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Books. Summer Reading.

Three interesting books for this summer.

Why is Africa still perceived as a country when there are around 2,000 languages spoken on the continent alone?
The book It’s a Continent seeks to counter the misconception that Africa is a country by breaking down this vast, beautiful and complex continent into regions and countries.
Each of the 54 African countries has a unique history and culture, and this book highlights the key historical moments that have shaped each nation and contributed to its global position, as well as within the African continent. Each chapter (focusing on a different country) of the book brings to light stories and African figures that have been marginalised in mainstream education, in a humorous and easily-digestible format, breaking down facts and events that you wouldn’t believe happened.

Why is the Liberian flag so similar to the Stars and Stripes of the United States? Have you heard about Thomas Sankara’s quest for Burkina Faso’s self-sufficiency? African soldiers’ contribution to World War II? There are many aspects of history that mainstream education doesn’t address, and this book allows the reader to understand the consequences of historical colonial activities within the African Continent, and how many African countries continue to re-build. The majority of countries within the continent are young, not just in population but in age, as many only gained independence in the 20th Century.
It’s a Continent is the bold and brilliant book for readers who want to gain an understanding of things you were never taught in school.
Astrid Madimba was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and grew up in the UK. She studies at University of Exeter. It’s a Continent is her first book. Chinny is British-Nigerian and studies at the University of Southampton. Her previous work has featured in publications including gal-dem and Black Ballad. It’s a Continent is Chinny’s first book.
It’s A Continent, Unravelling Africa’s History one Country At A Time, Astrid Madimba & Chinny Ukata, Coronet, 2022, London, 332 pages.
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In 1974, the Nigerian government asked the British Museum to loan back an object that had been looted from the country more than seven decades earlier. That object, an ivory mask that once belonged to royalty in the Kingdom of Benin, depicts Idia, a queen active during the 16th century, and though it is cracked in parts, it retains its nearly unparalleled beauty. On its website, the British Museum calls the work “among the most enduring and emotive examples of the representation of women in Benin court art.”

“It’s a small thing, only twenty-three centimetres long, but I can’t look at it without feeling moved,” writes Barnaby Phillips in his new book Loot: Britain and the Benin Bronzes, a deep dive into the story of the Benin Bronzes. “The queen’s eyes are dark, inset with iron pupils and lids of bronze, making a lovely contrast with the aged ivory. She has a haunting feminine beauty.” It made sense that Nigerians wanted the mask to act as a mascot for a festival known as FESTAC ’77, a celebration of the continent’s culture. The British Museum rejected their plea “on conservation grounds,” claiming that the humidity in Nigeria would damage the work. In other words, the climate in which the mask was originally made would, in the eyes of the British, prove too hostile for it. Today, it is still housed by the British Museum, which has owned it since 1910.
Taken by British soldiers in 1897, these works, collectively known as the Benin Bronzes (though many are also crafted from ivory and brass), are held in institutions around the globe. Calls for their return are reaching a fever pitch, with Germany vowing to start sending back its Benin Bronzes next year. If these protests are relatively new among Europeans and Americans, they are old in Nigeria, where politicians, museum directors, artists, and local citizens have long pointed to the plundering of these works as a sign of colonialism’s long-term impacts on the region.But rarely have books like Loot focused so in-depth on the perspectives of Africans. As Loot makes clear, Nigerians have had a lot to say about the Benin Bronzes.
The ‘Benin Bronzes’ are amongst the most admired and valuable artworks in the world. But seeing them in the British Museum today is, in the words of one Benin City artist, like ‘visiting relatives behind bars’. In a time of huge controversy about the legacy of empire, racial justice and the future of museums, what does the future hold for the Bronzes?
Barnaby Phillips spent over twenty-five years as a journalist, reporting for the BBC from Mozambique, Angola, Nigeria and South Africa before joining Al Jazeera English. He is the author of Another Man’s War: The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain’s Forgotten African Army and Loot: Britain and the Benin Bronzes. He grew up in Kenya and now lives in London.
Loot, Britain and the Benin Bronzes, Barnard Phillips, OneWorld, 2021, London, 385 pages.
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This is a frantic, mystical journey through Africa’s biggest metropolis: Lagos. Going beyond the popular images of mad traffic or crowded slums, we learn of the incredible feats Lagosians pull off to survive their broken-down city, and the secret enabling them to cope with the chaos and precarity of Nigeria’s most populous centre: spirituality.
A female street fighter in a male-dominated mafia extortion business.

