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A New Season of Stifled Democratic Aspirations Begins in North Africa.

Another so-called Arab – or at least North African – Spring? Given the significant risks and the fact that a few hundred lives have already been lost, rather than spring, geopolitical ‘meteorologists’ might use a less charming season as a metaphor for the civil revolts, wars and political overthrows now affecting  Sudan, Algeria and Libya. For better or worse, there is a desire for change, even if there are few chances that any substantive change will occur.

On April 11, 75-year old Omar Al Bashir resigned, or was forced to do so, after wielding power for the past 30 years. He himself assumed power after staging a military coup in 1989. During his tenure, Sudan flirted with a Islamist inspired politics. Since 2010, the country was forced to renounce oil revenues after South Sudan seceded in a referendum, widely praised by the ‘international community’. The question now is whether or not, it too will endure the ‘Libyan experience’. Perhaps, the pattern might be closer to that of Egypt. Indeed, for the time being, Sudan’s political fate rests in the hands of the Transitional Military Council. The Council has started choosing or evaluating potential candidates for the role of president, being sure not to clarify what sort of role the Council itself would play in this ‘transition’ or even the government that shall emerge from it.

The seasoned gambler might place his/her bets on what seems most likely scenario. Predictably, the Military Council appears to have no interest in abandoning the scene after organizing elections. It seems intent on influencing the outcome, playing a major role, nominating candidates. But, as usual, instability generates unpredictability. Sudan is no exception; and Bashir’s resignation, just as Qadhafi’s demise in Libya or Bouteflika’s departure (and that of his close allies) from the Algerian political scene opens the oath to what the Probability expert Nicholas Nassim Taleb calls ‘Black Swans’, Pandora’s boxes by another name.
As in the case of Libya, dictators or so-called strongmen in, have given the semblance of being able to keep public order even if at the cost of ‘human rights’. But, one of the ‘known unknowns’ to paraphrase former U.S. secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is that there is no assurance that a ‘strong’ man will be replaced by a ‘just’ one, let alone by one intent on governing democratically. Just as Algerians and Libyans, or Egyptians, the Sudanese people’s desire for democracy faces a considerable risk of being stifled by yet another manifestation of military or authoritarian power. The Sudanese Army has already announced it would suspend the Constitution until at least 2021, thereby suppressing the aspirations of those who took to the streets against Bashir. Moreover, the usual suspects are becoming increasingly involved, while Sudanese parties, including affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood, try to reach compromises in Parliament through the ‘Freedom and Change’ coalition, the foreign meddling has begun:

Egyptian President al-Sisi has promptly backed Sudan’s military ‘interim’ junta while, not coincidentally, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have already promised some $3.0 billion in economic aid. Do you remember these? They’re the same who have backed General Haftar and his ‘Montgomery vs. Rommel’ inspired adventures in the Libyan deserts. And Haftar himself has reportedly decided to visit Khartoum to meet the Junta members. It should be noted that Haftar’s LNA features a sizeable number of Sudanese, mostly Darfur Arabs (janjaweed) ‘mercenaries’. For its part ‘Freedom and Change’ has withdrawn from negotiations with the military junta, having understood that the generals and colonels will not back down and that Bashir’s departure might best be understood as another case of President Morsi in Egypt.

Huge street protests in Algeria

Politically, the most significant of these events occurred in Algeria, where, with some hesitation, on April 1, Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned as president of Algeria. As the Algerian media hailed, it was no April Fool’s joke; the 82-year old Bouteflika first became president in 1999. For years he has been ill, and even lost his ability to speak and walk after a stroke in 2013. In fact since becoming president in 1999, he suffered from various illnesses and from about 2005 he was rarely seen in public. In recent weeks, after the start of huge street protests against him and the group of people accused of governing the country by taking his place, he had decided to withdraw his candidacy for a new mandate and had lost the support of the army.

Bouteflika succeeded Gen. Liamine Zéroual, who served as President of Algeria from 1994 until 1999. During that time, marked by violence and civil war, Bouteflika served as foreign affairs minister. It seems that Zéroual fell out of favor with the military, encouraging him to resign. It sounds rather familiar; for it’s clear that Bouteflika reluctantly made the decision to resign, just weeks after announcing he would run for a fifth consecutive (five-year) term. Once again, the army has stepped in to decide and, no doubt, it will play a major role in determining who will fill Bouteflika’s vacant post – regardless of what the tens of thousands of young people, most of whom less than 30 years old may think. The Army – borrowing from the example of the FIS protests of 1991, from Tahrir Square in Cairo, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, eight years ago – decided it would be too dangerous to confront the largely peaceful protests with violent repression. Just as in 1999, the Army has raised a malleable figure to the presidency: Abdelkader Bensalah even if only for an interim period, leading to elections in July of 2019.

The Four B’s

Unlike 1999, when war-weary Algerians (some 200,000 people are believed to have died in the conflict), wanted stability, protesters have endured years of economic hardship. Like many oil producing countries, in the Arab world and beyond (Venezuela for example), the natural resource encourages dependency. When oil prices were high, Bouteflika, and his predecessors, could ‘buy’ popular support by keeping people fed and clothed through generous subsidies and social services. But, as oil prices have been falling over the past four years (recovering now, but too late for the outgoing president), public anger has intensified beyond the proverbial ‘stomach’. Bouteflika’s resignation; and his replacement by Bensalah may prove inadequate or too weak; particularly, as the interim president was in Bouteflika’s close circle.

Algeria’s interim president Abdelkader Bensalah

Bensalah has the unpleasant task of pursuing those close to Bouteflika for various allegations of corruption and other crimes to appease the people’s demand for justice, while also ensuring the continued support of the Army. He’s bound to step on some powerful toes, having already targeted two close Bouteflika associates, accusing them of money laundering. The people consider others, even if not facing formal charges, as guilty by association, demanding the resignation of the four ‘B’s. The first is out; and that would be Bouteflika. Tayeb Belaiz, chief of the Constitutional Council, resigned. But, prime minister Noureddine Bedoui remains in his chair. The fourth ‘B’ is, President Bensalah himself. It’s difficult to see how Bensalah will lead Algeria toward new elections. He is pursuing, with the Army’s consent, a legal ‘witch-hunt’, going after friends and enemies of the regime, who may or may not have committed financial crimes, to quell the public anger, believing that justice, or the semblance thereof, will fix the country’s troubles. Rather, the political and military establishment should be planning ways to lead Algeria out of its chronic economic quagmire, while conducting a soft reform of the justice system to ensure fairness rather than ‘expedient revenge’. The focus on justice rather than politics seems to be a way to distract the people, deflecting attention from the fact that whoever runs for the presidency – presumably Bensalah as well – will have to tow the Army line.

Gen. Haftar in Libya

And then there’s the issue of the dangers that a democratic Algeria might pose for the rest of the North African region – especially for Egypt. While, Algeria, Tunisia and even Libya have experimented with democracy, President al-Sisi was the big winner in a national referendum to extend presidential term limits, all but guaranteeing his tenure until at least 2030. In other words, nothing has changed since Mubarak. Tahrir Square was mere ‘Kabuki’ theatre. Clearly, democratic neighbors represent an existential threat and a dangerous ‘inspiration’ if successful.

General Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army (LNA).

Perhaps, this is one of the reasons that the al-Sisi regime has been backing the offensive into western Libya by General Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the Libyan National Army (LNA), which effectively controls the Eastern Libyan government in Tobruk. Haftar, whose main allies are Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, has also enjoyed support from various European players – France in primis, Partially Russia and from the United States (which have officially backed the Government of National Accord led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli) as well, as suggested by a phone call himself and President Trump on April 15. A number of international players have decided that stability, even if it could lead to a return of dictatorship, is better for Libya (and for their own interests) than the oddly anarchical status-quo of a sparsely populated, country split between essentially three governments and a variety of fiefdoms or city-states (such as Misurata), vying for control of oil and gas, which happen to be Africa’s largest reserves thereof.

The timing of Haftar’s advance appears to coincide with a meeting the Libyan general with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in Riyadh on March 27. While there’s no official word about any Saudi marching ‘orders’; the timing of Haftar’s advance was evidently calculated to sabotage the planned and UN sponsored Ghadames National Conference, which was to be held between April 14-16 – now postponed indefinitely. The Conference aimed to produce a political solution to Libya’s crisis, bringing together the various regions, governments, tribes and top militias. Whatever else Haftar will have won or lost, his allies (those in the Gulf especially) have already secured a victory by interrupting the Conference. Haftar’s rash actions have also dug out the hypocrisy of so much meddling, and from the West in particular. After bombing and facilitating the demise of the Qadhafi regime and Libya’s stability in 2011, Haftar’s march on Tripoli has helped demonstrate, if it were not clear already, that external actors – big powers and their freedom infused exhortations included – are as guilty as Libyans, if not more, of creating obstacles to stability and even democracy in Libya. Indeed, the mess in Libya, if anything else, reinforces the idea that authoritarian solutions are better suited to North African region’s leadership problems than experiments in democracy. Predictably, it seems to occur to no one that meddling and interference may have caused more problems than either democratic or authoritarian regimes.

