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South Africa. Catholic bishops back miners’ compensation claims for black lung disease.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Last August, Southern African bishops filed a class-action suit against a mining company that has failed to compensate miners for black lung disease. This is one of the many cases in an industry where workers pay a huge tribute to profits.

South Africa’s mining sector contributed in 2022 US $ 25 billion and 8 percent of the national GDP. Yet, the miners whom the country owes such amount of wealth get little recognition as some large corporations fail to compensate them for occupational diseases.
On 15 August, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), which groups of bishops from Botswana, South Africa and Eswatini, filed a class action lawsuit with South Africa’s High Court Gauteng Local Division, against a subsidiary of the Australian mining major BHP, South32 and against the South African Energy company Seriti on behalf of 17 current and former miners.

Illawarra Metallurgical Coal. South32 has three mining operations in South Africa (Photo: South32)

The workers had previously called the Catholic Church for help after contracting incurable coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, also known as black lung disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease causing breathing difficulties, airflow limitations, and constant chest pains.
In an application for certification of a class action, the Conference’s Commission for Justice and Peace accused the coal mining company South32 of failing to provide workers with adequate training, equipment and a safe working environment, as required by law. According to the application, both diseases caused by coal mine dust can be prevented. The Commission asked the court to order compensation to be paid to those workers. The plaintiffs also call for compensation for the coal miners who died from these diseases.

Cardinal Stephen Brislin, Archbishop of Cape Town.

Cardinal Stephen Brislin, the archbishop of Cape Town, justified in a statement the bishops’ initiative because some of the plaintiffs are retired workers who do not receive any more legal assistance from the trade unions of which they were members when they were still working in the mines. The bishops’ initiative is inspired by the Catholic social teachings included in Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical on capital and labor, “Rerum Novarum”. The claim that “the Church has been close to the suffering of unskilled and vulnerable workers in the context of unbridled industrialization and its support for the coal mine workers is a concrete manifestation of its defense of the dignity of work which is a function of God’s creation”, say the bishops.South32 which is a multibillion-dollar metal mining company based in Perth (Australia), operated South Africa Energy Coal from 2015 to 2021 and has still three operations in Southern Africa (South Africa Manganese and Hillside Aluminium in South Africa and Mozal Aluminium in Mozambique). One of its spokespeople answered to press queries after the SACBC filed its suit, that the company was “unable to comment further at this point in time.”
South32 which has three mining operations in South Africa and employs 9,100 people worldwide, has already run into other disputes this year. In July 2023, it was ordered to pay $2.9m in compensation after an investigation found that one of its coal mines in New South Wales (Australia) had been draining local drinking water to its facility over the last five years. The mine’s operator Illawarra Coal Holdings, a subsidiary of South32, admitted that it never had the permit to use any surface water supply for its mining activities.
In addition, at the end of August, the Australian Collieries’ Staff and Officials Association (CSOA) said that workers at South32’s Appin mine had failed to reach an agreement with the company over an industrial dispute over “having a reasonable work/life balance”.

Hillside Aluminium. South32 employs 9,100 people worldwide. (South32)

Yet, South32 is far from being the only company accused by its own workers of violating their basic rights. In March, the Director of the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), Dominican Father Stan Muyebe, urged two gold mining companies, DRDGOLD and East Rand Properties Mines (ERPM) to “settle their historic debts to mine workers made sick in their mines as a result of working in unsafe conditions”.
According to Father Muyebe, while 19 companies accepted to settle damages and compensate miners after a class action suit was approved by the High Court in 2019, DRDGOLD and ERPM have appealed the ruling and do not seem to have the intention to pay such compensations for miners who suffer from silicosis and tuberculosis caused by exposure to high levels of silica dust while working in the gold mines or for the families of those who died.
The issue is an important one. In 2022, more than 475,000 workers were employed in South Africa’s mining industry, facing many health challenges. Professor Jill Murray of La Trobe University School of Law in Melbourne and specialist in international labour relations reported that South African miners were facing an epidemic of occupational lung diseases such as silicosis and tuberculosis and that initiatives to influence policy and thus reduce dust levels and diseases had been largely unsuccessful. Obviously, the cases raised by the Commission for Justice and Peace Commission show that the issue remains unsolved.

South African miners. 123rf.com

Another study published by the executive director of the National Institute for Occupational Health in Johannesburg, Barry Kitansamy and other researchers in 2018, revealed that between 2012 and 2017, 111,000 miners received compensations, half of them for permanent lung impairment and 52,000 for tuberculosis. Yet, accordingly, an almost equivalent number of claims (107,000) were unpaid.
Dr Gill Nelson, an epidemiologist from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Witwatersrand University also found out that between 1975 and 2007, the percentage of white miners with silicosis increased from 18% to 22% in gold mines while the proportion of black miners affected with the same disease soared from 3% to 32% in the same environment. The study concluded to the failure of the goldmines to control dust and prevent occupational respiratory diseases in the workplace. Besides, Dr Nelson identified high risks of asbestos-related diseases in diamond and platinum mines. (Photo:123rf.com)

François Misser

Captagon. The New Drug of those Fighting in Syria.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

It has spread to the entire Persian Gulf, representing, to date, a new threat also for Europe.

Captagon is the name given to phenethylline, a synthetic stimulant, a narcotic that causes disinhibiting effects and gives a sense of invincibility, considerably altering the perception of what one is doing, facilitating acts of extreme violence, as well as improving physical resistance.The rapid spread of Captagon is due to the fact that the synthesis of phenethylline requires cheap and legal raw materials, and no sophisticated equipment, thus allowing its production in clandestine laboratories and its abuse in the Middle East and North Africa. In reality, the counterfeit versions, marked with the Captagon logo, available throughout the Arabian Peninsula, do not contain phenethylline due to low supplies. However, these pills contain other amphetamines and derivatives capable of inducing similar effects. In addition to being the drug most used among the wealthy young populations of the Arabian Peninsula states, it is now recognized as the drug of fighters, as it is consumed among militants and jihadists due to its effects.

127 bags of Captagon seized in Syria. File: US/Christopher Brown

Captagon is in fact used by the soldiers of the Islamic State for its fear-inhibiting effects; the drug makes them euphoric and full of adrenalin, thus allowing them to fight for a long period of time. Furthermore, it raises the pain tolerance threshold and reduces the level of tiredness, allowing terrorists to function even with little sleep, without feeling tired and without a significant decrease in attention or strength.
To date, Syria has been found to be the main producer, consumer and exporter of Captagon, thanks to its strategic position at the crossroads of the Middle East, which allows its distribution to neighboring countries and renders smuggling easier. The pills retail for between $5 and $20 and are one of the most widely used substances in the region. This represents a substantial source of income for Syria. Data show that, in 2021 alone, the Syrian regime earned $5.7 billion from the Captagon trade. Faced with the paralyzed economy due to the civil war that began in 2011, the regime of Bashar al-Assad, to address the crisis and with the support of Iran, supported cooperation between Iranian militia groups, their allies such as the Lebanese Hezbollah, and some Syrian army leaders to sell various types of drugs outside Syria.

