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Europol: How Organized Crime Groups Infiltrate the Ports of Europe.

Of the 90 million containers that find their way through EU ports every year, law enforcement is able to physically inspect only two percent. This, combined with the criminal tricks, makes it almost impossible to detect the enormous amount of illicit goods that enter the continent through ports, according to a new Europol report.

The police agency released its analysis of the challenges law enforcement face in protecting the EU’s ports from criminal networks, who seek to exploit the continent’s shipping hubs to traffic hundreds of tonnes of narcotics across the world.

The report, released jointly with the Security Steering Committee of the ports of Antwerp, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, and Rotterdam, examines the ingenuity employed by transnational crime groups to bypass authorities and smuggle their product across Europe’s transport system.

The freedom of movement granted within the Schengen Area has become part of the European way of life; highways, railways and ports connect cities across 27 countries, for goods as much as for people.

Once infiltrated by crime groups, however, these same interconnected shipping networks become a boon for illicit transnational enterprises such as drug smuggling. And the ports are the infiltration point.

The sheer volumes of shipments they process, and connectivity with the surrounding areas make them an attractive avenue for transporting illicit merchandise across the European market.

Add in the fact that criminal organizations can identify who at the ports can facilitate their goods getting processed as fluidly as possible, and one can see how authorities don’t really even have a chance.

Select corrupt officials, who have access to the proper logistics and shipping manifolds, can label which containers are to be inspected and which are to be waved through. Essentially, routes exiting the ports are pre-selected for which have a greater chance to be searched, or none at all, given the lack of proper manpower. These are referred to by criminals as ‘green lines’, Europol said.

“Criminal networks work closely to evade security at land borders and at air and maritime ports. They have one thing in mind – profit,” said Europol’s Executive Director Catherine De Bolle.

As for the trafficking of the drugs itself, there are several modi operandi used to ingeniously conceal them, and no lack of creativity when one authorities get wise to one particular method.

For example, after a container is processed through a routine scan by customs, its registration info is copied and placed onto a replica, thereby allowing it to evade inspections.Europol estimates that no less than 200 tonnes of cocaine have successfully been trafficked through the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in the past few years thanks to misappropriated container reference codes.

Another example is the more standard “the rip-on/rip-off method.” In the port of departure, the narcotics are concealed in the container, in a place that is easily accessible.
The drugs are then transported along with the goods from a legitimate receiver/importer, who is often unaware of the situation.

Once the container reaches its destination, the drugs are retrieved in or just outside the port by extraction teams. And transnational crime groups do not just target select personnel at a single port, Europol said. Forming a network of corrupt support coordinators in multiple locations “allows the criminals to be flexible in changing their routes depending on control measures or risks to the shipments.”

Corrupting multiple workers also allows them to have people in place to pick up the slack and ensure a continuance of operations should one be discovered and arrested. They can come from several areas within the ports, including shipping agents, terminal officers, transporters, and even law enforcement and customs officials.

But the most expensive is the “essential links in the extraction chain,” workers such as crane operators and those with access to IT systems. Those in charge of extracting the drugs from the ports can receive “between 7 to 15 % of the value of the illicit load,” Europol said.

In order to combat this continental-wide problem, Europol recommends the development of legislation that would streamline security measures across all ports in Europe. “Implementation of such measures at the European level,” the report concluded, “will ensure a level playing field, avoiding competition at the cost of security.” (Photo: A lot of automated cranes at the busy port terminal in Antwerp. 123rf.com/creativenature)

Henry Pope

 

Criminal Networks and Local Allies.

The Latin American cartels, from Bolivians to Mexicans. The Italian ‘Ndrangheta. The ‘friendships’ with African entrepreneurs and politicians. Diffusion and complicity in an expanding market.

It was May 2021 when in an Interpol operation, with the collaboration of 41 African and Middle Eastern countries, narcotics were discovered, especially cocaine and cannabis, worth 100 million euros, and culminating with the arrest of 287 people. The operation had been carried out in Niger, with the seizure of 17 tons of cannabis destined for Libya, to then continue on to Europe (value: 31 million euros). In South Africa, the seizure took place on a boat that was hiding cocaine worth around 32 million euros. In the same operation, 4.5 million tablets of tramadol and 200 kg of amphetamines were also seized. In September 2022, a record seizure was recorded in Nigeria: 1.8 tons of cocaine seized, worth approximately $280 million.

U.S. Maritime Safety and Security Team disposes of illegal narcotics off the coast of Somalia. (Photo: Navy Media Content Services)

The cocaine was intended for European and Asian markets. On that occasion, four Nigerians and a Jamaican were arrested. Finally, 2023 opened with a seizure of 800 kg of cocaine on a ship off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, while on February 6, a Cameroonian was arrested at the international airport of Nosy Be, in northern Madagascar, carrying over 5 kg of hard drugs: 2.25 kg of heroin, 2.35 kg of amphetamine and one kg of methamphetamine. According to the customs, he hid the drugs in spare parts for cars concealed in his luggage. One could continue listing many other cases of confiscation. The route is always the same: Latin America-Europe (in some cases Asia), with African territories serving as a logistics base for sorting (or in some cases even for partial consumption).In the Latin American networks, the drug trade is organized by a powerful worldwide network of criminal gangs.

The Latin American ones are the most influential and feared, from the Mexican to the Bolivian cartels which are in vogue today. The CPC (First Command of the Capital), led by Marcos Camacho, known as Marcola, is an umbrella that brings together the Latin American families who control drug trafficking. Its headquarters is located in the Bolivian region of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Here, as well as in Brazil’s richest state, São Paulo, Bolivians and Brazilians invest undisturbed in precious stones, medical clinics, restaurants and so forth. But the real business is in the drugs that come from Peru and Colombia, and which, in addition to the cocaine produced locally in Bolivia, is sold, usually via Brazil and then Africa, in Europe. 40% of these substances are controlled by the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, the most powerful Italian mafia organization.

The African allies
These criminal networks also have their connections in Africa. Marcola’s friend and historical ally, the Brazilian Gilberto Aparecido dos Santos, known as Fuminho, was arrested in 2020, after almost twenty years on the run, in Mozambique and extradited to Brazil. There are also local drug barons. In Angola, for example, Waldir Carlos was recently sentenced to 4 years in prison by the Luanda court, while in Mozambique, Mohamed Bashir Sulemane, one of the richest and most influential local traders of Asian origin, was on the American blacklist for years because he is considered one of the most influential drug traffickers on the African continent, with very close relations with the former Mozambican president Armando Guebuza. In West Africa, Mexican cocaine cartels – such as Sinaloa, Jalisco Nueva Generación and Zetas – have links in Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, and Senegal, intertwining with jihadist groups that control important parts of the Sahel.

Bissau, the harbour. For years, Guinea Bissau has been considered a narco-state. File swm

The complicity of the military and political authorities of a small country like Guinea-Bissau, for years considered a veritable narco-state, has proved to be decisive in facilitating the trade in drugs from Latin America to Europe. The physical presence of these large Latin American cartels in Africa, however, is generally discreet, unlike what happens in their countries of origin. A few strategic and influential allies, such as – in the case of the Sinaloa cartel – Braima Seidi Ba in Guinea-Bissau, hold passports from their countries and Portugal. In South Africa, the link between government authorities and criminal cartels dedicated to drug trafficking is ancient. In 1999, 4 years after the end of apartheid, the UNODC had drawn up a report with serious accusations against the new South African government, while today new investigations have proven the link between Latin American drug cartels and powerful police officers, such as the ex-Commander Jackie Selebi, a frequent visitor to the family of former President Jacob Zuma. The latter would also appear to have had contact, in the province of the Western Cape, with Muhammad Asif Hafeez, known as ‘The Sultan’, a native of Pakistan and recently arrested in England.

Nearly 160 Chiefs of police and other senior law enforcement officers from 42 countries attended the Interpol African Regional Conference in Kigali (Rwanda) in 2019. (Photo: Interpol)

For the Interpol office in the African Union, faced with such complex relationships of the highest level and consolidated over time, the role of the international authorities involved in the fight against trafficking is difficult. Interpol opened its office at the AU in 2016 and in June 2022, a meeting was held in Cotonou (Benin) between Interpol and the authorities of various African countries, on the subject of international criminal trafficking. In that context, the general secretary of Interpol, Jürgen Stock, presented the program – financed by the United Kingdom – to fight cybercrime in Africa. This is also a very important program in the fight against drug trafficking, given that the trading of these substances on the dark web is also on the rise in Africa. (L.B.) – (Photo: Pixabay)

DR Congo. Lake Kivu. The Explosive Secret.

It is one of the most dangerous basins in the world for the gases contained in its seabed and for the possibility, not only theoretical, of explosions. For once, the extraction of gas would be considered a beneficial action. The first concessions have already been awarded. A danger could come from a possible conflict between Rwanda
and the DR Congo.