Alessandro Bruno

 

Herbs & Plants. Xylopia aethiopica. A Spicy Herbal Medicinal Plant.

It possesses great nutritional and medicinal values. The plant is used in the treatment of a number of diseases. And also as a body cream. 

Xylopia aethiopica which is commonly referred to as the grains of Selim, Ethiopian pepper or African grains of Selim, is an evergreen, aromatic tree that can grow up to about 20m in height with a smooth grey bark; it has a 25-70 cm diameter, a straight bole with a many-branched crown. The tree has a short prop or buttress roots, its leaves are simple, alternate, oblong, elliptic to ovate, leathery, the margin entire. The flowers are creamy-green, bisexual and the fruits look rather like twisted bean-pods, dark brown, cylindrical. Each pod contains 5 to 8 kidney-shaped black seeds, and the hull is aromatic, but not the grain itself. It is a native to the lowland rain forest and moist fringe forests throughout tropical Africa. The genus name Xylopia is a greek word (xylon pikron) for ‘bitter wood’, while the species name aethiopica refers to its Ethiopian origin.

Xylopia aethiopica (Family Annonaceae) is a multipurpose tree that is very important in the local economy, supplying foods, a wide range of medicines, and wood. It remains an important traded plant species throughout parts of Africa, sold in local markets as a spice and medicine. The dried fruits of Xvlopia aethiopica; commonly referred to as ‘the grain of Seli’m are used as an herbal medicine. The tree is often cultivated near villages and often protected when growing in the forest.
Xylopia aethiopica possesses great nutritional and medicinal values and all the parts are very useful medicinally, although the fruits are most commonly used for therapeutic purposes. It can be taken as a decoction, concoction or even chewed and swallowed for the management of various aches and pains. Xylopia aethiopica is used in the treatment of a number of diseases including cough, malaria, constipation, uterine fibroid, and amenorrhea. It is also used locally as carminative, stimulant and adjunct to other remedies for the treatment of skin infection.

The bark decoction is administered for the treatment of bronchitis, asthma, stomach-aches and dysenteric conditions and the infusion of the plant’s bark is used in the treatment of biliousness and fever. The mixture of Xylopia aethiopica bark with palm wine is useful in the management of rheumatism, asthma, and stomach-ache. The bark is also used as a postpartum tonic and also taken to promote fertility and to ease   childbirth.
The dried root powder is of Xylopia aethiopica dissolved in alcohol and administered orally as an anthelminthic and as mouth-wash to relive toothache. The powdered root is used as a dressing for skin sores and also rubbed on gums for gum diseases and in local treatment of cancer. The aqueous root concoction is administered after child birth as an anti-infective drug. The decoction is also administered as an antihemorrhagic agent.The leaves are used in traditional medicine to manage boils, sores, wounds and cuts and the decoction of the leaves and roots used as a tonic and also to treat fever and debility. Additionally, the decoction of the leaves is also used as an anti-emetic. The leaf-sap can be administered to treat epileptic seizure. Powdered leaves are inhaled for the treatment of headaches and its decoction used to treat rheumatism. A decoction of the fruit is useful in the treatment of asthma, bronchitis, stomach-aches and the dried fruit used to treat dysenteric conditions.
The fruits are also used as a purgative, emmenagogue, antitussive, anthelmintic and for relieving flatulence. The dried fruit decoction is administered for the treatment and management of asthma.
The fruit of X. aethiopica is also used as a reliever of pain caused by rheumatic conditions. It is also used as a tonic to improve fertility in women and is an essential ingredient in preparation of local soups to aid new mothers in breastfeeding.

The dry fruits are smoked like tobacco and the smoke inhaled to relieve respiratory ailments. Traditional medical practitioners and birth attendants use a decoction of the seeds to induce placental discharge postpartum due to its abortifacient effect. The crushed seeds are applied topically on the forehead to treat headache and neuralgia. The decoction of the seeds is also used as a vermifuge for roundworms.
Apart from the medicinal uses, the powdered fruits of Xylopia aethiopica can be mixed with shear butter and used as body creams.  The powdered dry fruits and seeds can also be used as spice to flavour food. The bark of Xylopia aethiopica is resistant to attack by termites and as such used to make doors and partitions during construction of buildings. The wood is also traditionally used to make bows and crossbows for hunters.
Xylopia aethiopica contains a number of bioactive compounds including β-pinene, 1,8-cineol, α-terpineol, terpinene-4-ol, paradol, bisabolene, linalool (E)-β-ocimene, α-farnesene, β-pinene, α-pinene, myrtenol and β-phellandrene. Therefore, its medicinal activities may be due to the presence of these bioactive compounds in it.

Richard Komakech

 

Iraq. The courage to go back.

After the liberation of Mosul and the Plain of Nineveh, thousands of Christians are returning to their homes and their communities. Committed Churches.

It was in the summer of 2014 when the Islamic State (IS) men entered the city of Mosul. At the great mosque of Al-Nuri, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself ‘Caliph of the Islamic State’ and declared war on the West. Mosul is an important city in Iraq due to its water reserves. Just 50 km away there is the Mosul Dam, the largest in the country and fourth largest in the Middle East.
Before the occupation, this dam on the river Tigris provided electricity to two million people and water for agriculture in the whole province.

The occupation of Mosul would last three years, three long years of violence, torture and death for all who were not Sunni Muslims. Thousands fled from Mosul and from the Plain of Nineveh.
It was only when the city was liberated that the full extent of the destruction and massacres could be seen. Many Christians decided to return to the liberated city where they now want to rebuild their two thousand-year-old Christian presence there.
Qaraqosh, a small urban centre about 30 km south west of Mosul and known as the main Christian stronghold in the country, has seen the return of an estimated 25,000 Christians: 46 per cent of those who lived there before the IS invasion.
There have also been notable returns to other villages on the Plain: 26 per cent of Christians have returned to Karemlesh, 5 km from Qaraqosh while more than 5,000 Christians, 73 per cent, the highest in the area, have returned to Telskuf, 60 km to the north.

The village of Telskuf was the first to re-consecrate a church, that of St. George, which had been damaged and profaned by IS. In the words of Bishop Bashar Matti Warda: “This is a message of hope and of victory. The Islamic State wanted to eliminate the Christian presence but instead it is the Jihadists who have left while we have returned”.
The churches of Iraq have been in the front line of the reconstruction process. The work of repairing and rebuilding the more than 13,000 homes burned, destroyed or damaged by IS, has been coordinated by the NRC (Nineveh Reconstruction Committee), set up on 27 March 2017 by the three Churches of Iraq: the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church. Each of the three churches has due representatives in the committee.
Monsignor Timothaeus Mosa Alshamany, Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and prior of the monastery of St Matthew, emphasises its two-fold historic importance: on the one hand there is the ecumenical spirit and, on the other, the real possibility for Christians to return to their roots and live a dignified life. “Today – he said – we are a truly united Church; we are united in the reconstruction of homes on the Plain of Nineveh, in instilling confidence in the hearts of the people living in the villages and in inviting those who left to return”.

Many priests have have been turned into engineers, architects and builders.  Father  Georges Jahola is one of them: he is a Syriac Catholic priest and has coordinated the reconstruction of Qaraqosh. He remarked: “After three years of IS occupation, we returned to find four churches burned down, two Catholic and two Orthodox. One church was completely destroyed and the others badly damaged. We celebrated Mass in the damaged churches. We are now building and restructuring buildings for catechesis and other pastoral activities.
Our priority is to re-establish our Christian presence and to facilitate the return of families who wish to come back. We want to create places where children, the youth and the adults can spend their free time”.
Father Padre Jahola continues, as he recalls the terrible conditions he found in Qaraqosh: “We found a city destroyed both due to being abandoned for three years and also to the fury of the IS. 35% of the houses were destroyed. We were afraid but we did not lose heart. We mapped all the houses, took pictures of them and assigned each building a code number with a description of the damage it suffered. Here in Iraq, if the Church does not see to the needs of these poor people, then nobody else will”.