Syria has been found to be the main producer, consumer and exporter of Captagon, ©hanohiki/123RF.COM

Over the past three years, the boom in Captagon production has attracted the attention of various manufacturers and smugglers, who generally send shipments from the northern port of Latakia which has been under the control of the Assad family since the 1980s, using the commercial sea routes, and overland through Jordan, to reach consumption centers in the Persian Gulf.
In fact, in addition to Syria, the drug is also widespread in Saudi Arabia (which appears to be the main destination of this market), the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Among the destinations of the Captagon, not even Europe seems unlikely. The national law enforcement agencies of various European countries, including Italy and Germany, have often confiscated large quantities of containers containing Captagon pills. In reality, the drug is not yet widespread in the West, but its diversion through Europe is part of the plan outlined by smugglers to deceive customs officials in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. In fact, once in Europe, the containers are repacked and sent back south to the Gulf.

A portion of the 86 million Captagon pills police in Dubai say was seized. File: Police Dubai

On April 24, the Council of the European Union outlined a list of 25 people and 8 entities responsible for the production and trafficking of drugs, in particular Captagon. Various members of the Assad family have been identified, accused of promoting instability and corruption in the country thanks also to drug trafficking, leaders and members of regime-affiliated militias, as well as people associated with the Syrian army and Syrian military intelligence.
Meanwhile, the EU remains committed to finding a lasting and credible political solution to the conflict in Syria on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and the 2014 Geneva Communiqué.
However, faced with this new scenario, it is important that a plan to restore the country includes projects and tools aimed at dismantling this deep-rooted dynamic which currently supports the regime’s economy, worsening an already highly unstable political and social situation. (File: 123rf)

Erika Russo/CgP

Ethiopia. A country is falling apart.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Less than one year after the war in Tigray, Ethiopia has been hit by another conflict in the Amhara region. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has seemingly embarked on a military strategy. Many intellectuals warn that this could lead the country to fall apart.

Less than one year after the end of the war in Tigray, Ethiopia is plunging again into violence. Since last April, unrest has escalated in the Amhara region, which is the second most populated of the country, home to more than 30 million people, after the federal government announced plans to dismantle the regional Amhara Special Forces (ASF) and integrate its members into the Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF). The government’s aim is to rebuild the unity of the Ethiopian nation which is threatened by the coexistence of regional armies which group dozens of thousands of soldiers.
But while some ASF soldiers joined the federal army and the police, many others deserted and joined in the mountains the “Fano” Amhara militias which had been reactivated by Abiy during the war in Tigray to fight the secessionists of the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) and are mainly composed of young rural men.
Fano is an Amharic word which means “freedom fighter” and was used to name the resistant fighters who opposed the Italian occupiers during the Abyssinia war of 1935 and 1936.

Landscape in the highlands of Lalibela in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia. File 123rf

Nowadays, this is a war between former allies. From late 2020 until the November 2022 peace agreement in Pretoria, signed under African Union auspices between the Addis government and the Tigray authorities which put an end to the war, the ASF and the Fano militias fought alongside the ENDF against the TDF.
Following the war in Tigray, the Fano emerged well-armed and stronger but without a centralised command. This situation prompted Prime Minister Abyi to get rid of them and of other regional forces that had been created during the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front government (1989-2019).
The crisis reached momentum by the end of April when the federal government ordered the ENDF to take action against “extremist” elements after an unidentified armed group killed Girma Yeshitila, the head of the Amhara Prosperity Party, one of the 10 factions of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s ruling Prosperity Party.
The grievances of the Amhara are enormous: they complain that after the end of the war in Tigray, the government did not address issues related to massacres, displacements and harassment of the Amhara and Afar peoples. As a result, Amhara youth joined en masse the Fano militias units which acted as Amhara self-defence groups. They clashed about 30 times with government forces in the Amhara region before 4 August, mostly in North Wello and West Gojam.

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. (File: Office of the Prime Minister)

In early August, the Fano militias swept into towns and cities, briefly taking over some. They threatened the two largest regional towns, Bahir Dar and Gondar before being pushed back by the ENDF. They attacked police stations and garrisons, captured weapons, freed prisoners of the Bahir Dar jail and briefly took control of the airport of Lalibela, Ethiopia’s most popular tourist town. Violent demonstrations were reported. Roads were closed in Debre Markos, Dembecha, Bure, and Amanuel to obstruct ENDF movements. There were attacks on local officials while the regional police and kebele militias aligned with Fano militias. Many of these officials fled to the federal capital, Addis Ababa.
The government responded by sending in the Army, shutting down the internet across the region on the 3 August and declaring on the 4 August a six-month state of emergency, including restrictions on demonstrations and allowing arrests without a court warrant. The federal government also threatened to extend, the state of emergency to the rest of the country. It also announced by mid-August that it had detained individuals in Addis Ababa in informal detention centres, including schools, who were being denied access to court and legal counsel, according to Amnesty International.
By mid-August, human rights organisations reported that over 3,000 Addis Ababa residents, mostly ethnic Amhara were arrested since the state of emergency was declared.

On 27 April, Girma Yeshitila head of the ruling Prosperity Party, Amhara region branch, was shot dead. Yeshitila was the figure of the government’s controversial decision to abolish the regional special forces and reorganize them into the national army, federal and regular police. (File Addis Media Network)

In the Amhara region, the government-imposed night curfews in six towns, including the regional capital Bahir Dar. Public meetings were banned. The ENDF was deployed in the entire region and the government used Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones in the repression. A strike at Finote Salem, on the 14 August, killed at least 26 people during an anti-government demonstration. In a communiqué from the 18 August, Amnesty International said it had also received allegations of mass killings in Bahir Dar and Shewa Robit. On the 25 August, the head of the Amhara region Yilkal Kefele resigned. Since then, clashes between Fano militias and the ENDF continued unabated.
The main reason for the resistance of the ASF to the dismantlement of their troops despite that they were offered a choice to integrate the national army or police or to get compensation to return to civil life is that like the Fano militias, they see themselves as self-defence units. They consider that their role is to protect ethnic Amhara who have been persecuted in several parts of the country, in Tigray, in the Benshangul/Gumuz region near Sudan and around Addis Ababa, from where they have been forcefully displaced while facing harassment by Oromia’s security forces when travelling to Addis Ababa, which is an enclave in the Oromia region.
The Fano and Amhara militias complained for months that the federal government did nothing to protect Amhara settlers.

A street in Bahir Dar. the Amhara regional capital. CC BY-SA 4.0/ O.Mustafin

Amharic ethnic militias demand that ENDF troops withdraw from the Amhara region and they accuse the federal government whose leader Abyi is Oromo of being dominated by this ethnic group which is the country’s largest with over 40 million people.
The Amhara militias also demand that the Welkait, Tselemt, Humera, and Raya areas in Tigray region, with large Amhara populations, be officially incorporated into the Amhara region. They claim that when the TPLF still controlled the federal state, these areas were put without consultation under the control of Tigray. Abyi’s decision to eliminate regional special forces is also regarded in Amhara as a threat to the region’s ability to protect itself against aggressions from other regions, in particular attacks from Tigray.
The Fano militias consider that the dismantling of the ASF before the integration of the disputed areas of Tigray into the Amhara region, is premature unless the federal government provides guarantees. Another grievance was that the Amhara militias were left out of the African Union-backed peace talks that ended the war in Tigray, despite their involvement on the Addis government side.

Archbishop Abune Sawiros of South West Shoa Diocese and two other archbishops oversaw the appointment of 17 bishops for dioceses in the Oromia region, and nine bishops for other dioceses at a ceremony in Oromia, without the involvement of the ruling Holy Synod.