“At the bottom of the lake, where it is impossible to see, there are dark waters. According to legends, the darkness extends endlessly; there is no bottom, and that’s where Mami Wata can drag you down”. In a village south of Gisenyi, on the Rwandan shores of Lake Kivu, the old fisherman Maurice Gahanage is arranging his nets after a morning of hard work while evoking in Kinyarwanda the legends associated with this body of water, one of the largest in Africa, located on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Maurice says he knows all the secrets of the lake. He grew up on pirogues which have kept the same shape for hundreds of years, characterized by long wooden arms on the sides which extend into the water to lower the nets and on which oil lanterns are hung to attract the isambaza at night (fish measuring a maximum of 5 cm, which the inhabitants of the lake area are fond of).
“When someone disappears while swimming, we know what has happened”, says the fisherman. “You may get cramps or feel like you are suffocating from strange exhalations that suck you down. It is the guardian deity of Kivu who takes you with her”.

Fishermen in Lake Kivu. CC BY-SA 4.0/Isma250

A few kilometres away, in Nyamyumba, young Samuel Manizabayo – who ferries goods, people and tourists across the lake – also states that it is not uncommon to smell a strange toxic smell coming out of these waters, especially when passing near the ‘Akarwa ka bakobwa’ rocks about 500 meters farther out.
“According to the stories that our grandparents have handed down to us, those who committed serious acts, such as adultery or murder, were once abandoned on those rocks. Legend says that the lake would take them away to punish them”. Along the coast, tourist resorts for the rich and wealthy alternate with modest fishing/farmer villages perched on the hills, covered with terraces, and where bananas, maize, beans, coffee, and tea are grown.
The lake has always been an indispensable source of livelihood for the provinces of Rubavu and Rutsiro and part of the cultural roots of the population, so an aura of mystery has been created about it.

A dangerous lake
Apart from the legends, Lake Kivu really does hide a very ominous secret and is one of the potentially most dangerous lakes in the world. A geological anomaly caused by its depth and the intense volcanic activity surrounding it, this body of water of more than 2,700 km² contains in its depths 300 km³ of dissolved carbon dioxide and 60 km³ of methane, mixed with toxic hydrogen sulphide.
It is a lake in which a rare phenomenon that geologists call a limnic eruption could potentially take place, i.e., the explosive and sudden release of these gases into the atmosphere. According to scholars’ estimates, the lake contains the equivalent of 2.6 gigatonnes of CO2, equal to about 5% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions. In this event, a cloud of toxic gas would spread over the surrounding territories killing millions of people in minutes, as the region is densely populated.

The city of Bukavu & Lake Kivu – South Kivu. CC BY-SA 40/Abel Kavanagh

The city of Gisenyi is located exactly on the border with the DR Congo and if it weren’t for the border, it would be one with Goma, the capital of the Congolese province of North Kivu, with over 2 million inhabitants. These two inhabited centres are at the foot of one of the most active volcanoes in the world, Nyiragongo. On 22 May 2021, the lava lake present in the volcano (which has been erupting since 2002) came out with lava flows that headed for Goma, destroying several villages causing 32 victims and 450,000 displaced people. On that occasion, many experts had feared the worst, but fortunately nothing serious happened.
People have always wondered about the probability of the lake ‘exploding’ and scientists are divided on its stability. Although the lakes in the world thought to be capable of limnic eruptions are quite rare, everyone remembers what happened in 1986 in Cameroon, when Lake Nyos exploded releasing over 100,000 tons of CO2 in the Subum and Fang valleys, killing 1,746 people and thousands of animals.
Environmental physicist Augusta Umutoni, former program manager of the Lake Kivu Monitoring Program (LKMP) and now a consultant, explains that the gases are held back by the pressure of the water at a depth of over 300 metres and that “the risks of eruption are real but reduced, estimated at around 55%, which corresponds to the saturation level of dissolved gases in the lake at present”.

Lake Kivu, boats. CC BY-SA 4.0/Steve Evans

According to a study published in 2015, the last limnic eruption of Kivu occurred between 750 and 1,000 years ago and most scientists believe that a major earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption of Nyiragongo could trigger a gas release, upsetting the structure of gradients in the depths or increasing the saturation of the lake. “These should be events of enormous proportions because the lake is among the deepest in the world and its conformation is different from that of Nyos which was then saturated”, underlines the sceptical Dario Tedesco, a volcanologist at the University of Naples (Italy). For the researcher “it is more probable that a volcanic eruption on the bottom of the Kivu could cause a limnic explosion given that it is located on a branch of the Rift Valley (African Rift Valley, ed) or, and there is really something to fear about this, that ‘human activity’ may disturb the equilibrium of the lake”.

De-saturate the water
The Italian researcher refers to the possible solution proposed by many to prevent a catastrophe, which consists of extracting part of the gas to de-saturate the water. Among other things, methane is a fossil fuel that would produce the electricity that the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda needs. Indeed, the stakes are high: researchers have estimated that methane in Lake Kivu could yield up to $42 billion over 50 years. In a world where the aim is to reduce the use of fossil resources and where people criticise African countries that would like to use them for their development, this could perhaps be the only case in which extraction would even be considered beneficial.

The city Goma and volcano Nyiragongo in background, North Kivu. Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0/Abel Kavanagh

Currently, in Rwanda there is a functioning 26 MW plant operating since 2016 with the KivuWatt project of the Americans of ConturGlobal. This plant extracts the gaseous waters from over 260 meters deep, separates them from the gases and pours the degassed waters down into the various density layers of the lake. The retained methane is then piped to a coastal power plant.

The race for gas and questions arising
After the 2021 eruptions, the Kivu gas rush got a boost. This can be seen as you drive south from Gisenyi along the coast road, along which cranes and barges lay huge steel pipes. These are the construction sites of the new projects of the Rwandan Shema Power and of the Kivu 56 plant which will soon come onstream. Even in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, things are moving, and extraction will soon begin thanks to the concessions granted to three North American companies. There are, however, some question marks.

CC BY-SA 2.0/ Martijn.Munneke

First, not all scientists agree on which gas extraction technique is the best to avoid disturbing the balance of the lake. Secondly, “these operations should be monitored continuously, with data exchanges between companies and between the two countries which, however, are at loggerheads”, says Professor Tedesco.
Umutoni also echoes him: “The competition for the exploitation of the resource combined with the growing tension in the area could interrupt bilateral cooperation on the harmonization of methods and regulations. That’s what we fear the most”.
Lake Kivu is indeed located in an unstable region, battered by decades of conflict and turbulent history due to its immense natural resources. In recent months, clashes between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel group have exploded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These actions have caused hundreds of victims and thousands of displaced people. Kinshasa has long accused Rwanda of backing the M23 group, but Kigali has always denied it.

Sunset Lake Kivu. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Bintu utuje

“If this outbreak were to escalate into a direct conflict between Kinshasa and Kigali, there would be serious repercussions for the safety of the lake during the mining operations for which a competitive race has begun”, says Onesphore Sematumba, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. Meanwhile at anchor in a small gulf in Kigufi, the fisherman Maurice and his crewmates prepare for a customary night of fishing. He too observes Goma in the distance and the barges of the gas extraction yards. “We were told that gas extraction should keep us safer and bring down electricity costs. But what if nature rebels one day? What if Mami Wata does something? You can’t fight fate”. (Open Photo:123rf)

Marco Simoncelli

Kenya. The Search for Popular Wisdom.

A group of educators, supported by Tangaza University College, have embarked on a civic education path to prevent violence in Nairobi’s populous neighbourhoods. A path that serves to bring out the Utu culture, full Humanity. With many surprises.

In the Huruma area, on the eastern outskirts of Nairobi, a group of civic educators got together to write the story of a different future. They formed a professional association, called the Wajibika Mashinani Trust, and embarked on a civic education path to prevent violence in the mitaa, that is, the settlements of these densely populated urban suburbs. They do not call them slums, a term full of derogatory, dehumanizing meaning. Instead, they see them as dynamic centres in which new cultures are emerging, rich in energy and creativity, especially among the most enterprising young people, the many groups of women who promote themselves, and various local associations with socio-economic and solidarity purposes.

In the Huruma area, on the eastern outskirts of Nairobi, a group of civic educators got together to write a different story. File swm

Examples of this are the emergence of Sheng (Swahili-English), a real language of the people created by young people, and the mural art of young talented artists, who rework the meaning of life situations and motivate change. Both of these examples are products of ingenuity and collective approaches that provide new insights and paths of social transformation that are both participatory and indigenous. The Wajibika Mashinani initiative aims to bring out the Utu culture (known as Ubuntu in South Africa), at the heart of the cultural and spiritual heritage of peoples in sub-Saharan Africa, to promote humanization paths that restore dignity, rebuild friendship, and nourish universal fraternity.