Today, in places where the black IS flags flew, there are now Christian families. “Almost all the parishes have been reopened – Father Padre Jahola continues – . Just two years ago it was impossible to think of returning to Nineveh However, this now means that we must return to our roots so as to live our faith in communion with that of our ancestors”.The return of Christians to Nineveh after the liberation was not really surprising but the situation is quite different in Mosul.
“The great challenge for us is to restore the confidence of the faithful so that we can work together to create a future for Christians in Iraq”, says Monsignor Michael Najeeb Moussa, a Dominican and the new Bishop of the Chaldeans in Mosul, who was consecrated on 25 January of this year. There are many civil servants and Christian university students who go to Mosul every day but only a few of them have the courage to live there permanently. They are afraid that there may still be hidden Jihadi cells  and that the IS may return. Furthermore, Christians find it hard to trust their former Moslem neighbours, many of whom collaborated with the Islamist fighters. “They prefer to commute up to 85 kilometres and spend the night in their villages on the Plain of Nineveh They do not feel safe here”, Mons. Moussa explains. At present, he cannot live in the city: “85 per cent of the churches of Mosul have been destroyed, including the Archbishop’s House”. Mons. Moussa hopes to return soon and is sure that the presence of a bishop in the city will give new hope to others. “I believe it is possible for Christians to return to Mosul and I believe everything will change when we again start to celebrate Mass as we did for two thousand years, before the coming of IS”.

Monsignor Moussa has played a decisive role in preserving Christian roots. When he fled to Erbil, after the arrival of IS in 2014, he took away hundreds of ancient manuscripts he had been cataloguing and digitalising for decades to preserve the historical patrimony of the Christian people and the entire Iraqi people. Just like his predecessor, Archbishop Emeritus of the Chaldeans of Mosul, Emil Shimoun Nona, Mons. Moussa suffered the same fate as the Christians of Mosul and those of the Plain of Nineveh.
On the night of 9 June, 2014, the IS took control of the city, forcing more than half the population to flee. The few Christians who, during the first weeks of IS occupation, had stayed in Mosul, were at first forced to pay a tax called the ‘jizya’, a so-called ‘protection tax”, imposed on non-Muslims during the time of the Ottoman Empire. However, in order to transform Iraq and Syria into a single Islamic Caliphate, it was necessary to eliminate the religious minorities. As a result, in mid-June, the homes of Christians were all marked with the Arabic letter  «ن», the first letter of the word ‘nasara’: Nazarenes.
The fundamentalists then forced the remaining Christians either to convert, to flee or to be killed. Immediately, endless lines of vehicles and people on foot set out for Iraqi Kurdistan and the Plain of Nineveh. Those who opted to leave had again to flee for their lives on the night of 6 August, 2014, when the IS took over 13 Christian villages on the Plain. In a single night, more than 125,000 of the faithful had to leave their hope, taking nothing with them.
Many of them walked for hours to Erbil and the nearby city of Duhok. Having escaped the cruelty of the militias, the last Christians living in Iraq slept for days in churches, schools and in porticoes before finally finding a home in badly-ventilated tents where the temperature during the hot summer of 2014 often reached 44 degrees.Then, thanks to the local Churches and the generosity of many families, they found lodging in prefabricated houses or rented flats where they lived up to the end of 2017 or even later.

The Islamic State persecution of Christians was not the first suffered by Iraqi Christians. The total number of Christians in the country had gone down from 1,200,000 in 2003 to a little more than 300,000 in 2014. The instability of the country following the war of 2003 and the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein, created an inferno for the Christian minority, caught in the crossfire between Sunni and Shiite Moslems as well as being directly persecuted.
In cities like Baghdad, Bassora, Kirkuk and Mosul, many Christian families had threatening letters pinned to the doors of their houses. Some Christians had to pay the ‘jizya’ while others had their lands taken from them. The women had to cover their faces like Moslem women. The numerous abductions and killings of members of the faithful, priests and even bishops marked the recent years of Christian life in Iraq. In Mosul, one of the symbols of Christian martyrdom in the Middle East after the fall of Saddam Hussein, was the killing, in hatred of the faith, of over one thousand Christians. With the liberation of the Plain of Nineveh and of Mosul, life is slowly beginning for many Christians, even if they still have a long way to go.

Marta Petrosillo

 

 

South Sudan. A great heart with great faith.

A poor woman takes a foreign mother into her house and looks after her sick daughter. She goes to the church and asks the missionary to pray that the child gets well.

In the eyes of many, Nyamuone is a woman of little account. Her husband abandoned her because, in his opinion, she was unable to manage the household the way he wanted. Now she has no home and she is always someone else’s guest. Even without a husband she has not stopped having children. At daybreak each day she sets out for the forest to gather firewood. She collects a bundle as big as she can carry on her head and carries it to the market to sell to the women cooking food, to get a little money to buy enough food to feed herself and her children that day. She spends the rest of the day doing odd jobs and can be seen in the streets, never idle. If needs be, she is not afraid to ask help from anyone she meets.

One morning I saw her in church, a place she was not familiar with. She approached me timidly and, almost prostrated herself before me. ‘Who knows what she wants’, I thought.  “My daughter is sick, she whispered, come and send away the evil spirit that is in her”. In the Nuer language, any incurable sickness is called a jock, an evil spirit in witchcraft.
At that time I was busy with catechism for the children so I encouraged her to go home and come back in the afternoon. She came back with three daughters: one was about four and the others twins about a year old. One of the twins was sick.  A closer look showed the healthy child in the arms of the four year-old with a nice, dark round face. The sick child in Nyamuone’s arms was light-skinned with straighter hair and a long nose. She looks slender and shows signs of malnutrition. I said: “Tell me the truth. These babies are not twins, are they?”. She nodded in agreement. “And are the other two yours?”. She nodded again.

I then asked her to tell me her story. Following the armed conflict at Malakal, an Ethiopian woman came to Phom. Nyamuone saw her alone at the port and took her to where she herself lived. Nyamuone spoke only Nuer while the other woman had only a smattering of Arabic. Nevertheless, they understood each other quite well. Both were pregnant and, only a few weeks later, they each had a baby girl. The Ethiopian woman, however, was not well: she was weak and was visibly losing weight. Nyamuone looked after her as best she could and started nursing her new-born baby.

When Phom was attacked by the soldiers, they fled to the forest together with others forced from their homes. They had to stay there for about ten days with absolutely nothing. The Ethiopian woman’s condition worsened and she died.
“That is how the little girl became my daughter. Even though she was Ethiopian, she was no stranger to me. We know that the food of the children is always shared. We are all siblings and no one is left out”, Nyamuone explained. “It is also true that the mother will always pay more attention to her weakest child”.

Seeing that the baby was not putting on weight as it should have, she brought it to the hospital at Fangak where the child was found to have tuberculosis. She was admitted and kept in isolation with other children to prevent her infecting others. The treatment would take quite some time. Nyamuone would have to work very hard every day to provide the daily needs.She ended her story asking for the prayers for which she came. We prayed together and she went away in peace, certain that the evil spirit had been driven out. The child could now get well without any further trouble.As I watched that woman slowly leaving the church, I began to see her in a different light. Nyamuone has great faith and I can only admire her great compassion and the help she is giving that child.
Fr. Christian Carlassare

 

The Lack of Solidarity of International Trade.

Faced with the evident failure of the multilateral free trade and investment agreements promoted by the European Union (EPAs, TTIP, MERCOSUR), Europe has developed its commercial strategy through bilateral economic agreements with third countries.

The last of these bilateral agreements has been the one of the EU and Singapore added to a long list. In this new agreement, like in all bilateral agreements that the EU currently has in force, Europe imposes its commercial interests on countries that accept any type of conditions, protecting their investment companies and forgetting about the social dimension of trade that promotes solidarity, human development and the promotion of human rights.

These bilateral economic agreements not only provide juridical security to the investment companies but also impose the controversial clause of the multilateral agreements for the resolution of conflicts called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). Through these dispute resolution mechanisms, investment companies can sue the States in whose territories they are installed if the government change the legislation during the course of their investments and if the said legislative changes affect their benefits.

It’s the world upside down. So, a company will make investments only in case its economic success is guaranteed with profits. Imagine that in your own country a person or a company decides to open a restaurant or become entrepreneur but could do so by securing benefits and could report their local authorities in case the financial investment of the company does not report profits. Does not it sound strange to you?