The political and social climate is spoiled by anti-Amhara moves in which the members of this ethnic group see the hand of the Prime Minister. The rivalry has even reached the religious sphere. At the beginning of this year, a conflict broke out inside the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church along ethnic lines and the government was accused to recognize indirectly the breakaway synod of Oromia and Nations and Nationalities formed in January. Abuna Sawiros, who headed the new synod, justified the decision was necessary to ensure that spiritual fathers familiar with the culture and language of churches in Oromia and other regions are appointed. The decision was seen as an answer to the claim by the Oromo of taking a larger role in Ethiopia’s socio-political space, which had previously been dominated by Amhara and Tigrayans, including inside the Orthodox Church. Government troops and regional Oromia Special Forces supported the rebel bishops. The police clamped down on demonstrators who were opposing the takeover of the St. Michael Church by bishops of the new synod. At least eight people were killed during these incidents in February, according to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. After an unprecedented episode of mutual excommunications of bishops by each group, eventually, in mid-February, both sides came to an understanding after discussions in the presence of the prime minister and traditional elders. But the wounds may take time to heal.

Lalibela Airport . CC BY-SA 4.0/ Sm105

Concerning the Amhara region conflict, the government’s approach is more military than political, which is not very surprising: Abiy Ahmed, known worldwide as the 2019 Peace Prize recipient for having ended the border dispute with Eritrea and seen as a “reformer” is also a former decorated military officer.
The government tone is bellicose. On 9 August, it claimed that the ENDF had annihilated the Fano in Bahir Dar, Gondar, Shewa Robit and Lalibela. Unconfirmed reports claim that 3,000 civilians were massacred in Bahir Dar alone and that other massacres took place in Gondar, Debre Berhan, Shewa Robit and Lalibela.
The Amhara region has been for centuries the heart of the Ethiopian state. Should it explode, Ethiopia would fall apart inevitably. (Open Photo: Flag of Ethiopia. 123rf.com)

François Misser

Music. Vietnam. Between Tradition, Pop and Rap.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

For the Vietnamese people, music has always been of great importance. A tradition with millennia of history behind it and a present perfectly integrated into international pop trends.
As a land of conquest for the great planetary pop stars – Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and the most popular Korean BTS – but also fertile ground on which many talented local artists spring up.
If the traditional genre nha nhac (music for court ceremonies dating from the nineteenth century) has been declared a World Heritage Patrimony by UNESCO, the tragic conflict of the sixties and seventies of the last century indirectly favoured an expressive cosmopolitanism, bringing many Vietnamese artists closer to the themes of Anglo-American
pacifist folk protesters.

Suboi performing in Ho Chi Minh City. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Aznboy001

With the end of the conflict, the progressive Westernization of the country then favoured the growth and diffusion of an authentically Vietnamese pop hypothesis and the rise of artists such as Mihn Tuyet and the singer-songwriter My Tam who were able to blend local stylistic elements with the modernity of internationally popular pop.
My Tam is still a very popular star today, but alongside her, there are many artists worthy of mention. Like Son Tung TP, a twenty-nine-year-old from Thai Bihn with a past as a teen idol and a style halfway between neo rhythm ‘n’ blues and dance.
There is rapper Suboi (one of the few artists who can boast some popularity abroad), a hip-hop band Da Lab, a Hanoi pop singer-songwriter Vu Cat Tuong and fellow countryman Dong Nhi who also collaborated with planetary stars the likes of will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas; the Chillies are an indie-rock band, while artists like Soobin Hoang Son and Bich Phuong are more melodic and catchier.

Phuc Du. Photo: nguoinoitieng.tv

Fortunately, today’s Vietnam is very different from what was exported to the world by the tragic black-and-white reports of the last century and its natural landscapes, still largely untouched, are today more than ever a formidable tourist attraction. But the music of the new Vietnam also springs up on the splendid beaches of Da Nang; from here come, for example, Du Phuc and Den Vau, further significant voices of a country that seems to have left behind the tragedies of the past and that lives its present in a continuous and very rapid transformation; but which brings with it an infinite number of new challenges – social, humanitarian and cultural. (Photo: Traditional Street music in the streets of Hanoi. ©hecke/123RF.com)

Franz Coriasco

The Role of France in the Indo-Pacific.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

The French administration of Emmanuel Macron has given a strong impetus to its foreign policy in the context of the Indo-Pacific.
This is a region of the world with a long historical tradition for the geopolitical interests of the Elysée and which today has become
one of its priorities.

As explained in the 2019 document of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, ‘France and Security in the Indo-Pacific’, France today has a population of more than 1.6 million inhabitants in its territories located in the Indo-Pacific region. This was possible since, despite the decolonization process of the second half of the last century, Paris was able to maintain some overseas territories both in the Indian Ocean, on all the islands of Mayotte and Reunion, and in the Pacific Ocean, namely the islands of Clipperton, Wallis, Futuna, the archipelago of French Polynesia, and New Caledonia. The latter, in particular, confirmed its loyalty to French sovereignty with the rejection of the referendum on its independence in the autumn of 2021.

Being territorially present in this region, Paris was able to define its own Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) off the coasts of its overseas territories both in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific, reaching numbers exceeding 9 million square kilometres, the second largest EEZ in the world. It is useful to add that the French presence in these territories also entails a significant deployment of French soldiers, around 6,800 men and women, from the eastern African coasts, with the French military base in Djibouti, passing through the Indian Ocean and ending in the Pacific.

Emmanuel Macron president of France since 2017. CC BY-NC 2.0/ Duosdebs01

Through its status as a medium-sized European power present in the Indo-Pacific context, Paris has established relationships with various regional players over the years. Above all, as confirmed by ‘France’s Indo-Pacific Strategy of 2022’, the bilateral partnerships with India and Japan should be underlined, above all in the field of security and defence.
The partnership with Australia instead, which until 2021 could be considered of equal level, suffered a setback with the signing of the AUKUS pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the USA, which provides for the provision of nuclear-powered submarines by the US and the UK to Australia.
According to Paris, Australia broke a previous agreement with the French group Naval, which would have supplied Canberra with conventional submarines. The episode created a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Canberra, so much so that the new 2022 document specifies that Paris will cooperate with Canberra only ‘on a case-by-case basis’. In addition, France has developed partnerships with multilateral organizations such as ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) and smaller international organizations present in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Recently, Macron’s trip to China in early April, partly together with Ursula von der Leyen, and the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May were two relevant events for better understanding French wishes in the Indo-Pacific.

F 735 FS Germinal. Photo: French Navy

It is clear how Paris, adhering perfectly to a Gaullist vision that can be summarized in ‘friends, allies, but not aligned’ with the USA, wants in every way to avoid taking part in a potential zero-sum game between the United States and China. In the first place, Macron seems intent on not promoting, in misalignment with Washington, a cut in French trade with the People’s Republic of China, which has indeed been strengthened with various agreements signed during the trip to Beijing. Macron also spoke in favour of maintaining the status quo on Taiwan, expressed mainly in the One China policy. According to France, stability in the Taiwan Strait is essential to guarantee freedom of navigation and trade, but at the same time, it does not believe it is in Europe’s interest to risk being involved in a potential crisis between the United States and China over the sovereignty of the island. It is important to underline how Macron tries to Europeanize French interests as if when speaking of Europe, he really has in mind an exclusively French viewpoint. (Open Photo: French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle reaching Toulon at the end of its 4-month-long Indo-Pacific deployment. French Navy picture)

Carlo Miglior/CgP

The Role of Masato in the Peruvian Amazon.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Masato is the typical and preferred drink of the Asheninka, the Shipios and other indigenous groups of the Peruvian Amazon. Masato is a fermented drink based on yucca, which is a big tuber also known as cassava, its ancestral name is piarentsi.