The leader, Sultan Somjee
With the support of the Institute for Social Transformation, a department of Tangaza University College (Catholic University of East Africa), and led by Sultan Somjee – renowned ethnographer and writer, former founder of the movement for community museums of peace in Kenya – these civic educators are working with various neighbourhood groups and communities in different mitaa in the eastern suburbs of Nairobi. Their work starts from the enhancement of the expressions of full Humanity (Utu) found in local cultures and knowledge.

The Sheng (Swahili-English), the real language created by young people.

The starting point is field research and documentation of these living traditions. This listening phase draws on people’s experiences, their verbal and visual languages, ​​and their material culture. Thus, various generative themes have emerged such as the suffering of women – who end up paying the highest price – during electoral violence, or the divisive and instigating dynamics of violence promoted by some politicians. Other issues that have raised the need to restore the dignity of residents are those of police corruption and violence, which have a significant impact on the lives of ordinary people.
Stories are collected and told which are direct experiences of these realities, and then shared also through street theatrical performances, interpreted by the inhabitants of the settlements where the events occurred. Through dramatic or satirical sketches, songs accompanied by music and dance, proverbs and riddles – that is, taking up again those profoundly communicative expressive forms in local cultures – a critical awareness of reality is promoted, and voice and space are given both to the discovery and to the proposal of a regenerated society.

The Mitaani Festival aims to awaken the ancestral wisdom that humanizes local people and communities. File swm

This gave rise to the Mitaani Festival of the cultures of Utu, or of full humanity. Held in July, this festival aims to awaken the ancestral wisdom that humanizes local people and communities.
In addition to the activities already mentioned, there will be other initiatives for meeting and popular dialogue, such as the involvement of pupils from schools, Churches, and other territorial realities, always starting with the presentation of eloquent elements of ancestral cultures, such as the trees of peace.
Having lost the key to traditions, the new generations, born and raised in the big city – a multicultural environment and subject to the strong influence of the globalization processes – have often lost the key to accessing local wisdom and knowledge, expressed in native languages ​​and traditional cultures. The journey started in these peripheral settlements sets in motion the processes of cultural and spiritual re-appropriation by the people. What is striking is the enthusiasm and psychosocial impact that these activities are arousing in the participants and that they propose an alternative response to the tensions and plots of violence unfortunately recurring in the electoral period.

The Comboni mission of Kariobangi is also involved in this process, in collaboration with the Institute for Social Transformation. Apart from the urgency of the situation that brings together multiple actors for the common good, the approach adopted is very much in tune with the Comboni vision of mission, characterized by a marked interest in African solutions to social issues in Africa, which lead to an experience of rebirth, of life in fullness, not only on a personal but also on a community and social level. Furthermore, the enhancement of the knowledge and spirituality of people helps to overcome situations of dependence and loss of subjectivity on the part of the people, and – in the context of an increasingly interconnected world – it also involves the enhancement of the specifically African contribution that enriches the whole of humanity, in a conviviality of differences open to the world.

Alberto Parise

Chilekwa Mumba. To protect the community and environment.

Alarmed by the pollution produced by the Konkola Copper Mines operation in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia, Chilekwa Mumba organized a lawsuit to hold the mine’s parent company, Vedanta Resources, responsible.

Chilekwa’s victory in the UK Supreme Court set a legal precedent – it was the first time an English court ruled that a British company could be held liable for the environmental damage caused by subsidiary-run operations in another country. This precedent has since been applied to hold Shell Global – one of the world’s 10 largest corporations by revenue – liable for its pollution in Nigeria.

Zambia is one of the largest producers and exporters of copper in Africa. Some 77% of the country’s exports come from the mining industry and 25% of government revenue is from mining royalties and taxes. The Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) is one of the largest mining operations in Zambia and the country’s single largest employer.

KCM’s Nchanga copper mine is located just outside of Chingola city limits in the Copperbelt Province, with an operation that spans 11 square miles along the Kafue River. The mine complex includes an open-pit mine, underground mines, a smelter, a sulfuric acid plant, tailings leach plant, and a refinery. The open-pit mine – the second largest in the world – is seven miles long.

In 2004, Vedanta Resources, a company headquartered in the UK, acquired the controlling stake over KCM. After Vedanta’s takeover, residents of four local villages – Shimulala, Kakosa, Hippo Pool, and Hellen – noticed contamination in the Kafue River and its tributaries. The river began emitting foul odors and fish were dying on the riverbanks. Copper, iron, cobalt, and dissolved sulphates were present in the water far beyond legal limits, and, in 2006, the river turned bright blue from copper sulfate and acid pollution.

In 2011, an internal company letter from a medical doctor stated that the water in the Kafue River and local aquifers were not safe for human consumption. The local water supply, down to the water table, had become severely contaminated from toxic waste spills and discharges of effluent into the river and its tributaries.

Local residents relied upon the river water for drinking, bathing, livestock, and crop irrigation. As a result of years of contamination, crop yields were decimated, animals were sickened, and villagers suffered from headaches,rashes, abdominal pain, blood in urine, and burns.

Residents took KCM to court in Zambia in 2006 but, after years of litigation, were unsuccessful in holding the company accountable for its devastating pollution.

Chilekwa Mumba, 38, is a community organizer who grew up in Chingola, in the Copperbelt Province, where his father was a miner-turned-Pentecostal minister. Chilekwa runs an orphanage in Lusaka with his wife. When he learned of the widespread contamination and injustice occurring in Chingola, in 2013, he felt an acute responsibility to protect the community and environment of his childhood.

Having grown up in Chingola, Chilekwa was deeply concerned about the environmental damage from Vedanta’s takeover of KCM. After the Zambian court failed to hold KCM accountable, he decided to spearhead legal action against Vedanta in the UK.

In 2015, Chilekwa reached out to Leigh Day, a UK-based law firm, and persuaded its attorneys to visit and, ultimately, take on a lawsuit to hold Vedanta legally accountable in the UK. While no UK parent company had ever been held liable for environmental damages caused by a subsidiary, he convinced Leigh Day’s lawyers to challenge the legal shield UK companies used to avoid liability for their overseas operations.

From 2015 to 2021, during the legal build-up, Chilekwa served as a facilitator between the Chingola communities and Leigh Day lawyers. He arranged meetings with villagers and the legal team to explain the lawsuit process and to cultivate interest in participating in the case.

Chilekwa translated materials for non-English speakers and gathered information on how each of the 2,000 villagers who participated in the lawsuit was affected by the mine’s pollution. In building the case, he convinced villagers to provide blood samples for analysis of the health impacts of contamination; to do this, he had to overcome doubt sewn by KCM representatives, who misled villagers into believing that their blood samples would be sold.

Chilekwa gathered water quality samples during the rainy season, wading into the flooded river, and braving possible encounters with water cobras, crocodiles, and hippos. He identified and persuaded witnesses to provide information against the company, including a former mine manager who gave testimony about the degree of control Vedanta had over KCM’s operations.

As the lawsuit moved slowly through the UK High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court over nearly six years, Chilekwa worked to reassure villagers who were frustrated with the slowness of the legal process. When the company tried to dissuade residents from taking part in the lawsuit, he helped convince them to stay onboard.

During the long campaign, Chilekwa and his partners were harassed. In 2017, he and a lawyer with Leigh Day were arrested at a public gathering while speaking with villagers about the lawsuit. Police arrived at the meeting in a KCM company jeep.

In April 2019, the UK Supreme Court found that Vedanta, as the parent company of KCM, owed villagers near the mine a duty of care, and Vedanta could be held accountable in UK court for environmental damage from the Nchanga copper mine’s operations.

This ruling meant that the company could not escape liability for environmental damage caused by a subsidiary. In 2021, Vedanta settled with nearly 2,000 people from the four villages near KCM; villagers received undisclosed financial compensation from Vedanta for the pollution that devastated their lives and environment.

The Vedanta case is already being applied in UK courts as a legal precedent. In February 2021, the UK Supreme Court allowed a group of 42,500 Niger Delta residents to sue Shell Global in the UK for years of oil spills that contaminated their land and groundwater, rejecting Shell’s arguments that its Nigerian subsidiary held liability.

In 2019, the Zambian government placed KCM in liquidation, and operations were taken over by the liquidator. Locals report that spills and discharges from the mine have stopped. Chilekwa’s legal victory held Vedanta liable for the grievous harm its environmental pollution caused the villagers near the Nchanga mine.

His case successfully challenged decades of corporate impunity and set a legal precedent that British companies can be held accountable for their overseas operations that extract profits while destroying local environments. Last April, Chilekwa received the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel Prize”. (The Goldman Environment Report – Photo Goldman Environmental Prize)

African drug routes.

Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda are the main transit countries for heroin. West Africa, that of cocaine. Morocco is the kingdom of cannabis.

The African continent has experienced significant increases in drug trafficking in recent years. The reason, in addition to the growing worldwide demand, lies in the ever-increasing fragility of the majority of African states (in particular Somalia, Libya, Guinea-Bissau) in the control of their respective territories and, therefore, in the ability to fight the criminal groups that hold the monopoly of drug trafficking internationally. An example: according to UNODC (United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention) data, in 2020-2021 the percentage of cocaine seized in Africa reached around 2% at the world level. However, the demand for this drug has been increasing on the continent in recent years. Even if it remains an inhomogeneous value because the lack of certain data makes it difficult to have a clear
picture of the level of use.