But the scandal of these dispute resolution systems between companies and States (ISDS) goes beyond who are the legal entities (companies) entitled to sue a sovereign State. These agreements establish that the entities that must resolve the disputes between governments and companies are not the ordinary courts of each country attached to the national legislation of the country in which the investment is carried out. These private courts are also not submitted to the legislation of the country of origin of the investment companies. Moreover, they are not subject to international laws or treaties.

These pseudo-courts of private-juridical nature obey purely the economic criteria and the estimations of the profits of large companies. Therefore, it is not only an attack to the democratic legal systems or the Rule of Law, but it is a threat to the national sovereignty of the countries in which the investments are developed that see how their courts are annulled in the face of a legitimacy granted by a simple
economic agreement.

These measures of dispute resolution established in bilateral free trade agreements at the behest of large companies restrict the capacity to legislate of developing countries. Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN) as a civil society denounces these abusive clauses and the injustice that it implies for developing countries especially in Africa where at least 20 % of all dispute cases between Investors and States involve African countries. With these clauses, companies find the way free to act at their will, reinforcing their impunity and with the guarantee that no legislation can harm them even if such legislation serves to improve the lives of citizens and countries.

These clauses make it difficult to develop legislations on environmental issues or protect social and labour rights such us establishing minimum wages for all their workers, changing tax legislation, improving social security, pensions, and so on, as they would mean a change in the production costs of investments companies and provoking potential negative consequences for their profits.

In recent years, the European Union has made an effort in favour of the transparency of European companies that help to improve their social and economic dimension at the service of the society. However, the EU’s effort to maintain clauses such as the ISDS provokes confusion by destroying the values of democracy and the rule of law. One wonders who is behind these types of clauses, why they are included in the bilateral free trade agreements? Are they political or governmental decisions? Do they obey to trade policy of the EU? Is it a self-attributed competence of the European commission? Is it an initiative of the trade commissioner? Do the officials of DG Trade only obey to political decisions? To whom do the European institutions serve, the people or the economy or the economic interests?

What role do the EU’s inspiring values of solidarity and justice play in the concrete practice of an economic agreement? Where is the control of the European Parliament and the Member States in the face of such abuses? What is the position of the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament at this regard? Why do they all look the other way when it comes to approving these treaties? Or are there certain interests of the EU that are hidden from society (civil)?

The social responsibility of companies is not something that can be left without legislative control to the free will of companies. There is a co-responsibility on the part of EU institutions and national governments that must ensure democratic and solidarity values. Otherwise the economic enlargement of the EU will only lead to the impoverishment of other economic regions.

José Luis Gutiérrez Aranda,
Trade Policy Officer,
Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN)

 

Monasticism and Monasteries in Ethiopia.

If it is true that the Christian Europe of the Middle Ages was shaped by monasticism, more so it can be said of the Ethiopian Christianity.

Ethiopia converted to Christianity around the year 330 through the work of two Syrian young brothers who were taken prisoners in the Red Sea and brought to the court of Axum, where they reached a prominent position. They instructed the young prince Ezana in the Christian faith, who later declared Christianity the official religion of the state. One of the two brothers, Frumencius, went to Alexandria in search of a bishop for the incipient Church. To his surprise, he himself was consecrated bishop by St Athanase. The Ethiopian Church venerates him as its founder and gives him the names of Abuna Salama and also ‘Kesete Birhan’, the Revealer of Light.

It was not, however, until the end of the fifth century and beginning of the sixth that evangelization spread outside the capital. It was mainly the work of the so-called ‘Nine Saints’ or Tsetegn Kidusan, who were monks from various parts of the eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). Some of them, such as Alef, Afse or Tsegma, are supposed to have come from Syria, while others, like Aregawi, Pentelewon or Likanos, came from Constantinople. It is believed, however, that all passed through Egypt, where they were influenced by Egyptian monasticism. From there they brought the Rule of San Pacomius, which they translated into Ge’ez and which served as a main reference to Ethiopian monasticism, without however losing the strong Syrian reminiscences, visible above all in the tough penances so typical of Ethiopian monks.

The Ethiopian tradition speaks of another group of monks who also came from outside the country during the same period. They are known as the ‘Just’ or Tsadekan, to whom the founding of other monasteries is attributed. In Ethiopia we find, throughout history, the two main forms of monasticism: the eremitic or solitary and the coenobitic or communitarian.
The Nine Saints lived in Axum for a short time, but they soon dispersed in the countryside, founding each one of them a monastery that was a focus of evangelization of the surrounding areas. The most famous of all is the monastery of Debre Damo, founded by Aregawi, the Elder. His fame comes first from its location on the top of a mountain almost inaccessible, with its flat summit in the form of a table, and second from the role it played in Ethiopian history.

The monasteries founded by both groups, the Kidusan and the Tsadikan, were like the seed of a series of monasteries that spread throughout the nation, to the most distant borders, helping to define the limits of the Christian empire. They usually chose the most rugged, but at the same time, the most picturesque places: inaccessible and challenging mountain peaks, deepest valleys. Debre Damo, Debre Bizen, Debre Sina, Zuqwala, Waldebba, Gunde-Gunde or the islands of Lake Tana are but a few of the most notorious examples. The monks influenced all aspects of the religious and civil life of the nation. Their intervention in politics could be decisive, as it was, for example, in the restoration of the so-called Solomonic dynasty in the thirteenth century, through the mediation of Abuna Tekle Haimanot.

The 12th  and 13th centuries are particularly important in the development of Ethiopian monasticism with the appearance of great monks such as Jesus Mo’a (+1287)), founder of the monastery of Hayk, Tekle Haimanot, founder of Debre Libanos, and Ewostatewos (1273-1352), promoter of a monastic reform alternative to that of Tekle Haimanot. In fact, Tekle Haimanot and Ewostateos represent the two most important currents of Ethiopian monasticism. The one of Ewostatewos, more rigorist, spread mainly in the monasteries of the north (Tigray and Eritrea). The one of Tekle Hiamanot, more moderate without ceasing to be austere, spread in the monasteries of the south (Amhara, Gojjam, Shoa). Some of the positions of Ewostatewos, such as the observance of the Sabbath in addition to Sunday, were considered by many as heterodox and were condemned by Patriarch Yakob. Due to the opposition he found, Ewostatewos left Ethiopia and went to Egypt, the Holy Land and Armenia, where he probably died. But his disciples persevered in the same line, which eventually gained the support of Emperor Zara Yakob, who in 1450 imposed the observance of the Sabbath throughout the empire.
The differences, and even rivalries, between monasteries had many manifestations, some of them beneficial, like contributing to a greater push to evangelization. Thus, the monastery of Hayk, in order to extend its influence, undertook the evangelization of the populations to the west of its monastery, reaching to Lake Tana. Likewise, the monastery of Debre Libanos evangelized the southern areas, reaching Lake Zway and the Kafa region.

Another manifestation of their rivalry, this one less beneficial if not harmful, was the bitter and largely sterile, dispute over the anointing of the humanity of Jesus, which deeply divided the Orthodox Church as a whole during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While the monasteries of the north aligned themselves with the sect called karra (knife), those of the south, led by Debre Libanos, aligned with that of ye-tsegga-lij  (son of grace), also known as sost lidet (three births). The dispute finished towards the end of the 19th century (1876), due to the intervention of Emperor Yohannes IV, who imposed the formula of the karra sect in all the country.
The deep changes which took place in Ethiopia in recent times, starting from the revolutionary Marxist regime of Mengistu Hailemariam (1974-1991) and followed by the spreading of modern education and the sweeping growth of the Protestant Pentecostal-type denominations necessarily had a deep impact on the Ethiopian monasticism, still very much anchored in its old traditions. The number of young candidates to monastic life has visibly dropped. Nonetheless, the nearly 800 monasteries with hundreds of monks still living in some of them, tell us that monasticism in Ethiopia is far from being condemned to a rapid disappearance. However, it will depend on the capacity to renew itself that monasticism continues to play in the Ethiopian Church the fundamental role it played in the past. (J.G.N.)

 

 

 

 

Rwanda. Twenty-five years after Apocalypses. A transformed country.

Twenty-five years after the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994, the country is peaceful and the economy is booming. But citizens are striving for more freedom.

September 1994. Two months after the end of the genocide, the capital, Kigali was offering a picture of sadness and devastation. The windows of most government offices were broken. Electricity was off and shootings could still be heard here and there during the day or the night. Dogs were shot systematically because they had become dangerous since they had tasted human flesh. At the entrance of the city, the military searched vehicles for weapons. Hutu “Abacengenzi” (infiltrated) rebels were still active in the country.