In some regions of South America Masato can be prepared with other ingredients such as corn or rice and they are not fermented. Its origins date back to the history of the ancestral peoples of the Amazon.
This drink is often associated with cultural and spiritual values among the Amazonian ethnic peoples. There are different methods to prepare this drink. According to Mirian Pérez, an Asheninka woman: “Cassava is peeled and boiled until it is soft. Once soft, you drain the water and mash it in the same pot with a wooden masher, which is made just for this purpose. The brewers, generally indigenous women, who stick to the traditional and original process, chew portions of cassava and then mix them again with the rest of the dough, in order to speed up fermentation. Finally, the jar containing the cassava is covered with banana leaves and left to ferment for three days. At this time the drink is ready, but it has still a sweet flavour given by the cassava starches. From the fourth day the drink becomes strong masato, its alcoholic content is higher, and one can really get drunk with it”.

Preparing masato. CC BY-SA 2.0/Diego Giannoni

In less traditional methods some brewers forego the chewing process altogether. Instead, they add grated raw sweet potato. This helps to increase the amount of sugars and starches in the mix or combination of products. Therefore, fermentation is possible in a faster and natural way. Bonifacio Pezo, who is one of the great leaders of the Asheninka, reveals to us a third method to help fermentation. According to him, one can speed up the fermentation process by using germinated corn: “The newly grown corn plant is ground and then mixed with the (yucca) dough. After that, it is left to ferment for two or three days uncovered. Once the dough has fermented, it is mixed with water and sieved, and finally served to drink.
According to the Asheninka, there are four types of masato made from cassava: masato mixed with sugar or honey, mixed with cane juice, mixed with sweet potato, and chewed masato. In addition, apart from the masato made from cassava, there are also other types of masato such as the pijuayo masato, and the chonta masato. The preparation of masato may vary among the several Amazonian tribes.

Masato is the first thing an Ashaninka wants after hours of walking or working.

According to oral narrations, the masato ritual was carried out at the time of the cassava harvest to give thanks to God. It is said that this drink was destined for sacred times and festive moments of the indigenous communities. Piarentsi was made for special occasions such as mijanos, birthdays or other family or community gatherings. It is considered as a sacred drink for rituals. That’s why this drink was prepared by maidens after they had reached puberty. The preparation of masato was also linked to marriage. A young man who intended to marry a girl would go into the jungle to hunt in order to show that he was ready to start a family, and in the meanwhile, the chosen girl prepared piarentsi. When the suitor arrived at the girl’s house with the mitayo (game), she offered him a bowl of piarentsi, thus starting the family agreements and the preparation for the wedding.
Nowadays, masato, among the indigenous communities of the Amazon region, is still prepared and offered on special occasions such as birthdays or mingas (community work). During the patron saint festivities or anniversaries of the community. As a typical drink, masato cannot miss at social events.
Soccer championships, the so-called penalties and chengaritos (sports where players kick penalties only), or other activities that have the purpose of raising funds either for the community or for the schools, are other occasions to prepare and offer masato.

Amazon River. 123rf.

Masato is the first thing an Ashaninka wants after hours of walking, or working, it is the first drink that an Ashaninka offers as a welcome drink to a relative, a friend, or a neighbour that has come to visit. The inhabitants of the cities of the Amazon region, instead, consider masato as just the typical drink of the indigenous people, a drink for just a good bender. That is why talking about masato is almost always a reason for jokes, mockery, and contempt towards Amazonian cultures. The people of the cities joke and emphasize the repugnance of the chewing for the preparation of this indigenous drink, without understanding that this habit is a great solution in the context of the rural world, where everything is scarce.
Masato, among the indigenous people of the Amazon region, is the integrating element that strengthens social and spiritual relations. It is the drink that better quenches thirst after a hard work or a long and tiring journey. It is the drink that accompanies community dialogue, during which the members of the indigenous communities talk about different political, social, and cultural issues. It is the drink that is offered to welcome visitors, friends, and relatives. Drinking masato together, to the indigenous people of the Amazon, also means sharing each other’s experiences, narrating ancestral stories, and making plans for the future of their family and their community while keeping alive the past and its traditions and values.

Jhonny Mancilla Pérez

Iran returns to Africa.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Three countries visited. Cooperation contracts. The intention is to get out of a state of political and economic isolation imposed
by Western sanctions.

Last 12 and 13 July, a delegation, made up of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif and businessmen and led by the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, visited the African continent, after an absence of almost a decade, considering the last visit by an Iranian leader date back to 2013. Raisi’s African tour was divided into three stages, which took place first in Kenya, then in Uganda, and finally in Zimbabwe.

After joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the recent visit to Latin America, the tour of Africa appears as a further attempt undertaken by the Iranian leadership to emerge from the condition of political and economic isolation imposed by Western sanctions. The aim is to propose a multipolar alternative to the Euro-Atlantic centric order, driven by Washington, which could be realized in the Global South movement and in the BRICS countries, of which
Iran now is part.

To date, trade relations are very limited between Africa and Iran, estimated at only $1.27 billion in trade. During the visit, Foreign Minister Zarif stated that Iran’s goal is to increase the volume of trade with Africa up to 2 billion which, however, would represent less than one percent of the total African trade exchange.

The visit to Kenya concluded with the signing of a package of five memoranda, covering the sectors of information and communication technologies (ICT), fishing, livestock farming, and investment promotion. However, commercial relations between Nairobi and Tehran have been substantially underdeveloped, considering that, in 2021, trade amounted to just over 50 million dollars.

As the main economy of the East African Community (made up of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda), Nairobi would allow Iranian goods to reach the wider regional free trade area. At the same time, Tehran, in addition to committing itself to opening a car factory in the country, could also offer its expertise to Kenya in the nuclear sector, in which the country has encountered difficulties in starting its own production. Overall, Kenyan President Ruto’s decision to host Raisi has attracted particular interest due to Nairobi’s historic closeness to the United States and Europe, as demonstrated by the recent Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU.

The tour of the Iranian delegation continued in Uganda, where Raisi met President Yoweri Museveni who, after promulgating an anti-LGBT law last May, risks facing sanctions from the United States, a country with which relations have been excellent until the Biden presidency. During the visit, Raisi and Museveni decided to deepen cooperation between the two countries in some sectors, including that of oil. In fact, Tehran has offered its support in the construction of an oil refinery, with a production capacity of around 60,000 barrels per day, and a national oil pipeline, harshly criticized by Brussels due to its environmental impact.

Finally, Raisi travelled to Zimbabwe, with which Tehran boasts a historical bond that has its roots in Iranian support for Harare’s war of independence in the 1970s. In addition to attacking the West for the decision to sanction both countries, the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, agreed with his Iranian counterpart on 12 memoranda relating to cooperation in the energy, agriculture, pharmaceutical and telecommunications sectors.

Despite the difficult economic conditions in the country (annual inflation at 175% and an expected drop in GDP of 3.5% in 2023), Zimbabwe, almost entirely dependent on hydrocarbon imports, could fill Iran’s shortages of some resources, through the supply of critical minerals, including gold, platinum, and lithium, in which Harare is rich.

In conclusion, Raisi’s visit should be interpreted as an attempt to relieve Tehran’s economic pressure and political isolation, through a renewed interest in the Global South which, in the future, could play an important role on the international scene. It can be hypothesized that not only African countries will benefit from Iranian expertise in the field of hydrocarbons and nuclear power, but also the Islamic Republic itself will be able to enjoy a climate of cooperation with these countries, allowing it to circumvent international sanctions and the isolation to which it is subjected. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Alessandro Di Martino/ Ce.S.I.