Zimbabwe. Young people. The demand for drugs has been increasing on the continent in recent years. File swm

The basis on which to calculate the importance of Africa in drug trafficking is given by the quantities seized which, according to the UNODC itself, were too low to be true. For cocaine alone, and for West Africa alone, an average of 14.2 tonnes of the drug were seized each year between 2019 and 2022 compared to 5.5 tonnes in 2007 alone.
A note that is by no means irrelevant: according to experts, it is necessary to multiply the seizures by 20 to get an idea of the real amount of drugs trafficked. Since 2019, therefore, approximately 1,140 tonnes of cocaine would have passed through West Africa alone. A market equal to 57 billion euros. This means that annual cocaine trafficking alone accounted for half of Senegal’s GDP, almost all of Niger’s or Guinea’s GDP, and nearly ten times that of Guinea-Bissau.

Heroine and the market
The heroin arrives from Afghanistan, passes through strategic places such as Pakistan, India and Thailand and then reaches East Africa. This would be confirmed by the growing seizures of this substance, in a network that would link Nigeria with East African countries, such as Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. The main hub for the passage of this narcotic is said to be Addis Ababa airport, followed by that of Nairobi. The available information indicates that Tanzanians and Mozambicans are the subjects most involved in trafficking.

Methamphetamine is produced locally, especially in South Africa. Photo: Pixabay

Heroin reaching East African countries is meant to go directly to European and North American markets, although the African market, especially that of South Africa, has been expanding steadily since 2006. Previously, it was concentrated in tourist resorts, such as Zanzibar, or in cities with a large European presence, such as Johannesburg.
The most travelled route for cocaine continues to be, however, that of the South Atlantic, which penetrates Africa both through South Africa and from the ‘Senegambia’ region, to then leave towards the north. Methamphetamine, on the other hand, is produced locally, especially in South Africa, from which it continues to Europe, with a fairly significant internal consumption. The routes of all three major drugs pass through North Africa, thus underlining the strategic function of this region at an international level.

The East African routes
The East African routes for cannabis pass mainly through ports located in Djibouti, Kenya, Eritrea, and Tanzania, although recent surveys indicate Somalia as the main territory of marketing of this substance, together with arms trafficking. Cannabis comes from Afghanistan, stops in East Africa and from there reaches Western Europe. Cocaine, on the other hand, comes mainly from Latin America.

The Port of Dar es Salaam. Containers. Tanzanians and Mozambicans are the subjects most involved in drug trafficking. File swm

Even if an important commercial road has opened up, especially in perspective, on the side of the Indian Ocean, the route of methaqualone – the basis of mandrax, a sedative substance which in the 1970s was used with hypnotic and muscle-relaxing functions – is still that of the east (mostly India, but also China). However, local production has been reported in recent years in African countries that have now become producers and exporters. In 2017, for example, a clandestine mandrax factory, run by a Zambian and four Mozambicans, was seized in southern Mozambique. The mandrax does not usually take western routes but is consumed above all in South Africa (which seems to be the number one world consumer). Local production in neighbouring countries, and without great control by the police, greatly facilitates its disposal.

The Western routes
The history of drug trafficking that passes through West Africa – the so-called Atlantic route – is quite ancient. As early as the 1960s, the expansion of the North American and European markets for cannabis, cocaine and heroin led to a quantum leap in Atlantic trafficking. Two major routes were then formed involving West Africa: one destined for consumption in South Africa, Asia, and Europe. The other, the typically Atlantic one, where cocaine coming from Latin America (especially from Peru and Colombia, via Brazil), together with the oriental one of Afghan heroin, reached Europe and the United States. Almost immediately three countries became the main hubs of these trades: Ghana, Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau, with the latter defined for a long time as a real ‘narco-state’. According to data from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, the Latin American production of cocaine arriving in West Africa would not have suffered from the stops and controls imposed by Covid-19.

Lagos. The Atlantic Route. Photo: A. Tosatto

This would be confirmed by the quantities seized in recent years, the highest ever on the Atlantic route. According to the latest UNODC report ‘between 2019 and 2022 […] at least 57 tonnes of cocaine were seized in or en route to West Africa, mainly in Cape Verde (16.6 tonnes), Senegal (4.7 tonnes), Benin (3.9 tonnes), Côte d’Ivoire (3.5 tonnes), Gambia (3 tonnes) and Guinea-Bissau (2.7 tonnes)’. 2022 was the year of the mega seizure in Lagos in Nigeria. The Anti-Drug Agency discovered a record 1.8 tons of cocaine, valued at $278 million.
The drugs were found in a warehouse in the Nigerian city. It was the largest seizure ever in the country.
And 2023 began with another important seizure, this time off the Senegalese coast: 805 kg of cocaine were found on January 22 aboard a ‘high seas patrol boat’, 335 km from Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

North African trafficking
North Africa is a territory of production, use and trafficking of various types of drugs. In terms of production, cannabis is the most locally produced substance, with the largest seizures occurring in Egypt and Morocco. 80% of Algerian cannabis is destined for the European market, while 20% is consumed locally. These proportions, according to calculations made by Interpol/Enact (Enhancing Africa’s ability to counter transnational crime) should be valid for the whole area. According to the EMCDDA (European Monitor Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction) about 1,200 tons of cannabis are needed to satisfy the European market annually, for a total value of about 12 billion euros.
From Morocco, considered the largest producer of cannabis in the world, the routes to reach the European markets, the Middle East and North Africa itself would be those of the sea – via the Strait of Gibraltar – with Spain as the main destination, followed by Italy and France; then the terrestrial route to the south, passing through territories such as Mali, Egypt, Niger and Libya; and the mixed land and sea route, which starts from Morocco and reaches Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt
along a west-east axis.

Opium cultivations are known in Egypt and Algeria. File swm

Cocaine from South America represents a growing presence in the North African regions, in transit to Europe. Again, Morocco recorded the most significant seizures by the authorities. An example: the Moroccan authorities recovered, in November 2019, a consignment of 476 kg of cocaine from Colombia hidden in a boat in Temara (south of Rabat, on the Atlantic coast). With regard to heroin, North Africa has a very limited production: opium cultivations are known in Egypt and Algeria, but are not, for the moment, significant. Conversely, the heroin present in the region is imported, mostly from Afghanistan, transiting through Egypt. The route passes through Makran (the coastal part of Balochistan, on the Gulf of Oman), then the Arabian Peninsula, rejoining the Mediterranean via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the Red Sea having rediscovered its centrality for these trades. However, the domestic use of heroin in Egypt is also notable, and is, according to local authorities, the second or third most commonly used narcotic substance locally. This is also why the largest quantities of heroin were recovered in the shadow of the pyramids. Little was discovered in the other countries of the area. Among other drugs, tramadol – originating from India and Sri Lanka – passes essentially through Egypt (where it is also consumed) and Libya. Recently, a type of tramadol of Chinese origin has also been discovered. Italy is strategically important for its sale, especially in the ports of Genoa and Gioia Tauro, with interconnections between local and North African mafias, especially those of Libya. (L. B.) (Map: Enact)

 

 

 

The Way of Santiago de Compostela. Ultreya, Don’t Stop. Keep Going.

It is one of the best-known walks in the world. It is visited by thousands of pilgrims every year. Let’s retrace the journey from its birth between faith and history.

The geography of the religious world, the Catholic one in particular, is crisscrossed by a web of paths that unite places that are significant from a devotional point of view. In Asian cults, characterized by the cycle of rebirths, these itineraries are circular, with no beginning or end and can be followed indefinitely. In monotheistic faiths, on the other hand, they are lines that point towards single points, symbols of a journey of personal faith that has as its objective the encounter with God.

Photo: 123rf

The Christian world is crossed by bundles of paths that intertwine, overlap, and branch out and which, like blood capillaries, feed the body of faith. Among these routes, one of the best known is certainly the Camino de Santiago or rather the Caminos de Santiago. In fact, even in this case, it is not possible to speak of a single path in terms of a pilgrimage: the only common element is the final destination, the locus sanctus which, in the case of Santiago, is dedicated to the apostle Saint James (Tiago, in fact), the brother of John and son of Zebedee.
Ambitious and not exactly calm in temperament, the apostle is described by the Codex Calixtinus as a ‘saint of admirable strength, blessed
in his way of life, astonishing for his virtues, of great ingenuity,
of brilliant eloquence’.
The Gospel of Mark (10, 35-40) recalls that both he and his brother John asked the Master to sit in his glory on his right hand and on his left.