Two powerful chiefs locked in a deadly feud over billion-dollar real estate. An oil tycoon who gambles her fortune on televangelists’ prophecies. A rubbish scavenger dreaming of a reggae career.
A fisherman’s son trying to save Makoko, the ‘floating slum’, from demolition. A priestess to a river goddess selling sand to feed Lagos’s construction boom.
Belief in unseen forces unites these figures, as does their commitment to worshipping them–at shrines, in mosques and in churches.
In this extraordinary city, Tim Cocks uncovers something universal about human nature in the face of danger and high uncertainty: our tendency to place faith in a realm beyond.
Tim Cocks is a British-born journalist of South African parentage. Currently based in Johannesburg, he was formerly Reuters West & Central Africa bureau chief, based in Dakar, following four years in Lagos as Nigeria bureau chief. He holds an MA in Philosophy & Theology from the University of Oxford.
Lagos, Supernatural City, Tim Cocks, Hurst & Company, London 2022, 298 pages

(Open photo: 123rf.com)

Reflection. Daily Marys.

In the Central Latin-American tradition, devotion is strong to Our Lady with the child Jesus in her arms. The people have made it their duty in their daily life.

The image of Our Lady among the people leads us to contemplate how motherhood is lived-in working-class quarters inhabited by people with indigenous cultures or other backgrounds. In this reality, motherhood has not only an individual meaning but represents a specific social condition of being a woman. The women in communities or neighbourhoods feel responsible for the education and growth of children while respecting the primary responsibility of mothers.

Pregnant women are taken care of by the women of the neighbourhood; for example, the neighbours who sell fruit on the street invite them to choose what they want, thus helping them to find some relief from their possible illnesses.
Cousins, aunts and women friends go to help them with chores and housework. This is what we read in Luke 1:39-56, telling of Mary going to visit her relative Elizabeth, creating a deep bond before the birth of John and Jesus.
When a baby is born, the neighbours, called ‘the Marys’, visit the mother with gifts for the new-born child and food for the mother. When the child begins to grow, the mother goes to introduce him to the neighbours who looked after her during pregnancy: the grocer who sent fruit, the baker woman, the neighbour … all of these are participants in this common style of accompaniment of children until adulthood. “It will always be our wawa” (our child), say the family friends who, once they become elderly, continue to take care of their adult protégé.

This typically female educational method, exercised in common, includes being careful to protect the child, words of encouragement, help by way of food, support in school as well as a gentle reminder when there is inappropriate conduct.
It often happens, therefore, that boys or adolescents ask for help from aunts or older cousins in school commitments, or exchange the products of their gardens with their neighbours. In this way, these so-called ‘Daily Marys’ create an educational system that avoids, as far as possible, the abuse of the child who is being educated and later, when the child becomes an adult, the necessary attention is maintained to avoid unjust or dangerous situations affecting the person they have helped to educate.

In short, this is an experience of human ecology, a network of communion (Laudato si’ 148). This path of community education is mentioned in Laudato si’ at number 156 which reads: ‘Human ecology is inseparable from the notion of the common good, a principle that plays a central and unifying role in social ethics. It is all those conditions of social life together that allow both groups and individual members to reach their own perfection more fully and more speedily’.
Mary, the Mother of God, is an integral part of this educational method followed by the women of the working-class neighbourhoods, since in the same way that she holds her Son in her embrace, so, together with him, she also supports all the children of the world.

Tania Ávila Meneses

 

 

Towards the 2023 Synod. The Challenge of Listening.

‘Listening’ means taking on board the new geometry of the Church: circular, horizontal, ‘multifaceted’, decentralised, itinerant, and non-static, with a centre of gravity beyond its boundaries…

The synodal journey, in the intention of Pope Francis, is a call to renew our being Church, through a method of profound listening to the joys and hopes, sadness and anxieties of the men of our time, as the conciliar pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes says. Walking together presupposes courage, honesty, truth, and charity, as well as openness to conversion and change.
Moreover, this is also what the pope had asked of the bishops and all those who had gathered for the special synod on the Amazon: “What I expect from the Church in this synod: that she is silent and, first of all, in an attentive and prolonged manner, devote herself to listening”.