The search for a just peace in Ukraine.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

“Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth by falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages”. That’s Samuel Johnson in November 1758 writing in his The Idler essays for the London Weekly about the growing role of journalists – ‘news-writers’. You wonder what he might have made of Putin’s news media.

‘The first casualty of war is truth’, our terse twentieth century version of Johnson. The aphorism applies to the coverage of the war in Ukraine both through what is generally omitted, what is told and untold. The ethical principles underlying journalism are accuracy, impartiality, independence, accountability, humanity and truth. They are notoriously difficult to abide by – sometimes career-threatening – in the face of strong public opinion, particularly during war when a degree of self-censorship is prudent.

Take just two examples of Western reporting. The Russians claimed they were promised in the 1990s that NATO would not expand eastwards. Denials were reported uncritically. But US National Security Archives opened in December 2017 reveal Gorbachev was indeed assured in 1990-1991, not only by US Secretary of State, James Baker, but by Thatcher, Kohl, Mitterrand, Major and Bush senior that there would be no NATO expansion.

This litany of assurances – Baker’s “not one inch east” – came as quid pro quo for Gorbachev’s consenting to German unification within NATO. Promises to Russia were reneged on in response to understandable pressures from Central and Eastern European countries plus lobbying by the six major US armaments corporations led by Lockheed Martin. In 1996, Congress passed legislation enabling expansion, the NATO Enlargement Facilitation Act.

The former ambassador to the Soviet Union and doyen of foreign policy within the State Department, George Kennan wrote in the 29 June 1997 New York Times with extraordinary prescience: “Expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire
post-Cold War era.

Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking”. As Putin was consolidating his power between 1999-2004, ten countries, four bordering Russia, joined NATO.

NATO’s expansion does not justify Putin’s criminal invasions of Ukraine nor his war crimes, nor his tyrannical rule. But it does provide him with a public rationale for attacks on his southern, sovereign neighbour (his imperial fantasies seem to have taken over now). As long as acknowledging the truth of what Kennan wrote back in 1997 about NATO expansion incurs strident media accusations of supporting Russian aggression, we are not going to learn from history – though perhaps we never do.

The second example of constrained reporting has profound implications for ending the war through a peace agreement and ceasefire. Russia’s fantasy of blitzkrieg and swift overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-western government failed. In March 2022, a month after the invasion, as a result of Turkish mediation, Russia and Ukraine appeared on the verge of finding a negotiated end to the fighting. Key elements were Russia’s withdrawal to its pre-24 February positions in exchange for Ukraine’s neutrality, that is excluding any foreign bases or troops from its territory – even on joint exercises.

The US, UK and other countries were to provide joint security guarantees promising to intervene in the event of Ukraine being attacked again. Crimea would be left on the back burner with an understanding that within the next fifteen-year years, while seeking a resolution, neither party would use military means to change the territory’s current status. The disputed Donbass area would also be the subject
of separate negotiations.

According to Milan Rai writing in Peace News 2 April 2023 Ukraine abruptly withdrew from the negotiations because of the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war by Russian troops in Bucha, a town just 25 kms west of Kyiv, and as a result of pressure from the US and UK (Boris Johnson made a special visit to Kviv on 9 April and refused to sign the proposed special guarantees). A few days later Russia pushed into the territories it had recognized as independent in eastern Ukraine.

Maybe events simply made steps to reach a just peace impossible. Maybe Putin was negotiating in good faith. The Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett who was engaged in the negotiations believed so and thought there was a 50/50 chance of success. We just don’t know.

The point is that the two parties were at the negotiating table once discussing a plan that might have worked, but talk of negotiations now gets treated as, at worst, a betrayal of Ukraine or, at best, naiveté. Yet the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, not known for his naiveté, was talking openly of negotiations in November 2022. He compared the trench warfare in eastern Ukraine and its appalling casualties with those of the First World War and received a customary backlash for not promoting outright victory for Ukraine.

In a comparable way, Pope Francis has been widely criticised for maintaining the neutral position required for promoting dialogue, and very recently for praising the cultural wealth of ‘great Mother Russia’. Yet on 2 August 2022 the Vatican had fiercely denounced the Russian invasion: “the interventions of the Holy Father Pope Francis are clear and unequivocal in condemning it as morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious”.

Both Pope and President Volodymyr Zelensky find themselves caught between contending expectations and demands. On the Pope’s side, taking up a clear moral, so partisan, position versus a traditional papal role as neutral peacemaker. On Zelensky’s, the burden of rising Ukrainian casualties and openness to negotiation versus retaining his international and national support by a position of nothing- but- outright- victory and maintaining his decree banning negotiation. To pursue the former, with a consistent 90% approval rating for pursuing the latter, would be political suicide.

The intensity of the ground artillery war is prodigious. Both sides are beginning to run out of ammunition. Stockpiles of 155 mm shells held in the West are very low. The UK has resorted to sending Ukraine depleted uranium tank-busting shells believed to have caused illness amongst civilians and troops in Afghanistan.

The US is supplying cluster bombs known to mutilate children and to take years of clearance post-war. The Russians are reduced to seeking ordinance and weaponry from North Korea.

On 12 September this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke of Zelensky needing to lift his decree banning talks with Russia as a first step towards negotiations, saying that, if Ukraine was unwilling, it was for the USA to make it happen.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, a leading member of the Sant Egidio community-based in Rome, which successfully mediated the civil war in Mozambique, has just returned from Beijing. His mandate from the Pope is to “support humanitarian initiatives and the search for ways that can lead to a just peace” in Ukraine.

Are we approaching another March 2022 moment of mutually felt weakness that might make steps towards dialogue, negotiation, a ceasefire and an agreed peace possible? For the sake of the Ukrainian and Russian people dying in Putin’s war let’s hope against hope we are. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Ian Linden
Professor at St Mary’s University,
Strawberry Hill, London.

Central African Republic. The Queen of the gold mines.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Zhao Baomei controls the country’s gold market. With her IMC, she has received numerous licenses, particularly in the areas of Yaloké, Bambari, and near the border with Cameroon. The IMC has caused serious damage to local populations and the environment.

The queen of the mines of the Central African Republic is a 54-year-old Chinese entrepreneur. Her name is Zhao Baomei and she heads Industrie Minière Centrafricaine (IMC). A little information about her.
The silent rise of Zhao Baomei in the Central African Republic is reconstructed in a detailed investigation by Africa Intelligence, published last June. The woman is part of the second ‘transhumance’ of Chinese investors who landed in the country in 2016. In power, freshly appointed as president, is Faustin-Archange Touadéra, who has opened the door to the new gold rush in Beijing, in the west and the centre of the country.

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera and his delegation in Beijing. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

In Bangui, Zhao Baomei resides across from the Lycée Boganda in the fourth arrondissement. At the top of the Central African government, her most influential contact is Léopold Mboli Fatran, minister of mines from 2016 to 2021, as well as a long-time friend of President Touadéra, of whom he is still an advisor today. In his mandate as minister, Mboli Fatran would have facilitated the assignment of numerous licenses to Zhao’s IMC, particularly in the areas of Yaloké, Bambari and near the border with Cameroon. Another man with whom Zhao has formed strong ties in recent years is the former Prime Minister Simplice Mathieu Sarandji, also belonging to the circle of President Touadéra’s loyalists.
Officially IMC holds fifteen licenses for mining in the Central African Republic. To evade the restrictions imposed by local regulations, the company has created and registered ad hoc branches in the country which allow it to acquire many more mines than it should.
An indicator of this system emerged from a report a few years ago by a group of United Nations experts. In 2020, IMC declared the production of 19 kg of gold, a quantity that is too low considering that, according to UN experts, its equivalent would be extracted in a month in the
Yaloké area alone.