In the neighbourhoods of Kigali, the disgusting stink of decomposed corpses was still floating around. I remember to have seen putrefied bodies including a child’s one lying in the bed of a small creek near Gitarama. On the hills which tower the fjords over Lake Kivu, in Kibuye, the stench of corpses which had been abandoned after a massacre occurred several months ago was making everyone sick. After the holocaust, which according a government count, caused 1,074,017 victims, including 934,218 identified ones, the entire country was to be rebuilt. Over two million people who had been forced by the army of the genocidaires to cross the border, were crowding the refugee camps in Congo. The most difficult task was to cure the invisible but deep wounds of widows and orphans.
Twenty-five years later, the transformation is radical.
Kigali, which once looked a calm provincial town, has a totally new skyline, with business centres and high building all over the place. Five-Star hotels raise their towers in different part of town. In the centre, the former headquarters of the so-called “interim government” which masterminded the genocide, the “Diplomates” Hotel has been substituted by the luxurious Serena Hotel.
A few hundred yards from there, tourists are enjoying the swimming pool at the Hôtel des mille collines, without knowing that it had been used in 1994 as a tank for refugees who were then besieged by the dreaded Interhamwe militias. The town which is towered by the new Defence Ministry bunker has grown from 300,000 to over 750,000 inhabitants since 1994.

The expansion is owed mainly to rural exodus and to the arrival of many returnees from neighbouring countries. But the proliferation of houses, offices and industries has also meant land expropriation. Many inhabitants of small brick or corrugated iron houses have been relocated outside of town. The human landscape and its description have changed. Noboby speaks anymore about Hutus, Tutsis and Twas, the categories (ubwoko) which appeared on the IDs before 1994, which made much easier the killers’job. Nowadays, people describe themselves as “Sopecya” (survivors), “Dubaï” (former Tutsi refugees from the Congo or Burundi) or “Tingi Tingi” (Hutu refugees returned from Congo).
Kigali is now one of the cleanest and safest cities of the African continent. Plastic bags are banned everywhere. This deserved Kigali the Scroll of Honour awarded by UN-Habitat in 2008. This policy also allowed start-ups producing biodegradable items such as Jean de Dieu Kagabo’s “Soft Packaging” to emerge. The security feeling has completely changed for the good. In capital, where machetes and grenades caused terror, it is frequent now to see ladies including expatriate ones jogging at night. Markets look prosperous and both imported and local products can be found in abundance.

Most observers admit that President Paul Kagame has managed to restore stability in this devastated land. Efficiency against corruption is recognised internationally. State officials are accountable and must sign performance commitment with specified targets, the “imihigo”. In 2015, Rwanda met almost all the Millenium Development Goals. In ten years, one million people emerged from acute poverty and the country now boasts from an annual GDP growth rate of 7.8%. Yet, poverty has not been completely eradicated. The Agazoho Genocide Widows Association (AVEGA) is trying to assist women which the genocide turned overnight in the head of the family.
Over 95% of the children have access to primary school. Infant mortality decreased by 61% and three quarters of the Rwandans have access to safe drinking water. Women account for 55% of the members of parliament, which is a world record. And the country is one of the few in Africa to enjoy a universal social security system.The ambitious objective to achieve a 563 MW generation capacity by 2020 will not be met. But the country boasts from pioneer infrastructures such as methane gas and peat power stations. It is now considering to harness its geothermal potential. A new hydroelectric power station was inaugurated on the Nyabarongo River. The target is to achieve universal access to electricity by 2025 (as against 34.5% in 2017).

Rwanda has become the epicentre of digital Africa. The small landlocked state is banking in new technologies to create a business friendly environment for investors and ranks already second in Africa, in this category, according the World Bank. In June 2018, Volkswagen was seduced and opened a 5,000 cars assembly plant which produces Passat and Polo models.
A new generation of entrepreneurs has emerged. It boasts from a “knowledge laboratory”, a kind of incubator in Kigali. There is innovation in all directions. The Ikirezi Natural Products company produces citronella, geranium and eucalyptus essential oils for the perfume industry which represent a three-fold increase of revenues compared to the traditional production of beans. A drone airport was also built at Muhanga, to the South-West of Kigali,to transport blood samples, medicines and emergency equipment between remote areas of the country and hospitals. After the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), a brand new Kigali Innovation City has just been set up and is scheduled to train 5,000 engineers per annum. The country has become a symbol of excellency for coffee, tea and cut flowers crops. Huge plans are on track to open up this land-locked country to the outside world. In January 2018, Paul Kagame and the Tanzanian President John Magufuli agreed to build a 400 km railway line between the two countries which will improve Rwanda’s access to the port of Dar-es-Salam. Yet, important efforts are still required.
The European Network for Central Africa coalition of NGOs admits that production and yields have increased over the last ten years. But accordingly, farmers should be more consulted in the process of definition of agricultural transformation strategies. Indeed, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, 4 million Rwandans are still affected by malnutrition. On the meantime, technological can be noticed in the country side. Along the roads, yellow pickets indicate the presence of 4G cables. And the province towns of Kibuyé and Gisenyi also show a construction frenzy.

But at times, one feels Rwanda is still in the middle of a stormy area. Near the Nyungwe forest for instance, military patrols can be seen every two miles, reminding of tensions with neighbouring Burundi. There are still 79,000 Congolese refugees in the country, spread in camps near Butare and between Gisenyi and Kigali. And the authorities want to make clear they stand ready for any kind of threat. At the beginning of the year, a What’s App video was showing Kagame in uniform attending with other officers an artillery exercise.
There is a flip side of the coin, though. Time and again, human rights organisations complain about violations and insufficient press freedom. There is no doubt that opponents are given a hard time. In the past, several were assassinated. That was namely the case of the former Minister of Interior, Seth Sendashonga who was killed by a death squad in Nairobi in 1998. In January 2014, came the turn of the former chief of foreign intelligence, Col. Patrick Karegeya  who was found dead in a hotel room in Johannesburg. Many Rwandans would like Kagame to open up the political space but few dare to express loudly such will. There is fear of repression and that open debate might bring back the devils of hatred speech and ethnicism.

François Misser

The Monastery of Debre Libanos.

From its very foundation, Debre Libanos grew in prestige and power until it surpassed all the other monasteries, thanks in the first place to the personality of its founder, Tekle Haimanot, but also to the permanent support of political power. It is still today at the head of the monastic life in Ethiopia.

The data we have about the life of Tekle Haimanot come from traditions put in writing no earlier than the fifteenth century, 200 years after his death, and they are largely legendary. There are at least three Acts or Gedlat. Putting together the various sources, we may reconstruct the main event of his life as follows. He was born in the province of Shoa, receiving from his parents a deep religious education. At the age of 30, in search of deeper religious commitment, he arrived at the monastery of Hayk, recently founded by Iyasus Mo’a, where he remained for nine years. Then he traveled to the monastery of Debre Damo, where he continued his monastic formation under the Abbot Yohanni, the same one who had instructed Iyasus Mo’a.
Returning to his native land, he stopped again in Hayk, receiving all the monastic customs and usages from Iyasus Mo’a. In 1284 he founded the monastery of Debre Atsbo in his homeland of Shoa, which in the 15th century was renamed as Debre Libanos.

On the life of Tekle Haimanot there are endless legends. One of the best known, which is frequently reproduced in the paintings, is that he lived for seven years in a cave, always standing on one leg without ever lying down. After 7 years, the leg he did not use fell to the ground. Another tradition tells us that he had decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When he was coming down from the monastery tied to a rope, the devil cut the rope so that he would fall into the void and die.
But God gave him six wings so he could fly and not hurt himself. With those same wings he would go to Jerusalem not just once but many times, traveling over the clouds. Also the six wings invariably appear in the portraits of the saint.
While some traditions attribute to Iyasus Mo’a the merit of having been the one who decisively influenced the restoration of the so called Solomonic dynasty in 1270, it is more common to attribute it to Tekle Haimanot. Accordingly, a mosaic of the church built by Haile Selassie in 1965 depicts him placing the imperial crown on the head of the young prince Yekuno Amlak.

Tekle Haymanot lived for 29 years in the monastery founded by him, dying probably in 1313. He was initially buried in the cave where he had lived, but some 60 years later the body was transferred to a more accessible place, where it was the object of great veneration along the centuries. The recent church ordered by Emperor Haile Selassie was built over the tomb of the saint. Many aristocratic families desired to be buried in Debre Libanos and built their tombs in the grounds of the monastery.
From the 15th century, the abbots of Debre Libanos received the title of echege, which gave them authority over all the monasteries of the nation and which was practically the highest authority in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church after the emperor, since the Patriarchs came from Egypt and, with few exceptions, neither knew the language of the country nor its religious problematic.
With the appointment of the first Patriarch of Ethiopian nationality in 1959, the title of echege was assumed by him.