Photo: 123rf

Tradition has it that James, after Pentecost, began to preach arriving as far as Zaragoza, in Spain. Here, demoralized by the lack of enthusiasm with which the people welcomed the Word of the Lord, he remained in prayer until, on 2 January 40 AD, the Madonna (Virgin Mary) appeared to him from the top of a Roman column made of quartz, who, while urging him to continue his evangelizing work, asked him to build a place of worship there, known today as the Church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar). James, refreshed by the miraculous encounter, embarked in Valencia – between 42 and 44 AD. – to return to Judea (present-day Palestine) where, because he contravened the edict of Herod Agrippa I which forbade all Christian preaching, he died by decapitation, becoming the first apostle to be martyred as is also attested by the Acts of the Apostles (12, 1- 2).

The Scallop Shell is used as a symbol of direction along the Camino, pointing pilgrims towards Santiago. Photo: 123rf

According to legend, two disciples of James, Theodosius and Athanasius, managed to transport the body and head of James to Iria Flavia (now Padrón, in Galicia), a city in the Roman imperial province of Hispania Terraconensis where the pedrón, the bollard to which the ship of the refugees moored, is still to be found. To escape persecution by the local praetor, Theodosius and Athanasius hid the remains of James about thirty kilometres from the coast. Here the relics were the object of devotion and pilgrimage until the fourth century, when the fall of the Roman Empire, the invasion of the Visigoths and the social and political upheavals that followed, caused all traces and evidence of the tomb to be lost. Only a faint memory of it, handed down orally, remained.

Spain under the Arabs
The Arab conquest of Spain in the 8th century led, especially in the kingdom of Asturias, to the emphasis of Christian values as opposed to the Muslim advance. It was in this context that Beatus of Liébana (730-798), author of the Commentaries on the Apocalypse, rose above all others. The Commentaries had an apologetic function, of ‘retaliation’ not only against Islam, but also those Christian schools close to Nestorianism, whose representatives, after being declared heretics, had found refuge with the Umayyad dynasty. One of these heresies was adoptionism which states that Jesus was adopted by the Father after his baptism in the Jordan giving him the divine nature. The bishop of Toledo adhered to this heresy. Of him, Beato was the most ruthless critic also for the friendly relations the bishop established with the Muslims.

Group of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. Photo: 123rf

In his crusade against Islam, Beato also changed the interpretative paradigms of John’s Apocalypse: The Beast (originally the Roman Empire) became the caliphate, Babylon (originally identified with Rome) was likened to Cordova, the capital of the region occupied by the Muslims and the Apocalypse itself, which announced the end of the Roman persecutions, was transformed into the announcement of the Reconquista.And it was precisely with a view to the final victory against the infidels that the work of Isidore of Seville was dusted off, itself borrowed from the Breviarius de Hyerosolima, which testified to the arrival of James the Greater in Spain.
The apostle, therefore, became the leading saint in the fight against the Arab invaders, so much so that he was transformed, precisely by Beatus, into the patron saint of Christian Spain. All that was missing was tangible proof which was not long in coming.

King Alfonso II, the first pilgrim
In 813, Pelagius, a Solovian monk, followed some nocturnal lights which, like shooting stars, focused on a specific place in the Libredón forest. Following in its wake, together with his bishop Theodomir, Pelagius found the tomb of St. James and his disciples Athanasius and Theodore. The Field of Stars (campus stellae) of San Tiago became the Compostela of Santiago.Realizing the religious and political importance that the find offered to his kingdom, the king of Asturias Alfonso II left the court of Oviedo to go to the Locus Sancti Jacobi and thus became the first pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago.

O Cebreiro Alto San roque top in the way of Saint James. Photo: 123rf

At the same time, San Tiago was transformed into Matamoros, the Ammazzamori (‘Slayer of Moors’). He, on the back of his white steed and with a drawn sword, led the Christian armies against those of Islam who, for their part, trusted in the Archangel Gabriel. The origin of Matamoros has its roots in the legendary battle of 844 fought at Clavijo (in northern Spain) whose historicity is still disputed among academics. According to tradition, in that clash between the troops of Ramiro I and the overwhelming numbers of the emir Abd al-Rahmãn II, the appearance of Saint Tiago led to the victory of the Christian troops over the Muslims.
In a short time, Santiago was elevated to an archepiscopal see. There the magnificent cathedral that we can still admire was built and became one of the holy cities of Christianity like Jerusalem and Rome.
Starting from the 11th century, with the development of the pilgrimage to Compostela promoted above all by the Cluniac monks, new paths were created. In the 12th century, Aymeric Picaud, a priest who made the pilgrimage to Santiago, unveiled the Codex Calixtinus, a volume divided into five books whose last part was a veritable guide for pilgrims with the four ‘official’ itineraries: the via Tolosana, the via Podense, the via Lemovicense and the via Turonense. The four ways joined at Puente la Reina to continue towards Santiago and then to Padrón along what was later called the French Way.

Arriving at the Cathedral
Once they arrived at the cathedral of Santiago, the pilgrims repeated gestures that still today remain fixed in the rituals of travellers: entering from the Portico de la Gloria they place their hand on the grooves engraved in the column of the Tree of Jesse to receive the blessing of St. James, they embrace his bust placed at the main altar to greet his companion on the way, and pay homage to the sepulchre where the remains of the apostle are contained together with those of Theodore and Athanasius. The birth of another rite dates back to the 13th century: the ‘botafumeiro’, i.e., the use of a censer that swings in a spectacular way along the central nave.

Panoramic view of Santiago de Compostela. Photo:123rf

The smoke produced by the incense is a symbol of the prayers of the penitents rising up to heaven. Instead, according to a more prosaic explanation, the scent of incense released by the botafumeiro would have served to mitigate the stench coming from pilgrims who were not entirely clean.The Camino continued up to Padrón because, as a medieval saying said, ‘Whoever goes to Santiago and not to Padrón, either makes the pilgrimage or doesn’t make it’. The stages of Finisterre and Muxia were later added to the traditional walk. On the first, it is customary to burn an item of clothing and take a bath in the icy ocean waters as a symbol of rebirth.
On the second, there is the sanctuary of the Virxe da Barca which recalls the legend of the apparition of the Virgin Mary on a stone boat who exhorted St. James to continue his mission in Hispanic lands.

Decadence and rebirth
However, the pilgrimage to Compostela was not a fact linked to spirituality alone: an edict of King Ordoño the Great (873-924) guaranteed freedom from their feudal lords to those who demonstrated that they had completed the Way by staying at least 40 days in Santiago. In the fifteenth century, the Hospital de los Reyes Catolicos is said to have been built; today it is a luxury hotel whose original function was to host pilgrims free of charge by offering them healthcare in case of illness.Subsequently, due to the black plague and wars, in the late Middle Ages, the pilgrimage experienced a decline which was accentuated in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation, which forbade any devotion to the saints. Then at the end of the eighteenth century, the French Revolution dealt a further blow to the Compostellian cult, already undermined by the fact that, due to the transfer of the sepulchre of St. James to Ourense by Don Juan de Sanclemente in the sixteenth century to protect it from the raids of English pirates, there was no longer the certainty that the remains of the saint were still in Santiago or, as many claimed, had instead been lost.

Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims in the Plaza del Obradoiro. ©shootdiem/123RF.COM

It was not until 1884 when, with the bull Deus Omnipotens, Pope Leo XIII confirmed the authenticity of the relics following a series of studies carried out by the Pontifical Commission. However, we had to wait another century before the Camino de Santiago resumed its function of mass spiritual rediscovery as it had been in the Middle Ages. Among the many promoters and (re)organizers of the Way, there was Elías Valiña, parish priest of the tiny church of Santa Maria la Real in the town of O Cebreiro, best remembered for having invented the ‘yellow arrow’ which shows wayfarers the direction of the Way. The chalice in which the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is said to have taken place is also kept in the church. Next to the altar, there is still the statue of the Madonna and child which would have witnessed the miracle of transubstantiation. The peculiarity of this statue, called Santa Maria la Real, is that it is said to be the representation of the apparition: the Madonna is sculpted while she bows, while delicately balanced, towards the chalice.
The Camino de Santiago, like all pilgrimages, will not give definitive answers to one’s inner search, but it is certainly an incentive to seek further. And ‘Ultreya’, the greeting that pilgrims exchange (in addition to the more common ‘Buen Camino’) means just this: don’t stop, go further. Beyond the next turn, further than you can see. (Photo: 123rf)

Piergiorgio Pescali/MC

Ghana. Sacred Golden Stool.

The most important and sacred Asante stool is the ‘Golden Stool’. It represents the authority of the Asantehene (king), enshrines the soul of the nation, and symbolizes the kingdom’s unity.

Among the Asante and other Akan peoples, stools play an important role in each person’s life. When children learn to crawl, they receive stools as their first gift from their father. For young women, puberty rites entail sitting on their stools. A husband presents his wife with a stool when they marry. A deceased person is bathed on a stool before burial. Ceremonial stools are blackened and enshrined after the death of an important leader, an illustration of stools’ ability to represent a person’s soul.Not only are stools ever-present in the lives of Asante peoples, but their basic form also remains constant. All Asante stools, whether for domestic use or public display, are carved from a single block of wood.