A group of rebels in the Central African Republic. File Swm

For logistics, IMC has strategic support in Cameroon. In Limbe, near the city of Douala, not far from the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, there is a depot from where fuel, excavating machines and other vehicles are sent to the mines in the Central African Republic.
For the protection of the mining sites, Zhao Baomei did not hesitate to come to terms with local armed groups. According to Africa Intelligence, among these, there would be 3R (Retour, réclamation et réhabilitation), a formation made up of ethnic Fulani militiamen used by IMC to keep the installations in the west of the country safe.
Over the years, agreements have also been reached with the UPC (Unité pour la paix en Centrafrique), a rebel group led by Ali Darass, accused by the Bangui government of having killed, in March this year, nine Chinese technicians who worked in the mine of Chimbolo on behalf of the Gold Coast Group. According to a 2021 UN report, Zhao Baomei’s company has entrusted the protection of the Yassine site to the UPC.
Until 2018, Zhao Baomei always moved in the shadows. Then a scandal that broke out a hundred kilometres from Yaloké, in the town of Bozoum, caused her name to circulate in the international press. Here the extraction activities in some of the mines managed by a network of companies linked to IMC (Tian Xiang, SMC Mao, Meng and Jianin) have caused a huge spill of mercury into the Ouham river, where the concentration levels of the metal have well exceeded twenty-five times the authorized threshold.

Father Aurelio Gazzara has denounced the ecological disaster in the area of Bozoum caused by the mining activities.

Father Aurelio Gazzera, an Italian Carmelite missionary who has been working in Bozoum since 2003, knows this story well. “In April 2019, upon the arrival of the Chinese companies, I immediately documented with photos and videos the mining activities that were carried out in Bozoum, also sharing the materials collected with international media such as France 24, says the missionary”.
And he continues: “Faced with the ecological disaster that was taking place in the area, I returned to the site a second time and at that moment I was arrested, even if only for about ten minutes”.
But his story came to the attention of national politics in Bangui. Many government officials lashed out against Father Gazzera, demonstrating quite clearly that they are colluding with Zhao Baomei’s affairs. But other parliamentarians, who knew the missionary and his activities in Bozoum well, are asking for light to be shed on the matter.
“A parliamentary investigation has been launched, something as rare as it is serious in the Central African Republic – continues Gazzera – and it emerged that the licenses given to IMC in Bozoum had been granted without any checks, bypassing parliament which, instead, should have approved them. The ecological damage caused by the mercury spills from the mines has also been confirmed”.
In June 2020, eighteen months after the arrival of its bulldozers in Bozoum, also thanks to the complaints from Amnesty International, IMC was forced to leave the city.
To clean up her image, Zhao Baomei has promised to build two health centres and a school in some villages in the area. But to date, the only work put in place is a grandstand set up to allow local notables to watch military parades, while the signs of the havoc caused by the uncontrolled exploitation of mines remain along the Ouham river.

Rocco Bellantone

Chameleon wins a wife.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

One day frog swam to the surface of a little pond and glanced around him for a place to rest: “The water is cold today – he complained – it would do me good to bask in the sun for a little while.” And so, he left the water and crouched on a warm, flat stone at the edge of the pond.

After some time, a beautiful young girl from the local village named Ngema came to the pond to fetch some water. The Frog remained seated on the stone without moving a muscle so that the young woman eventually began to stare at him, asking herself aloud whether
or not he might be ill.

“No, I am not ill – Frog called to her irritably – why do you imagine such a thing? Can’t you see how strong I am?” “Other frogs usually leap back into the water as soon as they see the villagers approach – replied the girl – but you don’t seem at all frightened and that is why I thought perhaps you must be sick.”

The Frog turned his two big eyes towards Ngema, rose up on his hind legs, and stretched himself impressively towards the sky. “Underneath this body, I am really a fine young man, – he boasted -. I have enough cattle and goats to buy any number of beautiful girls like yourself, but a curse rest on me and I must remain here until it is lifted.”

The Flog continues: “When my father lay on his death bed, he said to me: ‘My son, you will spend most of your time by the water until the day comes when you meet a girl there and ask her to marry you. If she accepts, it will mean happiness for you both, but if she refuses, she will die.’ So, I ask you to marry me here and now, and it is entirely up to you whether you live or die.”

The girl sat down on the grass and began thinking hard. After a while she stood up again and answered the Frog worriedly: “If that curse rests on you, then it rests on me as well. I have seen you and you have asked me to be your wife. I will not refuse you now, for I have no wish
to die just yet.”

So Ngema reluctantly agreed to marry the Frog and led him home to her parents’ hut on the outskirts of the village.

In the courtyard at the front of her parent’s house, there stood a very beautiful palm tree. Among its broad, leafy branches sat a Chameleon watching the approach of the young girl and the Frog.

Ngema escorted her companion indoors and left him there to discuss the wedding arrangements with her father while she sat down at the base of the tree to grind some corn for the midday meal.

The Chameleon now moved cautiously towards her, descending from branch to branch slowly and carefully, his eyes darting suspiciously from side to side, until at last, he stood within a few feet of her. But before he had the opportunity to address the girl, she suddenly turned towards him: “I have been watching you all this time – she said – and I can scarcely believe how long it took you to move such a short distance. Do you know that it has taken you over an hour to reach this spot?’

“I won’t apologize for that – answered the Chameleon -. I am a stranger to you, and had I rushed upon you, you would have been frightened and called out to your people. But in this way, I haven’t alarmed you and now we will be able to talk quietly without anyone disturbing us.”

“I have been so anxious to meet you but wanted to choose my moment carefully. I came here early this morning to tell you I love you and my greatest wish is for you to become my wife.”

The young girl set aside her bowl of corn and fell silent for several moments. At length, she raised her head and answered the Chameleon rather indifferently: “You are too late with your request, and besides, I could never marry anyone who moves as slowly as you do. People would laugh to see us together.”

“Our elders say that empty gourds make a great noise, but it amounts to very little in the end,- replied the Chameleon -. Think again before
you reject, me. Ngema sighed deeply as she pondered these words. “Well – she said finally -, Frog is inside the house asking my father’s permission to marry me. Whichever of you can satisfy him will earn the right to become my husband.”

So, Chameleon waited for Frog to emerge and then entered the house to see if he could reason with the young girl’s father. Their conversation was not half so difficult as Chameleon had expected and before long, he reappeared smiling to himself, having agreed with the old man that he would return to claim his bride within a few days.

As soon as he had put all his affairs in order, Chameleon returned as promised to the girl’s home, anxious to get on with the wedding ceremony. But to his disgust, he found Frog still pleading for Ngema’s hand, insisting that he was by far the richer of the two and that he would make a much more suitable husband.

Chameleon stormed into the room and interrupted Frog in midstream: “You call me a slow and worthless creature – he yelled furiously – but I call you a slippery, boneless, hideous carbuncle.” And the two continued to hurl abuse at each other for some time, each of them determined to prove their worth before the young girl’s family.

At last, the old man called for them both to stop and when they were ready to listen he offered them the following solution: “I will fix a bride price – he told the pair -, which must be delivered before the end of six days. The first of you to arrive here with everything I demand will win my daughter’s hand in marriage.”