The academic formation in Debre Libanos was very systematic and rich not only in the field of chanting but also in commentary on the Holy Scripture. On the other hand, Debre Libanos did not excel in the austerity of life and solitude, so much cultivated in other monasteries. The wide area of the monastery is always full of people: pilgrims, visitors, sick people, merchants offering every kind of merchandise. Monks are frequently seen mixing with the crowd, easily distinguished by their especial hat and the yellow shawl.
The monastery is easily accessible. It is about 110 kms away from Addis Ababa on the road that leads to Bahr Dar and Gondar. It was not so easy in previous times when that road did not exist. The monastery is built on a rugged and picturesque landscape, at the foot of a large natural cliff and with another large cliff at its foot. It was victim of the devastating incursions of the Muslim leader Ahmed Grañ, who in 1531 totally destroyed it. Its reconstruction was slow and not complete until the reign of Yohannes I, at the end of the 17th century. Apart from the modern church built in 1965 by Haile Selassie, the monastery has an older church and some other buildings that serve as dormitories or classrooms, as well as a series of small individual houses where the monks live. The kitchen is remarkable, a long barracks where the monks’ food is prepared every day, consisting of thick bread cakes and hot spicy sauce. The kitchen is considered a sacred place and visitors must take off their shoes to enter it.

The cave where Tekle Haimanot lived is up in the middle of the cliff, about 20 minutes walk from the main church. Until recent times, it was preserved in its natural state and could be visited freely. Now it has been closed with a concrete wall and a large metal gate and can only be visited when the monk in charge opens the gate. The water that drips from its roof is devoutly collected by the faithful in plastic containers because it is tebel, that is, sacred water. A little below the cave there is an abundant spring which is also tebel and the sick go there to drink or to wash. Emperor Menelik was one of the patients who came regularly to the tebel de Debre Libanos in search of a cure for his illness.

With the invasion of Ethiopia by the Italian fascist troops, the monastery suffered another moment of violence and death. Viceroy Graziani assumed that the Orthodox Church and, in particular, the monks, were the most strong opponents of the invasion and lost no chances for revenge. A propitious occasion was the attempt to assassinate him, which took place in Addis Ababa on February 19, 1937. The two patriots who threw the bombs were said to have fled to Debre Libanos. Graziani, without much research, ordered the commander of the area to kill as many monks as possible. According to the report sent by Graziani to Mussolini, the murdered people were about 400, 297 of them monks. Subsequent investigations raise the death toll to more than 2,000.
Debre Libanos remains today, as it was from its very foundation, the most prestigious of all the monasteries and also the biggest in terms of the number of monks. They are about 500, without including a certain number of hermits living in caves in the surrounding area and the young aspirants or students from other monasteries or churches who go there to complete their studies. (J.G.N.)

 

 

Boeing 737-MAX Incident Won’t Thwart Ethiopian Airlines’ Ambitions.

The Addis Ababa – Nairobi route, it’s often a necessary ‘rite of passage’ for those heading for a variety of African destinations. And so it was for the 157 people who boarded the tragic flight of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX, flight ET302, which crashed at 08.44 on the morning of Sunday March 10, 2019.

Since 1948, when Ethiopian Airlines (then called ‘Ethiopian Air Lines’), the carrier had amassed an enviable safety record. Until the March 10 crash, the company’s deadliest, the only comparable accident in numbers of casualties took place in November 1996. And that was because hijackers forced the pilots to fly a 737 toward Australia, causing the aircraft (not made for such long-haul flights) to run out of fuel. Indeed, Ethiopian Airlines, unbeknownst to the average ‘westerner’ is not only one of Africa’s best airlines. It’s one of the world’s best airlines. It boasts experienced and well-trained professional pilots, modern fleets featuring the latest equipment and highly respected maintenance facilities and practices

The combination of Boeing 787 and ‘Ethiopia’ may come as a surprise to most people. The Boeing 787 is the most highly advanced airliner in the world. Long before airlines in Boeing’s own United States had even ordered them, Ethiopian Airlines started operating them to Paris in June 2012, making it the second airline in the world to do so after launch carrier All-Nippon Airways (ANA) – earlier than any U.S. or European carriers. But, Ethiopian Airlines has achieved a number of ‘firsts’. It was the first African airline to use jets in 1962; it was the first to adopt the Boeing 767 in 1984, the first to use the Boeing 777-200LR in 2010, the first B777-800, the first A350 in 2016 and the first B787-9 in 2017.That’s not surprising, given that the African airline is one of the most advanced, safest and admired airlines in the world, let alone in Africa, where the aviation sector is growing and expected to continue doing so very quickly. Such is the 787’s range, 14,000 km plus, that Ethiopian will start direct services to major South American and Asian cities from Sao Paulo to Kuala Lumpur.

Anticipating a veritable boom in the number of passengers as Addis Abeba positions itself as Africa’s main air transportation hub, the airport has been renovated. The airport and airline’s progress reflect Ethiopia’s own progress and economic growth. Ethiopian currently has 25 latest-generation Boeing 737s: 16 from the 800 series and 9 from the smallest 700. But, it has 30 of the brand new Boeing 737 MAX, all of which have been grounded. The company also deploys Airbus A350, Boeing 777 (as well as the Boeing 787) for its long-haul routes. In 2018, Ethiopian carried 10.6 million passengers.
Now, the high number of 737-Max in Ethiopian’s fleet does raise a number of concerns. Will the airline make a sudden shift toward Airbus or other B-737 competitors as many Chinese carriers have done? For the time being, Ethiopian’s CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, stated that the airline will maintain a close relationship with Boeing and other airlines to make air travel even safer, even as he conceded that many the B-737 MAX aircraft does present a number of perplexing issues. GebreMariam stressed that his airline exceeded Boeing and FAA recommendations regarding pilot training on the differences between the B-737 NG and the B-737 MAX after the Lion Air accident in October 2018. Ethiopian 737 Max pilots underwent special training on the B-837 MAX simulators. And Ethiopian is among the very few airlines in the world, operating the complete B-737 MAX simulator.

Urbanization to Stimulate Transportation

Africa, has been experiencing an intense urbanization involving some 500 million people, driven by strong economic reasons to move from rural areas toward cities. African cities with more than a million people will increase. This large and rapid shift in the concentration of population will necessarily bring a shift in social and consumption habits especially in such areas as services and food.

The consulting firm, McKinsey estimated that the urban consumer economy in Africa surpassed the USD$ 1.0 trillion mark a few years ago. And that’s more than twice the $400 billion by 2020 value the same famous consultancy projected in 2012. Clearly, Africa has become the “new frontier of global economic growth”. McKinsey said that the consumption sector alone, dominated by food, in the next seven years will grow at a rate of 45%. The drivers and main beneficiaries of this growth phenomenon include Ethiopia, which has been one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. Long term observers expect this continent to become one of the biggest attractors of foreign capital and investment of the next decade.
Africa has the potential to vastly increase food production to feed itself and to become a major supplier of food for the world. Africa has as many as 600 million hectares of unused yet arable land. The Ethiopian Airlines flights to destinations using some of the most advanced airplanes in the world is a serendipitous development in relation to this promising agricultural future for Africa. The transportation links, development efforts and African continental growth prospects are joining to create an image of Africa that has long been hoped for, one that suggests that a prosperous Africa is within reach.

In this context, Ethiopian Airlines and Ethiopia will become even bigger protagonists of Africa’s expansion of air travel. Addis Ababa is expanding its Bole airport passenger terminal, investing $363 million project to this effect. But, and this is a sign of the optimism, Ethiopia’s largest international airport and airline cannot keep up with the increase in passenger and aircraft traffic demand. Bole airport’s main terminal, built to process six million passengers a year, actually handled about ten million in 2018. Ethiopia, as many other African countries, suffers from insufficient infrastructure, which puts the strategically located country (excellent for stopovers from Europe to Indian Ocean destinations) at a disadvantage compared to the growing hubs of Istanbul, Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Doha. The target now will be to expand the terminals to handle as many as 22 million passengers a year. The project is on its way to completion and the new terminal could become operational by the end of 2019.  In the context of African airlines, Ethiopian has outperformed Egypt air and South African Airways and now boasts 100 planes in its fleet – the grounded Boeing 737 Max notwithstanding – with an enviable average age of five years (that’s literally a baby fleet in airline terms). The fact that other East African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi are also investing in airport expansion can only mean that African governments have decided air transport links are essential aspects of development of their continent.