Pope Francis had already outlined in the apostolic constitution Episcopalis Communio, in 2018, a new praxis for the celebration of the assemblies of the synod of bishops: ordinary, extraordinary or special synods. It defines the Church as ‘constitutively synodal’, in a journey of preparation by stages that begins by listening to the people of God, continues by listening to the pastors and culminates in listening to the bishop of Rome, called to pronounce himself, as pastor and teacher of all Christians. And in a spirit of prayer, he added: “For the Synod, we ask the Holy Spirit first of all for the gift of listening: listening to God, to the point of hearing with him the cry of the people, and listening to the people, to the point of breathing in them the will of God who calls us”.

The teaching of Pope Francis
The dimension of listening is a constitutive aspect of the theological and pastoral teaching of Pope Francis, which in the encyclical Laudato Si’ found its most complete expression in the invitation to listen to creation and care for all creatures. Francis teaches that it is definitely time to abandon the disordered anthropocentrism that has brought us to the level of destruction we have reached. There is no longer only our voice, which gives names to all things, as Adam did.

It is time to listen to the voice of creatures, of each of them, so that they may tell us their names and suggest their rhythms and principles of life. This radically changes our attitudes. What would a diocesan pastoral plan be like, for example, in the construction of which priority attention was given to the cry of creation? Our rereading of Genesis can also find an echo in broader readings of other biblical passages that are among the cornerstones of our spiritual references. We could proclaim: “I have come so that everything may have life”; or recall in a more open key the classic passage of Exodus: “I have heard the cry of my people and of my creatures and I have come down to free them”. It is not a question of poor puns, or Biblical irreverence, but of offering popular spirituality symbolic elements that broaden the depth of revelation. There is therefore a close link between synodality and listening.

Listening, however, is also a question of position. I remember that before the synod on the Amazon I was surprised by some communities in Amazonian regions, when a priest, or the bishop himself, arrived during the consultation process in preparation for the synod. They sat down and, perhaps for the first time, instead of imparting formation, giving information or instructions, they paid attention to what the communities had to say. Listening is affirming a new geometry of the Church: circular, horizontal, ‘multifaceted’, decentralized, itinerant and not static, with the centre of gravity outside of itself … This only works if our listening is able to get out of the mould, to distance ourselves from what we would like to hear, or from people who, for various reasons, always tell us what we want to hear confirmed. Therefore, it is essential to dare to listen to the different, the excluded, those who are silenced, even when it is uncomfortable.
This synodal spirit starts from those who are below, from the problems of daily life; it dialogues with different spiritualities, especially ‘those that a false spiritualist pride has excluded or forgotten’.

Silence, first of all
It is clear that our listening skills are ill. In this sense, it is very symbolic that the last healing gesture of Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke (22,51), is precisely the healing of the ear of a servant of the high priest, cut off by the violent reaction of a companion of the Master. Immediately afterwards, the Word of God brings with it a series of episodes in which the inability to listen is evident: Peter with the servant in the courtyard of the high priest, the trial in the Sanhedrin, the dialogue with Pilate, the questions of Herod… The first evidence, in the diagnosis of this disease of ours, is that in order to listen one must be silent. In other words, we must decolonize our relationships: admitting that the encounter can reveal something new… that we don’t have the whole truth… that we don’t have the fanatical mission of convincing the other.
There is a great challenge in contemporary society that is educated to listen selectively and in the harmful reinforcement of the ideas of those who are in the same ‘bubble’.

A possible therapy, faced with this explicit option for deafness, would be the exercise of listening to the distant, the different, the little ones; taking a position of empathy, which does not mean relativizing one’s own beliefs, or adapting to those of the other, but trying to understand the reasons, feelings and fears of the interlocutor. Whenever possible, we must not offer ready-made answers as a frontal alternative but rather raise questions, arouse curiosity, and provoke study.
The Covid-19 pandemic has put the entire planet to the test. Many have defined it as an opportunity to overcome banality, recognize our existential weakness and deepen the mystical dimension, which is the ability to be surprised, in radical amazement, and ask ourselves:
‘Why are we here?’.