‘The Golden Stool’ also known as “Sika Dwa Kofi” (believed to be born on Friday) symbolises the kingdom’s unity. Photo: The Kingdom of Asante/Facebook

The seat is typically curved and supported over a rectangular base by a central column and four corner posts. The midsection may be geometric or figurative, but the styles used on ceremonial stools represent associated proverbs.
State or ceremonial stools are the most important of all Akan royal regalia. Only chiefs and high-ranking officials are given the Asantehene’s (Asante King) permission to have their stools decorated with strips of intricately patterned silver or gold. Silver was only accessible through trade, often in the form of silver European coinage that was melted down.
The most important and sacred Asante stool is the ‘Golden Stool’. It represents the authority of the Asantehene (king), enshrines the soul of the nation, and symbolises the kingdom’s unity.
Made of solid gold, the Golden Stool never touches the ground; it is carried in procession and has its own throne.

The Symbol of Power
‘The Golden Stool’ also known as “Sika Dwa Kofi” (believed to be born on Friday) is the royal and divine throne of kings of the Asante people of central Ghana. The stool which is believed to house the spirit of the Asante nation is considered to be so sacred that no one is allowed to sit on it. The Golden Stool has been the symbol of power in Asante Kingdom since the 17th century.
The Stool is made of pure gold and hung with bells to warn the king of impending danger. The stool, which also has its own throne is so sacred that it is kept under the strictest security and is taken outside only on exceptional occasions. It stands 18 inches high, 24 inches long, and 12 inches wide. It was never allowed to touch the ground.
Its entire surface is inlaid with gold and hung with bells to warn the king of impending danger.
Each new Asante king is lowered and raised over the Golden Stool without touching it.  No one could be considered a legitimate ruler without the Golden Stool, which usually occupied its own throne next to the Asantehene (King of the Asantes).

Otumfuo Agyemang Prempeh II sitting in the state next to the Golden Stool (1935). Photo: Asante Nation/Facebook

According to Asante oral history, the golden stool descended from the sky through the chants of one of their greatest traditional priests known as Okomfo Anokye, who is one of the two chief founders of the Asante Confederacy. It landed on the lap of the first Asante King, Nana Osei Tutu I, thereby designating him Asantehene Osei Tutu I, king of all the chiefdoms he had conquered.  He used that to unify the people in the 17th century. The priest then ordered the chiefs of the formerly independent states to bury their existing regalia to signify their loyalty to the supreme Golden Stool. Beginning with Osei Tutu I, the Asantes believed that the Golden Stool houses the soul of the Asante nation – living, dead and yet to be born.
Prior to the establishment of the Asante kingdom, Akan people were organised in small independent States, each headed by a paramount chief. Around 1701, in the city of Kumasi, several of these States united under the military and economic strength of the Asante.
By the 19th Century, the Asantes began a series of clashes with the British Empire which had established effective control of the coastal region of what is now Ghana. They fought three Anglo-Ashanti Wars between 1824 and 1874, with the British and their African allies gaining more control over Ashanti Territory.  During the fourth Anglo-Ashanti War, the British and their Indian and African allies defeated Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh, eventually capturing him and sending him into exile in the Seychelles Islands.

The king’s dignitaries. Photo: The Kingdom of Asante/Facebook

The final war (1900), essentially a rebellion led by Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen Mother and Gate Keeper of the Golden Stool, was prompted by the demand by Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson, the British Governor of the Gold Coast to sit on the Golden Stool. With his remark, Yaa Asantewaa led a rebellion called the Word of the Golden Stool which began on March 28, 1900.
The intense fighting led to the death of more than 2,000 Asantes and 1,000 British and Allied troops.  Both totals were higher than the deaths from all previous Anglo-Ashanti wars combined. The war ended, however, after six months.
Yaa Asantewaa was captured by the British in 1901 and quickly exiled to the Seychelles, where she died in 1921, but the British never captured the Golden Stool.  Hidden by the Ashanti, it was discovered by a group of African railroad builders in 1920.  They stripped it of its gold ornaments and were tried by the Ashanti and sentenced to death.
British colonial authorities intervened, however, and they were exiled from the Gold Coast Colony.
After realising the importance of the Golden Stool to the Asantes, the British gave assurances that they would never interfere with it again.  Restored to its ceremonial place, the Golden Stool had continuously been used in rituals crowning the Asantehene, although he is now considered a traditional ruler without political power or influence.  Nonetheless, the Golden Stool remains a cherished symbol of the former Ashanti Empire.

On the right side of the king
The Asantes had always maintained the Golden Stool as their most prized possession. Before they went to war, their war chiefs consulted it. As time progressed and as the Ashanti scored more victories over their rivals, turning their kingdom into an empire, the Golden Stool became even more revered.

In the Akwasidae festival, the Golden Stool is displayed at the palace grounds in the presence of the king while people sing and dance. Photo: The Kingdom of Asante/Facebook

The Golden Stool is usually placed on the right side of the king, and it is only brought out when a new Asante king is to be the inaugurated, during the commemoration of the date the Golden Stool fell down from Heaven, and Akwasidae (the festival of the Asantes).
On this day (Akwasidae festival), the Golden Stool is displayed at the palace grounds in the presence of the king while people sing and dance. Ritual libations of blood and schnapps (liquor) are also poured onto the thrones of the former kings as offerings to them and to the ancestors.
In Asante, all chiefs have a symbolic replica of the stool, and each has a different symbolic meaning for the person whose soul it seats. The Asantes have always defended the Golden Stool when it was at risk.(Open Photo: The 16th Asantehene, King of Ashanti, Otumfour Osei Tutu II. The Kingdom of Asante)

Damian Dieu Donne Avevor

Africa. Sun, Water and Wind. The Riches of the Continent.

Africa’s development prospects are increasingly linked to the ecological transition. Solar, wind and green hydrogen could help boost economic growth and generate wealth and jobs.

Sun, water, wind. These are the essential elements for the production of clean energy. Africa has them in abundance. And it is precisely from here that a revolution can be triggered on the continent, capable of initiating a new development model, starting precisely from renewables.
This is not an easy path, but there are those who believe in it and work every day to make this change possible. “Africa has enormous potential in terms of renewables, which goes well beyond ‘domestic’ demand – explains Francesco La Camera, general director of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) – I am referring to solar, wind, but also green hydrogen, which is talked about so much”.

Photo 123rf

The International Renewable Energy Agency, IRENA, is a body that involves 167 countries and the European Union, supporting them in tackling ecological transition. “We have created a model that compares two scenarios – explains La Camera – one ‘ambitious’, in which it is assumed that African countries comply with the Paris Agreements on climate and that the ecological transition is accompanied by proactive policies aimed at maximizing its benefits, the other based on maintaining the status quo.
In the first scenario, according to our estimates, there would be a higher growth of 6.4% of GDP for the continent and 3.5% more jobs in the whole economy, and it would be quality work”.
To understand how such a radical turning point could be reached, however, we need to reflect on some figures that help us to grasp the current reality. By 2050, more than two billion people will live in Africa. To date, the electrification rate of Sub-Saharan countries, however, stops at 46%. As many as 570 million people do not have access to electricity (according to the latest data available, from 2019) and 906 million people are forced to resort to coal and biomass to heat food, with a major impact on pollution and health. In this context, according to a report by IRENA, Africa can only count on 3% of the total global installed capacity of energy from renewable sources.

Pulida solar plant in South Africa. Photo: Enel Green Power

In recent years this capacity has grown, but the trend is still relatively small. Between 2010 and 2020 there was an increase of 7%. However, a large part of this growth is due to the implementation of large projects in individual countries, and in particular hydroelectric and photovoltaic plants on an industrial scale.
Regionally, Southern Africa is the one with the largest installed green energy capacity, with 17 GW, or about a third of the total, while North Africa can count on 12.6 GW.  But which are the most advanced states in terms of renewables? If we look at solar, South Africa alone holds 57% of installed capacity, followed by Egypt (16%) and Morocco (7%). If we consider wind energy: in first place, we always find South Africa with 41% of installed capacity, then there is Morocco (22%) and Egypt (21%). According to IRENA’s estimates, the technical potential for wind-related energy in Africa could reach 461 GW. According to the latest data available, at the end of 2020, the installed power was only 6.5 GW.

Kenya. Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant. Photo: Lake Turkana Wind Power

As for ‘green’ hydrogen – obtained from a water electrolysis process that can be fuelled by renewable sources – there are several projects on the table. In 2021, the German Research Ministry signed a partnership with Namibia to finance studies on the best technologies in this area, announcing an investment of 40 million euros. Egypt and Zimbabwe, for their part, have installed over 100 megawatts of electrolysers. In Mauritania, on the other hand, the government has entered into an agreement with an Australian company for a 30 GW project for 40 billion dollars, i.e., a value equal to five times (yes) the African state’s economy. However, those who decide to invest in these new forms of energy are faced with some obstacles. “First of all, that of the grid, the networks – warns La Camera – in fact need to be interconnected, flexible and balanced, in order to be able to manage the energy produced. Then there is the issue of storage and of the batteries that must store it. Finally, that of the legal environment, i.e., the system of laws of the country in which the production of renewables is implemented, and therefore of the procedures, transparency, etc.”