Alessandro Bruno

 

 

Burundi spirals into dictatorship and isolation.

Four years after the crisis sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s determination to run for a third mandate against the spirit of the constitution and the 2000 Arusha Peace Agreement, Burundi has sunk into oblivion, isolation and dictatorship.

Burundi is a forgotten but ongoing crisis. On the last 21 February, 35 NGOs launched in Nairobi a call to finance aid to the 350,041 refugees then identified in the neighbouring states: 200,688 in Tanzania, 70,059 in Rwanda, 43,038 in DRC and 36,256 in Uganda according the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The NGOs expressed concern for the general ‘lack of interest’ for this tragic situation: as a result, food rations have been reduced and in Tanzanian camps, classrooms are so overcrowded that lessons take place under the trees.

Oblivion is also threatening the victims of human rights violations inside Burundi where repression is likely to continue without foreign witnesses. Indeed, the UN High Commission for Human Rights was forced to announce on the last 4 March 2019 the final closure of its Bujumbura office, at the Burundian authorities’ request. During discussions over the situation in Geneva last February, the UN High Commission’s spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, expressed concerned over the multiplication of such violations in the countries, mentioning homicides and 11,050 allegations of arrests ans arbitrary detentions between November 2016 and September 2018.
Besides, the government gave three months in September 2018 to foreign NGOs to implement ethnic-based quotas requisites for the recruitment of their staff. Some of them such as Handicap International preferred to leave the country rather than creating an ethnic database which reminds of practices which were in vigour before the genocide in Rwanda. As a result, the measure has considerably hindered of 130 international NGOs.

Climate of impunity

According to Human Rights Watch which also mentions rapes, kidnappings, tortures and intimidations of alleged opponents, most of the worse violations took place during the period before the constitutional referendum of the 17 May 2018 which allowed President Nkuruniziza to remain in office until 2034.
The UN Commission of enquiry on Burundi concluded that the authors of these crimes – the SNR National Intelligence Service, the police and the dreaded Imbonerakure militias of the President’s party – are operating in a general climate of impunity which is favoured by the the absence of independence of the judiciary.

The Commission incriminated directly Nkurunziza by denouncing “recurrent calls to hatred and violence”. According to Human Rights Watch, the violence perpetrated in connection with the controversial referendum caused at least 15 deaths, but the real figure is likely to be much higher. Dozens of corpses were indeed found in the country in suspect conditions. Dozens of journalists and social society activists have gone into exile. One of them is the BBC Africa correspondent Judith Batusama after she reported that President Nkurunziza was promoted “Everlasting Supreme Guide” by the ruling party executives on the 11 March 2018. She had been blamed for that by the National Council of Communication which banned in April 2018 the online forum of the readers of the main independent paper Iwacu and in May the BBC broadcasts after the exiled human rights icon, Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, accused in a radio interview the President to have masterminded an assassination attempt against him and the murder of his son. Germain Rukiki, member of the ACAT group of Christians against Torture could not escape. He was jaile to 32 year prison in April 2018 for ‘rebellion’, ‘offense against the state security’, ‘participation to an insurrection movement’ and ‘attacks against the head of state’.
Burundi has become a hell for gays and lesbians. And on the political front, the future is a dead-end. The inter-Burundian dialogue between the government and the opposition which started in 2014 under the East African Community aegis has failed. In early February 2019, the facilitator, former Tanzanian President, Benjmain Mkapa threw the towel in after the boycott of the talks by Bujumbura officials. The opposition is facing lots of hurdles and harassments. Nkurunziza’s main rival, the historical leader of the FNL guerrilla movement protested on the 3 March 2019 against the prohibition of the inaugural meeting of his new party, the National Congress for Liberty in the capital.

Meanwhile, The Hague-based International Criminal Court is continuing investigations on the crimes perpetrated in Burundi since 2015, which include at least 1,200 deaths accordingly. By December 2018, it had already received 1,700 claims concerning extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations, according to the SOS Torture Burundi NGO. Political instability is one of the main causes of the economic stagnation. After a 0.2% decrease in 2017, the real GDP increased by 1.4% in 2018, owing the raise of the coffee and tea production and improved performances of the services, manufacturing and agro-food sectors. But tourism and the hotel sector are in deep crisis.
For 2019, the African Development Bank foresees only a 0.4% GDP growth and alarming budget deficit of 9% which may even overtake 10.3% in 2020. Agriculture production is vulnerable to climate shocks such as El Niño and EU sanctions are not likely to improve sizeable the picture. All this is not likely to attract foreign investors. According to the Rand Merchant Bank report of 2019, Burundi tanks at the bottom of the continent in terms of business attractiveness. This doesn’t bode well for the situation of poverty, specially in the rural sector and of large unemployment affecting mainly the youth. Likewise, conditions are not met to reduce food insecurity which affects 1.76 million people, at a rate which is twice higher than the African average, with dire consequences: six children out of ten are showing growth delays.

China remains an important partner. Yet, some of its contributions do not benefit to the people and reflect rather the will to cajole the head of state of a country endowed with strategic riches such as nickel and earths. A case in point is the US dollars 20 million presidential palace which was offered on the 14 February 2019 to Nkurunziza. The irony is that the new building which is in Bujumbura may never be utilized because the President decided in December 2018 to transfer the capital to Gitega, in the centre of the country.  Even soldiers are unhappy since a third of the US dollar 1,000 monthly wage of the 5,400 Burundian white helmets in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is being siphoned by the government, reports the OLUCOME anti-corruption observatory.

François Misser

The Monastery of Debre Damo.

Among the many Ethiopian monasteries Debre Damo deserves to be mentioned first. Not because it is the largest or the most important, but because it concentrates in itself certain original characteristics that do not occur in others.

In the first place, its antiquity. Founded by Aregawi, one of the ‘Nine Saints’, at the beginning of the 6th century, it is at least as old as those founded by his fellow monks, such as that of Pentelewon in Axum, Afse in Yeha, Gerima in Medera or Jim’ata in Geralta. But, should the monastery not be the oldest in Ethiopia, what is generally admitted is that the church of Debre Damo is the oldest now existing in the country.

According to tradition, it belongs to the time of Emperor Gebre Meskel, son and successor of Kaleb, during the first half of the 6th century, while Aregawi was still alive. Even though it was destroyed and rebuilt more than once, it has kept the original form and is the only existing proof of Aksumite art. In spite of its apparent rusticity, it is a work of perfect harmony. The perimeter of the building is rectangular. Its walls alternate layers of stone and wood, which break up the monotony and create a soft contrast of light and shadow. Also of great beauty is the ceiling, consisting of wooden coffers on which numerous animal and plant figures are engraved. Its connection to the Aksumite architecture is obvious. For instance, the shape of its doors and windows can also be seen in the reliefs on Aksum’s obelisks.
The second characteristic is its picturesque location. Debre Damo is an oval-shaped flat-top plateau, rising up 17 meters from the surrounding landscape and measuring one kilometer in length and a half in width. The bare rock walls drop off steeply on all sides, being accessible only by using the ropes that the monks throw from the top. Tied to them, the visitor is lifted up. Sensations, not all of them pleasant, take hold of him as he climbs up, and even more so, when it is time to go down. Vertigo is one of those sensations, as one dangles off a 17 meter-high cliff. No female presence, not even that of female goats or sheep, is allowed to the holy mountain.

One question arises then: if today it is the monks who throw the rope down to anyone who wants to climb up, who did it for the old Aregawi, the founder of the monastery? Tradition provides an answer to this question. Before Christianity arrived, there was a snake, worshiped by the locals, dwelling on the rock. It was this snake that, in an attempt to kill the holy monk, first helped him up the mountain but, once on top, hurled him violently to the place where the church stands today. The numerous and varied paintings depicting this scene always portray Archangel Michael with his sword raised, deterring the snake from hurting the Saint.

Despite its geographical isolation and difficult access, Debre Damo was very influential throughout history. The emperors through the Middle Ages tried to keep control of it by nominating its abbots. In the 13th century, Iyasu Mo’a and Tekle Haimanot, the future founders of the two great monasteries of Hayk and Debre Libanos, were educated in Debre Damo by the Abbot Yohanni. In the 16th century, when the Muslim leader Aḥmad Grañ began sacking and burning throughout the nation, Emperor Lebna Dengel took refuge in Debre Damo and died there. It was at that both tragic and glorious moment in history that, for the first and the last time ever, the rigid rule forbidding women to climb up the mountain was broken, because it was there that Lebna Dengel’s widow Seble-Wengel welcomed the Portuguese soldiers who had come to the nation’s rescue. It was there that she ‘wisely and cautiously’, according to the Portuguese chronicles, planned the armed resistance against Grañ and it was there that she finally received the news of the decisive victory over him. Debre Damo is, in fact, one of the very few places throughout the Christian empire that escaped the destructive fury of the Muslim Conqueror Ahmed Grañ.