Existence is not a right that belongs to us, we are guests… Lastly, listening has to do with the truth. Our ability to listen is inversely proportional to our belief that we know and possess the truth. In Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti, truth is defined as “the search for the most solid foundations that underlie our choices” (208).
In John’s Gospel (cf. 14: 6) the truth is found on the journey and in life, exactly like a search, a collective and progressive discovery, a thirsty journey that never ends. In line with this metaphor, it is worth asking what would be a symbol capable of representing our faith, made up of relationships with God and with others; it might be more like an empty jar than a baptismal font.

Dario Bossi

 

Colombia. The Challenges of the New President.

The Colombian presidential election showed a clear victory for the centre-left candidate Gustavo Petro. Although it was by only 3 points, it is a difference that avoids the disputes that would have arisen if it had been closer.  It should be noted that the winning candidate, in the days before the election, mentioned the possibility of fraud.

It is an attitude that is becoming generalized in the American continent, as shown by United States politics with the position maintained by Trump after his defeat and the one that President Jair Bolsonaro is assuming because of which he could suffer.

The map of Colombia shows two clearly differentiated regions. The territories with coasts on the sea, whether the Pacific or the Caribbean, gave the victory to the winning candidate.

On the other hand, in those in the centre of the country, the defeated candidate, Rodolfo Hernández, won, with the exception of Bogotá, the capital, where Petro won even though it is located in the centre of the country. The urban vote – the violent social protests that the country suffered between 2019 and 2021 took place in this area – showed a predominance of the winning centre-left candidate, and instead the rural vote and that of the small towns turned in favour of Hernández, who, as an anti-political candidate was beginning to be perceived as the lesser evil by the traditional political system, which has been
the big loser in this election.

None of the factions into which the traditional structure of liberals and conservatives was divided reached the second round. This does not mean that its political and economic power has disappeared, and it will try to resist the changes that Petro will seek to impose.

His victory ratifies the electoral triumph of the centre-left that has been taking place in South America since the end of 2019. Then, in the Argentine presidential election, the formula composed by Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner prevailed. The second Bolivian presidential election followed in 2020 – the first that took place at the end of 2019, led to an institutional crisis due to allegations of fraud against Evo Morales – which was won by his own party with the Luis Arce-David Choquehuanca ticket.

In 2021, Pedro Castillo won the Peruvian presidential election and in early 2022, Gabriel Boric won that which took place in Chile. The exceptions were Uruguay at the beginning of 2020 and Ecuador in 2021, where two centre-right presidents won: Luis Lacalle Pou and Guillermo Lasso. But the fact that will consolidate the shift to the centre-left is if, in October 2022, former President Lula prevails in Brazil over President Jair Bolsonaro, who is running for his re-election.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro has been consolidated with an improvement in the economy and the reduction of the sanctions ordered by the Biden Administration. This trend distances the region from the United States, as evidenced at the IX Summit of Presidents of the Americas. Petro’s triumph – which he believed would modify his country’s marked alignment with Washington in terms of security – generated the enthusiasm of the Puebla Group, which brought together the ‘progressive’ leaders of the region, and expressions of approval by the Venezuelan regime.

Petro’s great challenge will now be governability in the face of misgivings and doubts from Washington, the business community, the Armed Forces, and the remnants of traditional politics. These have disappeared as a political option for power, but they maintain a significant number of legislators, with the ability to condition the Petro government, which would only have a third of the seats (the Parliament was elected months before the presidential election).

As for the right-wing populist Rodolfo Hernández, who joins the Senate, he will have only a handful of legislators, given that at the time they were elected, he was a candidate for whom less than 10% intended to vote. The markets show signs of mistrust and demand that Petro provides guarantees that give stability and reduce risks. But the other great challenge will be the issue of security – chronic in Colombia – which has been present for more than half a century and has not been resolved by the demobilization agreement with the FARC – the most important guerrilla group that has operated in the country – achieved by
former President Santos.

The National Liberation Army (ELN), the other guerrilla group that refused to participate in the peace accords, would agree to dialogue with the Petro government. But the reality today is more complex. The FARC dissidents that have rejected the peace agreement have a strong presence on the border with Venezuela and are linked to organized crime. Drug trafficking has spread and has taken over other activities, such as illegal mining. Paramilitary groups continue to be active and linked to organized crime.

Governability is not only a challenge for Colombia but also extends to other countries. In Bolivia, a political crisis has broken out within the ruling party over the presidential candidacy. President Luis Arce promotes his vice president, David Choquehuanca, as the ruling party’s candidate. The former President, Evo Morales, for his part, is seeking re-election, confronting both and putting governability at risk with the division of the ruling party in Congress.