South Africa. The Oyster Bay wind farm, which has 41 wind turbines, is located near the coastal town of Oyster Bay in the Kouga municipality in the Eastern Cape. Photo: Enel

Then there remains the question of the finance necessary for the investments. Of the 2.8 trillion dollars invested in renewable energy worldwide between 2000 and 2020, only 2% was directed to Africa (excluding large hydroelectric plants), equal to approximately 60 billion, despite the enormous potential of the continent and the enormous need to provide modern energy services to hundreds of millions of people. More than 90% of this figure – about 55 billion dollars – was invested between 2010 and 2020 in projects concentrated in a few African countries.To allow for a change of pace, IRENA has activated various tools. “The agency was born as a think-tank with the task of promoting renewables in the world – explains the general director – concentrated in particular on ‘knowledge products’, i.e., reports on installed capacity, scenarios, prices, etc. Tools that make it possible to direct investments, and therefore the commitments of governments and multilateral financial organizations.
Then we launched the Climate Investment Platform (CIP), together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Sustainable Energy for All organization in collaboration with the Green Climate Fund (GCF), to increase investments in renewables in developing countries. And this is just one of our partnerships”.

Big wind turbines in the desert against mountains, Egypt. Photo: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

At the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 27) held last November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, the promise was confirmed not to exceed 1.5 degrees of global warming and to accelerate a just transition towards renewable energy.
To favour a certain pragmatism, according to La Camera, there is a new widespread awareness of the unsustainability of centralized systems based on fossil fuels. “The war in Ukraine certified the end of this model and this also applies to Africa. We will inevitably have to move towards an energy panorama made up of several players, more open and less subject to the power of a few. In this new framework, renewables will be indispensable, and Africa can do a lot”.
According to La Camera, it would also be an opportunity for the continent to discourage that “predatory attitude with which Western countries have often used its raw materials, paying only marginal attention to the development of its countries”.

This does not mean that Europe could not benefit from the development of green energy in Africa. Interconnection projects between the two continents to transport energy (not only, but also clean energy) are already in the pipeline. In the coming months, work will begin to lay four submarine cables that will connect the electricity grid of the United Kingdom with that of Morocco, for a distance of approximately 3,800 kilometres off the coasts of Portugal, Spain and France.  While Tunisia has recently submitted to the European Union a request for funding for the electricity interconnection project with Sicily called ‘El Med’. The work consists of laying a cable of about 200 kilometres which could cost around 800 million euros, and with a completion date of the works set for 2027. (Open Photo: 123rf)

Leonardo Filippi/Left

 

 

Africa. More Drinking Water from the Sea.

North African countries, in particular, are trying to cope with water shortages with new desalination plants. However, they risk having a serious impact on marine ecosystems and fishing activities.

The worsening water emergency is one of the most problematic effects of climate change that the countries of North Africa are dealing with. Since 2018, Morocco has been suffering from a situation of ‘structural water stress’, as denounced in July 2022 by the World Bank.
Last year in the country, the total volume of rainfall did not exceed 17 billion cubic meters, the lowest in the last five years.
A collapse that is leaving the approximately one hundred large active dams dry, which today contain barely 4 billion cubic meters of water, with a filling level stopped at 24%.
To curb this emergency, the government is betting on the construction of new seawater desalination stations. There are currently nine operational in Morocco.
The first to be built was that of Boujdour, in Western Sahara, in 1977. These plants cover no more than 3% of the national production of drinking water, a percentage that the government intends to shoot up to 50% in a few years.

The spotlight is on the Casablanca station. Announced as the largest in the entire African continent, once fully operational this month of June, this plant will have a capacity of 300 million cubic meters per year and will guarantee the supply of drinking water to almost 7 million Moroccans living in the territories of the former region of Grande Casablanca and in the neighbouring areas of El Jaida, Azemmour, Settat and Berrechid.The Dakhla station (Western Sahara), whose capacity is 90,000 cubic meters per day, should instead come into operation from 2025. Its construction was entrusted in 2019 to the Moroccan company Nareva, a subsidiary of the holding company of King Mohammed VI Al Mada, in partnership with the French Engie. Two more plants are planned in Safi (central-western part of the country, with a capacity of 30 million cubic meters per year) and in the eastern part (initial capacity of 100 million cubic meters).

Investments
Algeria has been suffering from water shortages since the 1990s. In the country there are fourteen active desalination stations between Algiers, Oran, Skikda, Tlemcen, Boumerdès, Tipaza, Mostaganem, Ain Temouchent and Chlef, which together produce over 2.7 million cubic meters per day. The government’s goal is to reach 2030 with 25 stations. For this year, the works for the construction of 13 new plants are ready to start. The construction of another 5 was entrusted last May by the government to the Algerian Energy Company.

Rocky and sandy shores of Dakhla. CC BY 2.0/ Ecemaml

In Tunisia, whose major plants are located between Djerba (50,000 cubic meters per day), Skhira (12,000) and Gabès (30,000, where brackish water is desalinated), a new station is under construction in the southern part of the country. The works, led by the British Solar Water PLC, require an investment of 567 million euros for an expected capacity of 200,000 cubic meters.In Egypt, whose water supply depends to a large extent on the waters of the Nile River, in early December Ayman Soliman, managing director of the Egyptian sovereign wealth fund, announced an impressive program which envisages the construction of 21 desalination stations. When fully operational from 2025, they will produce 3.3 million cubic meters per year. The allocated budget is 3 billion dollars.

Environmental alarm
In West Africa, the country that is investing the most in this direction is Senegal, where work is continuing on a plant located on the Les Mamelles heights in the town of Ouakam. The station, the first of its type in the whole region, will have a capacity of 50,000 cubic meters per day (expandable up to 100,000) and was designed to improve the supply of drinking water in Dakar, whose supplies depend heavily on Lake Guiers, located 250 km north of the capital. Several local associations that fight for the defence of the coasts fear the environmental impact of the work. With the reverse osmosis technique, the water, passing through osmotic membranes due to the effect of a higher pressure, is freed from all unwanted substances and thus purified.

African girl drinking clean water from a tap. Photo 123rf

In this way, an average litre of drinking water is obtained from two litres of salt water, with the remaining litre of brine being discharged into the sea with damage to the marine ecosystem and, consequently, to the activity of the fishermen. These fears were expressed in 2019 by the United Nations which raised the alarm about the harmful effects that massive discharges of brine into the sea cause, on marine ecosystems.
On a planet increasingly dry of blue gold, stopping the spread of seawater desalination plants, however, appears increasingly complicated. There are currently 15,000 in operation in 177 countries, most of which are concentrated in the Middle East. With the costs of producing drinking water continuously falling, and the cubic meter expected to drop to 0.15 euros in 2025, their construction is set to expand – in North Africa and also below the Sahara. (Open Photo: 123rf)

Rocco Bellantone

 

Africa and the Drug Market.

Within an expanding market, the role of Africa is also becoming increasingly important. Not only as a place of transit but also for consumption. Cocaine in West Africa, cannabis in the North, heroin in the East, methamphetamine almost everywhere. A phenomenon that local institutions are not yet able to control.

According to the latest report by the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), relating to 2020, 284 million individuals aged between 15 and 65 use drugs. This is an increase of 26% compared to ten years ago, with areas where the increase is greater and consumers are young people, under 35, as is the case in Latin America and Africa. Fragile, corrupt states, often besieged by terrorism and with little capacity for integral control of their respective territories: these are some of the characteristics that are allowing the penetration of drugs of various kinds into Africa.

Around the world more than 284 million individuals aged between 15 and 65 use drugs. Photo: Pixabay

And not only as a corridor but also, increasingly, as a consumer market. Consumption is growing, production is growing: that of cocaine has increased by 11% compared to 2019, and about 90% of this substance has passed from containers, usually by sea, increasingly affecting the Asian and African markets. Methamphetamine (a synthetic derivative of amphetamine) also saw an approximately five-fold growth from 2010 to 2020, while opium recorded a 7% increase in the same period, thanks above all to increased production in Afghanistan.

The role of Africa.
Within an expanding market, the role of Africa is also becoming increasingly important, especially for cannabis and, in part, for amphetamine.West Africa has once again become the major drug corridor reported since the beginning of this century. Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Gambia and, recently, the Cape Verdean archipelago itself have once again become the great drug corridors of the South Atlantic route. And a new, important corridor has opened up towards the Asian markets on the other side of the continent, in Mozambique and Tanzania.