Starting from the 17th century, however, the monastery lost much of its primitive splendor and influence. Talking today with any of the monks living in Debre Damo produces a strange feeling. Their answers to the curios questions of the visitor may respond not so much to how things actually are as to how they should be according to what old traditions affirm. And some of their answers may differ from the reality the visitor can see with his own eyes. For instance, one of them states that the monastery, in all its past splendor, accommodated up to six thousand monks and that, even today, the monastery houses 200 monks and 150 young aspirants. But it is hard to imagine that this rocky and barren ground could house even those 350 people. In the monastery, they have no common life except daily prayers. At midday, they are supposed to meet for the Eucharist. It is now noon and the bell tolls but, out of the labyrinthine alleys, the visitor can see no more than a dozen monks emerging to gather.

Another monk deeply rejects the idea of sending monks from Debre Damo to be educated somewhere else. His viewpoint is that every monk has, in his inner life and in his communion with God, enough resources to feed his monastic life without seeking outside knowledge. Knowledge about the world – he affirms – does not help the monk. Logically enough, he is also against accepting adult vocations in the monastery, “because, in fact, they already know too much about the world”. For him, the ideal vocation is that of the young boy who joins the monastery before having worldly experiences. Even though his answers may not represent the opinion of all monks of Debre Damo, the fact is that boys – almost children – are the ones joining the monastic life. Adult vocations from any sector of society are rare, and even more so from among the educated class. Difficult to imagine today Debre Damo as a center of learning as it is said it was in long past history.
Debre Damo used to possess abundant lands from which rent the monastery lived. But those times have been left behind, especially after the nationalization of the land made by the revolutionary government of Mengistu Hailemariam in 1974. Today the few monks of the monastery live on the offerings of the faithful or the few tourists and from the little subsidy that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church passes them. (J.G.N.)

 

 

 

Brazil. Prisons Without Walls.

In Brazil, where prisons are places of violence and the rate of re-offending is as high as 80%, there are also penitentiaries where the detainees succeed in changing. The secret? Trust, because nobody is beyond redemption. An experience born of a Christian context.

Cleubert was born into a poor and afflicted family, of an alcoholic mother. By the age of thirteen he was already living a life of crime and he was soon confined in various penitentiaries for minors. As soon as he came of age he was condemned to fifteen years in prison. His was one of those explosive Brazilian prisons, places of real violence and actual torture, scenes of furious rebellions by the prisoners among whom the percentage of re-offenders was as high as 80%.

Cleubert happened to be given an unexpected and life-changing opportunity. He was sent to serve the last two and a half years of his sentence in an Association for Protection and Assistance to Convicts (APAC) centre. It was a prison run by an association for the protection and assistance of prisoners. Founded 47 years ago in the state of São Paolo, its method is today recognised by the UN as one of the best among prison systems. They call them ‘prisons without bars’, since the detainees, called ‘recuperands’, are themselves responsible for security within the structure: there are no guards or arms and the prisoners are not just numbers, irredeemable delinquents, but human beings who are offered the chance to take their life in hand and turn it around. They have to come to terms with their faults and overcome them, to become reconciled with their families and with society and to change into new men and women.

Mario Ottoboni

“It was here in this prison that I discovered the real meaning of life, the meaning of respect for others and the meaning of such words as love and family”, says Cleubert, now married with two children and looking after his mother. In prison he was able to study and earned a degree in jurisprudence. He is now a member of APEC in Betim and in Belo Horizonte and working for the Brazilian Fraternity for the Assistance of Prisoners (FBAC), the organisation founded in the mid-seventies by São José dos Campos lawyer Mario Ottoboni, to ‘kill the criminal and save the person’. Ottoboni died on 14 January last.
“Ottoboni, with a group of volunteers involved in prison pastoral, visited Jacarei prison and was struck by the inhuman living conditions of the detainees: this brought him to think of creating a process that would allow those people to recuperate their ‘image and likeness of God’ now overshadowed, through hope, trust and mercy, the three pillars of what would become the APAC method”.

The story is told by Valdeci Antonio Ferreira, a Comboni Lay Missionary, General Director of the Fraternity, who recalls: “The experiment soon began to produce positive results, so much so that the keys of the cells were given to the volunteers with responsibility for the administration of the structure. At that time I was working in the metal industry at Itaúna, in the state of Minas Gerais, and I, too, was shocked when I visited the city prison. When I heard of the first APAC, I decided to go and see it for myself. I stayed for a year, living together with Ottoboni and the detainees of São José dos Campos. I then returned to Itaúna, determined to create another unit there”.
“It took many years of contrasts and challenges and we barely escaped failure for lack of funds, but, with help from the Catholic and Protestant Churches, the project took shape and countless successful social rehabilitations of former prisoners helped us to show the authorities the validity of the method and the thinking behind it: to protect society, bring help to victims and promote justice. Since then, the APECs in Geazil have multiplied: today the method is being fully applied in fifty centres in six states with a total of around 3,500 detainees; a further hundred centres are being established.

‘People enter here, crimes stay outside’: this maxim – attributed to the Spanish Beccaria, Manuel Montesinos y Molina – looms large on the walls of these special penitentiaries where there are no overcrowded cells or criminal gangs who ‘keep order’ or groups to defend against the violence of the guards as is sadly the case in the 1,436 detention structures in Brazil, the country with one in four of the world prison population.“The APAC – Ferreira explains – are coordinated by Associations that collaborate with the judicial and executive powers in guarding detainees and, once they have served their sentences, in their reinsertion in society, through a virtual partnership between the state and organised civil society. Even though they only receive finance from the state in special cases, to all intents and purposes they represent an alternative to the traditional penitential system: the prisoners serve their sentences in cells but there are no guards.The prisoners themselves keep the keys of the structure and see to the cleaning and cooking, as well as the organisation of security measures in collaboration and co-administration with those responsible for the APAC”.

This begs the question: how come the prisoners do not try to escape?  “A phrase once pronounced by a detainee is now written at the entrances to all the APAC: ‘Nobody runs away from love’. When the method is properly applied, with its twelve points that work  in combination, with the involvement and commitment of all the personnel, the volunteers and society, in the recovery of the prisoners, they are brought to reflect on themselves and to realise that their sentence is not only a physical state but is also a mental and spiritual condition which must be overcome”, the Director of  the FBAC explains.
“The method requires that the person in question must learn to take responsibility for their own actions, to respect others, to love and to live in a community in which they trust. These are values which, within the context of valuing the human person, of accepting reality, of work and of study, lead to a commitment towards society, the family and oneself. This is why, even though it would be easy to flee from within the walls of an APAC, the awareness of having to pay for their mistakes and the recognition of the efforts made for their recovery, do not permit them to do so. The detainees know that a failure on their part could close the doors to other prisoners who, in Brazil and elsewhere, are clamouring for the chance to change their lives in one of our institutes”.

In order to recognise the evil one has done, it is necessary to experience good: and this, in synthesis, is the meaning behind the method invented by Ottoboni. Nevertheless, serving a sentence in an APAC prison is not as easy as it might seem. The structures, usually of small dimensions and set up in places away from large centres, with the agreement of the local community, are ruled by very strict discipline – “it is not sufficient to stop doing wrong; we have to start doing good”, with a full timetable of activities starting at 7am and continuing until 10pm.
The experience of the Associations for the protection and assistance of detainees was born in a Christian context but is open to prisoners of all faiths who are assisted in line with their particular beliefs. “The most important experience for us is to come to know God”, Valdeci Antonio Ferreira again explains. “During these years, we have had various cases of recovering prisoners who professed no particular religion but who, helped by the example they received during their stay with others, decided to become Catholics”.
On the other hand, there are many unusual instances that occur in these prisons without bars. For example, the level of re-offending which in the ordinary prisons in Brazil is as high as 70-80%, is here between 10-20%. One more reason for investing in this model whose costs are 1/3 the amount spent for the same number of detainees in ordinary prisons. We may also mention that, in 47 years in the APEC units, there have never been any episodes of  rebellion or uprising or acts of violence as is so sadly the case in the ordinary prisons of Brazil”.
Chiara Zappa

 

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