after 50 years of enslavement. Her mother, husband and children were all slaves. She worked all day, preparing meals for her master, moving a heavy tent four times a day so her master and his mistress were not scorched by the sun. She milked camels, fetched water and firewood and performed other taxing chores without pay.


In her words, Asibit says, "We were never paid; I was only given one tenth of the camel milk and leftovers. I have never known happiness until this month of freedom. Now I can go to bed when I want, no one insults me. Now that I am free, I can live as I please."

This is going on in Africa! I still can’t believe it. Slavery! Cultural practices need to be revised and we need to fight for equality here and for ourselves, that’s the way we can move forward. No one is inferior to anyone else, regardless of religion, race, sex or lineage. It’s just so wrong!

Pornography: Africa's New Saving Grace?!

According to Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, better known as Bob Geldof. The Irish singer, song writer and political activist believes Africa’s in dire need of Pornography to deliver itself from poverty and suffering. I find that quite insulting. Half the time I am not sure whether these so called celebrity philanthropists/ activists speak from the depths of their hearts or if they are high on marijuana when they make these statements.

According to the The Sleaze, Bob Geldof just recently launched a new charity aptly named Porn aid. The purpose of this charity is to raise enough pornographic material to help so called sexually deprived African Men. He sees this lack of pornographic material as a threat to African stability. The campaign is alleged to have been sparked by what Geldof saw as a terrible erotic deprivation he witnessed amongst ordinary Africans, when visiting the continent on famine-relief missions.

Several theories have also been coaxed up, it’s just unbelievable the kind of nonsense he came up with. For instance, the theory of the Somali civil war based on the fact that armed rebels are trying to cease huge stockpiles of ‘High quality’ pornography, hoarded by Somali government officials.

Uganda also seems to be another ‘victim’ of porn deprivation according to Geldof. It’s alleged that Ugandan villagers rioted when they found out that a passing convoy, was only carrying food supplies and not pornography. The villagers set the trucks on fire destroying several tones of food and later stripped two female aid workers and successively relieved themselves. Geldof adds, “….A couple of the poor devils hadn’t been so sexually stimulated in such a long time that they suffered fatal heart attacks, the effort of ejaculation was so great,”…. This was a tragedy just waiting to happen. The developed world has to act now, if we’re to avoid seeing such incidents on a daily basis!” How ridiculous.

The 57 year old, called on other celebrities to join in his Porn Aid campaign. As expected Britney Spears has offered to personally stimulate Africa’s sexually starved men….nauseating.

What the hell do people take Africans for? Look at our birth rate for crying out loud, poverty just seems to yield sex as the most engaged pass time. Now all of a sudden we are sex starved and that’s the cause of our problems. I am insulted and disgusted by the extent to which celebrities go in the name of charity.

That’s not all, Geldof plans to have a global ‘all star’ porn concert, (more like a Live 8 of Porn)with people copulating on stage in front of live audiences. The concerts will be held simultaneously in London, Paris, Rome, Los Angeles, New York and Melbourne. The porn stars will make charity porn issues to be sold for charity and the proceeds from the sales used to buy more porn for Africa. He also hopes that the concert will be beamed across the globe into African homes.


He really has no idea where African morals stand does he? Some African states have an issue with Big Brother Africa; Bob thinks he can air porn concerts on African TV sets? Nauseatingly ignorant. Bob enthuses, “We’re planning to beam the broadcasts live to every African city and village we can, to give those poor bastards the turn on they need,”. “I want to give Africa the biggest orgasm in history!”

Poor bastards? Poor bastards? Unbelievably condescending, immoral and a gross misinterpretation of Africa’s problems. Our issues are not penile centric. Unbelievable!

(I wonder where these AFRICAN children came from? Hmm?)

Meet the President: Paul Kagame

It’s almost like a fairy tale, just 15 years ago, there was hopelessness, despair, anger, fear and the stench of death in the air in Rwanda.

Today the Rwandese president is the face of the African renaissance. Don’t be fooled by the slender, bespectacled man; Mr. Paul Kagame is the president that illuminates hope for this continent.

He’s one of the very few success stories of a soldier turned statesman. This year he is one of Time Magazine’s top 100. He encompasses what brand Rwanda is all about; hope, ingenuity, beauty and prosperity.

What I admire about Mr. Kagame is his focus and genuine concern for reforms in his country. He has a genuine zero tolerance on corruption; government officials found to be corrupt are exposed publicly and are dealt with accordingly.


He has successfully established a truth and reconciliation tribunal, and steadily built Rwanda into an investor’s paradise.


In 2007, President Kagame delivered an endorsement at Starbucks AGM in Seattle. He further visited the Google campus in California and met with senior executives including CEO Eric Schmidt, where the internet firm announced plans to make its free Web-based software available in Rwanda.


Kagame did come from a humble back ground; born in central Rwanda to Deogratius and Asteria Rutagambwa. He fled persecution and killing in Rwanda, that was fuelled by the Hutus and the Belgian military at the time, and became a refugee in Uganda in 1960. He attended primary and secondary school in Uganda.




Kagame and Yoweri Museveni (Ugandan President), together with 25 other men launched a five year liberation war in Uganda in 1980. He then served as a senior officer in the Ugandan army between 1986 and 1990. In 1990 he attended a staff and command course at Fort Leavenworth in the US.


In October of 1990 he returned home to Rwanda after 30 years in exile, to lead the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) to liberate Rwanda. And after leading the RPA and stopping the Genocide in 1994, he was appointed Vice-President and Minister for Defence in the Government of National Unity. In 2000, Mr. Kagame was unanimously sworn in as president of Rwanda.


Rwanda is not only well governed, but has also opened itself up to serve as a model of private sector development in Africa. Rwanda has invested greatly on ICT development in this cause. This is evident with the fact that you can actually interact with the president on his personal website http://www.gov.rw/government/president/index.html. The parliament is also accessible online, where you can also subscribe to parliaments newsletter on http://inteko.gov.rw/.




Rwanda is a sensational country; I thank The Lord for President Paul Kagame. He encompasses what real leadership for Africa is. We all need to learn from his selflessness and work with him to ensure that the true aspirations of restoring Africa to its initial prosperity are met.

Quick facts: President Paul Kagame

1. Name: Paul Kagame


2. Date of Birth: October 1957 (51 years)


3. He was born in Gitarama Prefecture, Central Rwanda to Deogratius and Asteria Rutagambwa.


4. He fled persecution and killing in Rwanda and became a refugee in Uganda in 1960.


5. Paul Kagame was among the first 27 men who together with Yoweri Kaguta Museveni launched a five-year liberation war in Uganda in 1980.


6. He served as a senior officer in the Ugandan army between 1986 and 1990.


7. He attended a staff and command course at Fort Lavenworth, Kansas USA in 1990.


8. In October 1990, Paul Kagame returned to Rwanda after thirty years in exile to lead the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) in the struggle for the liberation of Rwanda.


9. On 19th July 1994, Paul Kagame was appointed Vice-President and Minister for Defence in the Government of National Unity.


10. In 1998, Paul Kagame was elected Chairman of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), a partner in the Government of National Unity.


11. On April 17th, 2000, Paul Kagame was unanimously elected President of the Republic of Rwanda by the Transitional National Assembly. He took the Oath of Office on April 22nd, 2000.

(Source: Planet rulers.com)