Then the old man listed out the various goods he desired from each of them and without further discussion Frog and Chameleon went their separate ways, eager to assemble their respective cargoes as hastily as possible. The Frog enlisted a great number of his friends to help him and overnight he had prepared a vast quantity of beer and food of every kind, including sweet potatoes, corn, dove peas, shea-nuts and bananas, which he piled onto an enormous caravan ready to take
to the girl’s house.

Early the next morning, a long line of frogs began hopping down the road, travelling at great speed in order to ensure that they would reach their destination before the Chameleon. But as they moved along, they began to attract the sniggers of the roadside workers, for they failed to notice that at every hop, the beer spilt from the gourds, the bananas dropped from the baskets, and the food crumbled to pieces in the open bags and fell to the ground.

When the company approached Ngema’s house, they received a very warm welcome from the large crowd who set off to meet them. Songs of praise were sung by the women of the village and a loud chorus of cheering could be heard for miles around. But when, later that same evening, the villagers eventually came to unfasten the loads, they were horrified to see that all the sacks were completely empty and not a drop of beer remained in the gourds.

The villagers called the father of the girl and reported to him their discovery: “Come and examine the gifts Frog has brought you – they told him -, he has arrived here with empty sacks and dry bowls.”

The old man looked at the Frog sternly and raised his voice in anger: “Why have you come here to mock us? Do you think I would exchange my precious child for such worthless cargo? Go and seek a wife elsewhere, for I have no time for a son-in-law who would attempt to trick me like this.”

The Frog did not pause to argue his case, for he knew that his impatience and arrogance had cost him his bride and that now the curse would never be reversed.

He hung his head in shame and silently slunk away, hopping despondently down the road with the rest of his companions.

Three more days passed by and most of the villagers had abandoned all hope that Chameleon would ever show his face among them. But then, from the opposite direction on the fifth morning, the people spotted a caravan of carriers making very slow progress toward the village. It was mid-afternoon by the time it reached the outskirts, and as before, the villagers went forward to welcome their guests.

But this time, the women of the village were very anxious to inspect the loads before disturbing the father of the bride. They approached the caravan warily, but their fears were quickly laid to rest, for as soon as they began to unwrap the cargo, they found the sacks overflowing with food and the gourds full to the brim with beer.

Ngema smiled as she moved forward to greet the Chameleon, remembering how he had once described to her the hollow sound of an empty gourd. The celebrations now began in earnest and the satisfied father gave his daughter to the victorious Chameleon who took her for his wife the very next day. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Folktale from Kikuyu people, Kenya

Mauritania. Caught in the Nets of the Fishing Mafia.

Friday, 1 September 2023 8:00

The fishing tradition goes back a long way in Mauritania. But as more and more Chinese fishmeal factories have set up in the country, local fishermen are often left empty-handed. This unscrupulous business threatens the basic supply of the Mauritanian population.

At first glance, the Mauritanian fishing village of Nouamghar, about 150 kilometres northeast of the capital Nouakchott, appears deserted. A few dozen simple houses are scattered along the beach. The waves of the Atlantic hammer their facades, and the plaster is peeling off everywhere. Some families prefer to live in traditional tents, surrounded by fences made of fishing nets to protect their privacy.It is early in the morning and silence reigns in the house of 69-year-old Sheikh Muhammed Salim Biram. The white-bearded man, a former fisherman, is sitting on the floor outside the living room, tying a new net.

In Nouamghar, people have made their living from fishing for generations. Photo: Swm

In Nouamghar, people have made their living from fishing for generations. “In the past, the fishes used to come very close to the beach” says the sheikh. Today the fishermen go far out on the sea and often come back empty handed”. His two sons listen to their father’s words, without daring to interrupt him.
The old man continues: “My neighbours come to me and complain because they haven’t caught anything. But what can I do against the government?”. The sheikh believes the blame for the disappearance of the fish lies with the politicians. “They brought the Chinese into the country – he grumbles -. They steal our fish and make meals for their pigs while our people don’t have enough to eat”.

Coveted fishing grounds
The abundance of Mauritanian fish has sparked a craving for fishing over the last century. At first, Europeans fished off the almost 600 km-long Atlantic coast. For some years now, trawlers from all over the world have been fishing in the waters off West Africa. Most of them fly the Chinese flag. But the most lucrative business takes place on land, in factories hidden behind high walls and protected by armed guards.
In Nouadhibou which is Mauritania’s second largest city and serves as an important trading centre, some 550,000 tonnes of fish are processed into fishmeal and fish oil each year, and 130,000 tonnes of fishmeal are exported. Fishmeal is rich in protein, mainly used in fish farming, but also in animal fattening. Almost a quarter of the world’s wild fish is processed into fishmeal.

Almost a quarter of the world’s wild fish is processed into fishmeal. Photo: Swm

“There are 30 fishmeal factories in the city and another ten in southern Mauritania. It is evident that there are too many; our neighbour Morocco, which has a coastline twice as long as ours, only has ten,” says Aziz Boughourbal, managing director of Mauritanian Holding Pelagic. He goes on to say: “Although every fishmeal producer must also produce fish for consumption, most of the big fishmeal producers do not”. Boughourbal’s company has its own fishing boats but also buys from traditional dugout boats that moor in an anchorage about 80 meters from the shore. There, the fish are sucked up and pumped through a pipeline to the factory. A conveyor belt then transports the fish into cylinders where they are steamed at 95 degrees. When the sardine shoals are ready, the Boughourbal factory can ramp up production to 400 tons of sardines per day. The product is packed in phylogram bags and shipped to Japan, Russia, and the EU.

The sea smells
Most of the factories are located on a promontory behind the local fishing port. A paved road, “Fishmeal Avenue”, is lined with trucks that bring fish from the port. Eight factories are located right next to the port, where fishing boats are also repaired. “Foreigners are not welcome here. They have brought us nothing but trouble”, says boat builder Muhammed Fal. “First of all, the Chinese, who pollute the sea here with impunity”. He points to the warehouses of the Chinese SFHP fishmeal factory, hidden behind a yellow wall. From a hose coming out of the factory, the reddish and smelly water pours into the sea.
“They pour all the dirt into the bay”, Muktar Nguye tells us. The 26-year-old has just returned from fishing with his pirogue, with about two tons of mullet on board. “In the past, we rarely went home with less than six tons”, the young man says.

Chinese fishing vessels outnumber the small fishing vessels. Photo: Swm

He could get 25,000 Ouguiyas, about 600 Euros, for the catch. “I have to use it to pay for fuel and six crew”. Nguye used to fish mainly for sardines but there aren’t enough anymore, he says. Chinese fishing vessels outnumber the small fishing vessels. It’s not the competition in fishing that annoys Nguye, but the lack of respect for people and the environment: “They dump used oil, diesel and plastic residue into the water” says Nguye. “The sea stinks and the smell scares the fish away”.
He steers his dugout close to shore, where his men wait in waist-deep water with empty plastic crates on their heads. They fill them with fish and walk ashore to unload the fish onto the flatbed of an antique Peugeot 404. An hour later, Nguye’s boat is empty. He collects his money and goes home.
He lives with two older brothers, their wives, and children on the outskirts of town; the house is only half finished. Space is scarce, and each family occupies a room. “We want to add a floor – says the fisherman – but lately the fishing has been poor and we don’t have the money”.Nguye is a member of the National Fishermen’s Association (FNP), where he advocates for fishermen’s interests. Here their concerns are taken seriously. “There is a war going on out there” says FNP chairman Sid’ahmed Abeid. “We are still enduring everything, but sooner or later, the fishermen will rebel”.
Eventually, the government must intervene, he says, because the Chinese do not respect the closure periods or protected zones. “And when they are stopped, they invoke the treaties and threaten the intervention of the embassy or of their government”, he points out.
The government avoids conflict with China because the country depends on finance flowing from Beijing. Already in 2006, China and Mauritania concluded a cooperation agreement. As a result, the Chinese have financed about 40 projects across the country, including the international airport and the new foreign ministry.