Rabat is the world’s largest producer of cannabis resin. The activity employs around 800,000 Moroccans. Photo: File swm

However, the northern part of the continent monopolises a large part of the drug trade. In fact, very significant seizures of cocaine – which is replacing opium and cannabis – have been recorded in Libyan ports. A new direct route from Latin America emerges, including countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt. Rabat is the world’s largest producer of cannabis resin, contributing more than 20% of global production. The activity employs around 800,000 Moroccans and represents 3% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which continues to be the main supplier of cannabis for Europe. Virtually all areas of Africa, therefore, are playing a growing role in international drug trafficking, while local public institutions seem incapable (or even conniving) with respect to this increasingly flourishing trade.

Consumption and trade
The main narcotic substance present in Africa is still cannabis. Almost 40 countries on the continent are producers of this substance and to a lesser extent of opium. The novelty in recent years, however, is represented by internal consumption: the countries of central and western Africa recorded the greatest increases, followed by some in the southern part of the continent. 6.3% of the African population aged 15-64 uses cannabis, while the world average is 3.8%, with Central and West Africa at 9.3%. Despite the increase in consumption, the continent remains above all a transit and sorting territory for narcotic substances. The UNODC data are based, in fact, on the seizures made over the years of the various narcotic substances.
The seizure of cocaine, for example, has been concentrated in recent years in countries such as Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Benin, whose domestic consumption is still modest.

New substances
Another relatively new substance but present on African markets, also in terms of use, is Tramadol, an opiate from India and very harmful to health. The quantities of tramadol seized have in fact increased from 8 tons in 2013 to 111 tons in 2017, to fall in 2018 due to restrictive measures by the Indian government. As for heroin, 2% of the total seized worldwide comes from Africa, a tenfold increase between 2008 and 2018. The main route of heroin starts from Southeast Asia and heads towards East Africa. One part is used to satisfy internal consumption, another is sorted to other areas of the continent and yet another takes the European route, towards Belgium and Italy.
The countries with the largest production and export of heroin in Africa are Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Mozambique. Amphetamine plays an increasingly important role on the drug landscape in Africa. In 2018, 11% of the world’s total of this substance was seized.

Mozambique. The city of Beira. Amphetamine plays an increasingly important role on the drug landscape in Africa. File swm

For the fourth consecutive year, the amount of ecstasy seized has also increased. Methamphetamine is different. It is produced in Africa (UNODC has identified 13 clandestine laboratories, concentrated between Nigeria and South Africa) and exported to Asia. Other countries on the continent have recently been added to the list of producers of methamphetamine: Mozambique, Tanzania, Congo, and Benin.
A new drug known as kush or K2 is also making its way into several West African countries. In Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, an increasing number of young people are becoming addicted. Several people have already died in the region. It is a substance rolled up and smoked like a cigarette. Reported cases in Sierra Leone and Guinea demonstrate the dangers of this drug: after a few puffs, the user is stunned, unable to stand up.By 2050 – according to data from ENACT (an organization that deals with transnational crime) – another 14 million Africans will use drugs, with particular reference to young adults and adolescents. An enormous challenge for local and international institutions, which are currently unable to control this enormous traffic. (Open Photo: File swm)

(L.B.)

Chip. Competition in Asia is becoming fierce.

The competition between Asian countries for chips is fierce.
But not everyone is willing to give up the Chinese market
to satisfy Washington.

The global demand for semiconductors has been declining in the last six months: after years in which the demand for electronic devices had also skyrocketed the demand for semiconductors used for their production, and the market has reached a level of saturation. However, in anticipation of a strong recovery in this second half of 2023, investments by the large chip industries in the main Asian markets continue and so do government efforts to strengthen the domestic industrial fabric.

In fact, the achievement of self-sufficiency, even partial, in the sector remains a priority for the great world powers and the consolidation of competitive advantage positions for the leaders. Japan and South Korea have been particularly active in recent months.

Japan, a country that has lagged behind in the competition for chips after having been a leader in the past, is trying to close the gap by attracting investment and forming partnerships with today’s leaders, the Koreans and Taiwanese. On the other hand, South Korea and Taiwan, which already have a strong industrial base in the sector, are struggling to maintain their market share and stimulate domestic production.

In fact, Japan is now trying to catch up: holder of 50% of the market share in the 1990s, the country today controls only 10% having lost its dominance with the more competitive Taiwan and South Korea. Tokyo is now trying to secure its semiconductor supply by pursuing a 2030 goal of bringing domestically produced semiconductor sales to $112 billion – more than triple the current figure.

In this regard, the Government has promoted partnerships with leading companies in the industry and has provided tax breaks to facilitate the relocation of factories in the country. It is in this context that Japan has managed to finalize crucial agreements such as the one with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for the opening of an advanced chip plant worth about 7 billion dollars in Kumamoto province and with the South Korean Samsung for a 221-million-dollar plant in Yokohama. But competition in the chip market is pressing, exacerbated by geopolitical tensions between the US and China, and Japan is looking for greater certainty.

With this in mind, on May 17, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio met with the executives of some of the major industries in the sector, including representatives of the US Intel, Samsung (leader in the production of memory chips), and TSMC (which produces the most technologically advanced semiconductors on the market). During the meeting, Kishida called for more investment in the country and the US Micron announced its intention to invest 3.6 billion dollars in a plant for the production of memory chips in the country, with government support.

The meeting between industry leaders comes as the United States is pushing allies to work together to curb China’s technological development. In October 2022, the Biden administration amended the Export Administration Regulations by adding advanced semiconductors and the machinery needed to produce them to the US Commerce
Control List.

This decision effectively blocked the export of semiconductors made with American technology, especially to China. In addition, in March 2023 the so-called guardrails provisions included in the CHIPS and Science Act were announced – the plan which provides state subsidies of 52.7 billion dollars for new plants opened on US soil. The latter means that an industry that has obtained CHIPS Act subsidies cannot expand its production plants in foreign countries considered a danger to American national security, starting with China.

Thus, if the CHIPS Act aims to bring semiconductor production back to US soil – in 1990 37% of semiconductor production was located in the US; in 2019 only 12% – export controls aim to prevent the Chinese semiconductor industry from taking over the market.

However, the semiconductor value chain is segmented and US restrictions alone are not enough to cut Beijing out of the market. For this Biden has started a campaign to enlist key allies in the supply chain, such as the Netherlands and Japan, both producers of machinery for the production of the most advanced chips. Tokyo, after its initial hesitation, has taken the American line, limiting exports to Beijing of 23 types of chip-making machinery.

Unlike Japan, not all US allies appear inclined to replicate its export controls, nor are they enthusiastic about the conditionality inserted to access the CHIPS Act subsidies. South Korea, for example, earns a lot of income from chip sales to China, which together with Hong Kong is worth 60% of the export market in the sector – the USA in comparison absorbs only 7.7%.

The Chinese market is therefore currently irreplaceable for South Korea. In addition, its flagship companies, Samsung and SK Hynix, have important factories in neighbouring Asia, where about 40% of Samsung’s NAND memory chips and 40% of SK Hynix DRAM chips are made. Samsung and SK Hynix already managed in October to obtain concessions, lasting one year, which allow the purchase of US machinery for the production of chips to be used in factories in China.

In a complex period for Korean industries, whose exports in the sector have been declining for months, Washington is expected to extend the concession to continue exporting machinery to China without
the need for a license.

However, the duration of these exemptions – expiring in October – worries the two leading Korean companies who fear the huge costs of moving to a country other than China and, at the same time, do not want to give up on expanding in the United States, with the risk of suffering competition from the companies that will benefit from American subsidies. In fact, both Samsung and SK Hynix have an interest in expanding into the design of production plants in the USA, precisely because they are attracted by the possibility of accessing
the CHIPS Act subsidies.

Even in Taiwan, not all the policies of the Biden administration have been appreciated. In the last month, in fact, it was reported that some senior Taiwanese officials have asked US allies to moderate their narrative on the risks of excessive dependence on Taiwanese chips (Taiwan controls 90% of the production of the most advanced chips).

Some US representatives have called this dependence “unsafe” due to a possible Chinese invasion of the island. With the real possibility that US policies to bring the chip supply chain home will be effective, the fear of the island losing its strategic advantage is growing stronger. Warren Buffett himself, head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said in May that he had sold all of his shares in the Taiwanese industry, concerned about the geopolitical risks associated with the island.

And so TSMC itself is particularly active in announcing manufacturing `facilities in the US – with projects in Arizona worth $40 billion. Taiwan does not want to be deprived of its most profitable industry and security guarantee. Considering recent investments in Europe, Japan and the US by major semiconductor manufacturers, Taiwan has something
to worry about.

Between countries that want to maintain their competitive advantage and others that aim to increase domestic production, the semiconductor market remains active. In the coming months, however, industries will have to find a balance between the attractiveness of American subsidies and the risk of losing the Chinese market. (Photo:123rf)

Paola Morselli/ISPI

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