A Chinese world of its own
In Nouadhibou, the Chinese have been living in a parallel universe for years. Except in their factories, they have almost no contact with the locals. On the main road, there are numerous shops selling items imported from China.
There are a dozen Chinese restaurants in the city that also serve beer, vodka and the Chinese liquor called baijiu, despite Sharia laws.
Most Chinese travel to Mauritania to make money. After a few years, they return to China or move on to another African country.

Many locals are unhappy with the privileges the central government has granted to China. Photo: Swm

Many locals are unhappy with the privileges the central government has granted to China’s Poly Hong Dong fishmeal factory, for example, which has close ties to the Chinese People’s Army. It obtained the license to produce fishmeal under undisclosed conditions. It was allowed to build its own fish farm directly across from the factory. The Chinese company owes this permission to its local partner who does business with the presidential family. In Mauritania, foreign factories must have a local partner because foreigners are not allowed to buy or lease land. Local companies lease the land and take part of the profits – a business that could hardly be more lucrative.

Lawless spaces
“The factories have powerful local backers,” says Malum Obet. A high school teacher who is part of a popular group that reports violations by fishmeal factories. The group conducted an investigation and found that only three Nouadhibou producers are complying with the law. No Chinese factories were among them. Obet says, “The Chinese are poisoning the population and treating their workers like slaves. Although the law requires it, many workers do not have a contract. As day laborers, they sometimes work 16-hour days, with no additional pay. Nevertheless, many people queue up for work because there are no other jobs in the area”.

An industrial zone is planned to be built 60 kilometres north of the capital where new Chinese fishmeal factories are to be built. Photo: Swm

The government of President Mohamed Ould Ghazouanie, by and large, keeps out of the conflict. Mohamed Salem Louly, the adviser to the fisheries minister, says they are aware of the danger of overfishing.
For this reason, the ministry, together with the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries Research, has determined the catch levels at which stocks can grow sustainably. On this basis, quotas were set well below the critical limits.The reality is different because the Coast Guard lacks the money for patrolling. And the situation could get worse. An industrial zone is planned to be built 60 kilometres north of the capital where new Chinese fishmeal factories are to be built.
In Nouamghar, people can feel the effects of the crisis. “Young people are leaving the village because there is not enough work”, said Sheikh Muhammed Biram. “Some are trying to emigrate to Europe”. His children are also waiting for an opportunity to leave. Some friends have tried to reach the Canary Islands in a wooden boat, crossing the Atlantic for 1,000 kilometres. But not all of them arrived safely.

Andrzej Rybak/Kontinente

Music. King Ayisoba.

Friday, 1 September 2023 8:00

Kolongo is a musical genre that takes its name from a two-stringed lute of the Frafra ethnic group, between Burkina Faso and Ghana. Among its main performers is King Ayisoba, a Ghanaian musician.
The artist has just released Work Hard, one of the best African
albums of recent years.

In Africa there is one great family of musical instruments ranging from one to five strings, with a handle and a wooden sound box or consisting of a half gourd, on the open side of which a skin is stretched: with various names, they range – just to give a few examples – from the guembri of the Gnaoua of Morocco to the tidinit of Mauritania, from the Ngoni of Mali to the xalam of Senegal, and much further afield in the continent. Instruments that have travelled extensively in time and space: traces of them can be found in the paintings of ancient Egypt and the slave trade brought them to the other side of the Atlantic. It is probably to instruments of this kind that the origin of the American banjo must be traced. In his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), Thomas Jefferson, later the third president of the United States, speaks of “the banjar, which they (the slaves) brought from Africa.”

The kologo also belongs to this family. It is made with a half gourd as a soundbox and has two strings that were traditionally cow veins and today are made of nylon; one string is high and one low, and the tuning of the instrument is not fixed, but is related to the scale in which the player sings. The kologo is typical of the Frafra ethnic group that settled between southern Burkina Faso and northern Ghana.
In the northeastern region of Ghana, the kologo is at the centre of a music phenomenon that is not confined to a purely traditional dimension and is anything but residual.
The protagonists are musicians who have often learned to play the instrument by themselves, generally in early adolescence if not in childhood; many pieces are performed only with voice and kologo, others also with percussion and with instruments such as the flute.
The singing is generally rather ‘shouted’, with peremptory and often harsh voices, and the lyrics are sometimes in Frafra and sometimes in pidgin English.Pulsating and engaging, even when it remains totally acoustic, the music is extremely dynamic and modern and has achieved great popularity, so much so that it acts as a counterweight on the national scene to the most popular modern genres such as hip-hop,
R&B and Afrobeat.

There are dozens of competent interpreters and there is no shortage of stars. One of these is King Ayisoba, who has also given impetus – not only for his own benefit – to the international circulation of this music. He is behind the initiative of a beautiful anthology called ‘This Is Kologo Power!’ with recordings by various artists mostly made in Accra, a compilation edited by Zea of the historic Dutch punk group The Ex and released in 2016 by the Amsterdam label Makkum Records. Compared to the very free-range examples of kologo offered by this collection, we have the slightly more elaborate, but nonetheless uncompromising, musical integrity of King Ayisoba’s album 1000 Can Die, produced by Zea and released in 2017 by a very prominent label in the field of world music, the very active Glitterbeat. Alongside completely acoustic songs, there are also others with a calibrated use of electronics and some by guest artists, including the Ghanaian rapper and producer M3nsa, and two historical figures (both of whom have since passed away) such as the Jamaican producer and singer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and the Nigerian saxophonist Orlando Julius.

Glitterbeat has now released a new album by King Ayisoba, Work Hard, which offers an interesting evolution of his music: again, Zea has a hand in it but the substance is decidedly Ghanaian. The context is evidently that of the kologo as a genre, even if in Work Hard it is not so much the kologo as an instrument that is in the foreground, but – on the pressing and sometimes hypnotic bases of percussion, including electronic ones – a formidable variety of voices, in an assortment of expressive scales. The voices are often hoarse and with something grotesque or mocking, voices that articulate in a rhythmic, shouting and scathing manner, female and falsetto voices, children’s voices and voices in chorus, all in a very vital and dynamic game, full of humour and corrosive spirit, the result of an orchestration in which great musical talent is intertwined with a wise sense of ‘theatrical’ staging. The language is almost always Frafra, and the themes are not taken for granted: in Bossi Labome, for example, King Ayisoba points out the difference in treatment depending on whether adultery is committed by a woman, a reason for reprobation, or by a man, even a reason to boast.
It is very difficult today to have a clear perception of the mosaic of music which in Africa has an effective vivaciousness and strong roots in specific areas: to compose it would take many albums such as the highly enjoyable This Is Kologo Power! which had the merit of providing us with a sample of his music. King Ayisoba’s Work Hard is one of the best and most original African albums of recent years: This Is Kologo Power! It allows you to listen to Work Hard placing it in a context, and to understand the musical texture that nourished its creativity. (Photos: CCA -Share Alike 3.0/ Schorle)

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