In Peru, President Pedro Castillo does not have a majority in Congress, his party is divided, and he suffers from repeated allegations of corruption that put his permanence in power at risk due to the Peruvian constitutional system, which allows two-thirds of Congress to remove the President for ‘moral incompetence’.

In Chile, President Boric does not have a majority in Congress and faces growing criticism from the most radical wing of his coalition. Economic problems, social demands, union conflicts in the copper industry, and the violence of the Mapuche indigenous minority in the south of the country complicate governance.

But this problem also occurs in a centre-right government like that of Ecuador which, without a majority in Congress, faces growing protests in the streets, led by indigenous organizations that have caused the fall of several governments in the past. There are antecedents that allow us to measure the type of challenge that Petro will face. But they also show the existence of a regional problem.

Rosendo Fraga/Nueva Mayoria

Africa.Conquering Space.

Adopt a common political space strategy. Develop a constellation of satellites ‘made in Africa’ capable of guaranteeing independence in collecting data. Create a system of space policy by creating a system of governance. These are some of the goals of the African Union
in the field of space.

The advance of the technological revolution, whose progress was helped by the Covid 19 pandemic, is significantly affecting the internal and international balances of states. Great strides have also been made in the field of aerospace, to the point of leading some scholars to affirm that this will be the era of great space expansion. This is true if we consider that the new great powers – above all China – are adequately equipped to conquer this new frontier which is now one of the fundamental factors of the economies of the most advanced nations: proof of this is
growing financial investment. Even in the war in Ukraine, space infrastructures are playing an important role by enabling the Ukrainians to hinder the Russian advance thanks to their capillary observation through satellites of the crisis territories on which the battalions move as well as their strategic infrastructure.

123rf.com

The development of activities related to the space sector is also having a positive impact by generating a new economy. In this regard, we see effects related to satellite navigation, or the famous GPS (today we also have Galileo and GLONASS), which is becoming one of the indisputable assets of the superpowers aiming to have a satellite constellation linked to navigation and observation of the Earth. It is clear that in this new development process, the effects of which we may equate to those produced by the industrial revolution, the countries that will employ more resources in the innovation sectors will play a leading role in future geo-economic and geopolitical scenarios.
Space science is also extensively contributing to the realization of sustainable development processes. In this regard, we have only to consider the benefits that derive from it in terms of resource management from Earth observation through the acquisition of data relating to chemical and biological composition.

123rf.com

Within this context, the African Union (AU) also intended to carve out its own space as early as 2015 when the 2063 Agenda was adopted. This is a document that, in tracing the strategic framework for the continent over future years, through initiatives in the field of economic development, political integration (we are talking about the creation of a federation or confederation of African states), the improvement of justice and democracy, also highlighted ambitions in the space sector.
This sector, in fact, could represent for Africa a useful development flywheel capable of responding to the needs of the continent, as well as encouraging technological innovation processes useful for guaranteeing a series of services whose access is still denied to a large percentage of the African population.
Indeed, the actions implemented in the space sector began to take their first steps in 2013 when the AU Commission assembled a group of experts whose purpose was to elaborate a strategy capable of creating a structure for the development and the operation of initiatives in this area but, above all, to build a long-term vision, within which to allow the public sector to dialogue with the private sector. There was already a consolidated awareness of the importance of space for achieving socio-economic objectives, managing crises resulting from natural disasters, monitoring climate change, marine activities and resources, conflicts, the spread of diseases and much more. This awareness constituted a solid basis for the conclusion of the first phase of the process which resulted in the adoption of the African space strategy and policy, presented in January 2016, whose main objective was to create a perimeter of rules that, in addition to ensuring the promotion of the agenda, would ensure that Africa aligns itself with international treaties.

123rf.com

This is also important given the fact that, in the space sector, in addition to the principle of competition between powers, that of cooperation also applies. We could, in fact, argue that space by its very nature is cooperation and competition. It is cooperation because it is right that certain processes of a scientific nature are developed in synergy; while it is competition because the economic dimension is involved.
Among the main objectives indicated in the strategic agenda of the African Union is the promotion of intra-continental partnerships, the development of a considerable African space industry and the development of a constellation of ‘made in Africa’ ​​satellites useful for guaranteeing its own independence in the data collection. In addition, work is under way on the creation of a space policy implementation system through the creation of a system of governance. However, the achievement of this objective is not immediate both due to lack of funds and the institutional complexities due to the instability of some countries and the difficulties associated with the implementation of Commission communications at the national level and the creation of a coordination structure capable of operating both vertically and horizontally.

Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)

To date, it is reported that over 20 countries have reached remarkable levels in the development of space programs and 8 of these have launched about 40 satellites into orbit. But, certainly, the greatest of the achievements to date is represented by the launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 13, 2022, of the first satellite constellation, of three nanosatellites, entirely designed and developed in Africa at Cape Peninsula University of Technology on a SpaceX vector. This is a truly remarkable result which places the research sector already on an advanced level. This constellation, nicknamed MDASat (Marine Domain Awareness), will have the task of collecting data to monitor the portion of the sea corresponding to the exclusive economic zone and so strengthen the protection of South Africa’s marine resources. The milestone reached by South Africa has its roots in the path that the country has followed since the 1950s, attaining important milestones over the course of these decades, including the construction of the first satellite in the early 1990s and the establishment, in 1995, of the South African Council for Space Affairs (SACSA) whose goal is the implementation of the South African space policy.
These signals clearly indicate the progress that the continent is making in the space sector, also due to the efforts made by the African Union. Such progress, if governed and directed well, could produce ground-breaking effects, and lead the continent towards sustainable development by activating important transformations of which the first beneficiaries could be precisely the countries currently living in a considerable state of poverty. (Open Photo: 123rf.com)

Filippo Romeo

 

 

 

 

 

Music. Houeida Hedfi. In the Rivers of the Soul.

Sounds with an unmistakably Arabian and Middle Eastern flavour, the sort of music that passionately involves those who hear it.

There are masterpieces that germinate far from the great circuits of the music business and pop up where you least expect them. This is the case of Fleuves de l’Âme by the Tunisian musician Houeida Hedfi. ‘Rivers of the Soul’ really, in the form of sounds with an unmistakably Arabian and Middle Eastern flavour, but at the same time usable and lovable even by ears not very accustomed to this type of sound.
Rivers of notes that flow from ancestral sources, but with the energy of contemporaneity, without forgetting that the word immediately evokes water, understood both as a vital element and a dynamic flow that often starts as light as a whisper and then grows to roar, and again softens into a peaceful flow. That is how it is also for Houeida and her music immersed in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean sauces.

Photo: PIAS

Fleuves de l’Âme, which took almost ten years of work – put together between Tunisia, France, and the Berlin studio of the well-known producer Dreijer – is an entirely instrumental album where each track includes the name of a river in the title. With the percussion to the fore, supporting arabesques of strings and piano and the flickering sounds of the bouzouki, the three-stringed mandolin dearly loved throughout the Middle East, is evident. Certainly, one of the most intense and exciting albums among those released in 2021 as part of the evergreen world music. A mix of avant-garde and folk, classical and minimalist music, interrupted melodies and intricate rhythms, something that cannot be heard in passing, music that challenges the attention and the mind.
An even more relevant work, if we consider that it is the debut of a 25-year-old musician. Houeida Hedfi is a multi-instrumentalist with a background as an economist; she cut her teeth in a band called Chabbouba, and first entered the record markets in 2011, appearing in a compilation of Tunisian artists. She is now based in Paris, a vital pole of multi-ethnic planetary pop for decades. But her heart and music continue to be above all in her native land and her cultural roots.

Photo: 123rf.com

Especially since, for Tunisians, music is of fundamental importance, as it accompanies and marks the salient moments of everyone’s public and private life: weddings, baptisms, birthdays, and popular celebrations; and the songs related to the various events are often handed down from generation to generation. The typical musical instruments of Tunisia are the tabl, a barrel-shaped drum, and the zukrah, a kind of bagpipe.
Artistically Houeida was enchanted by the stambali, a religiously inspired dance (the belly is seen as a symbol of fertility) characterized by hypnotic percussive rhythms, but her hunger for melodies soon led her to a more varied stylistic hypothesis that mixes modernity and tradition, ancient instruments and electronics, classical echoes, and pop modernisms.
Fleuves de l’Âme is a splendid example of this, as well as a perfect promotional spot for a country that, despite its troubles, continues to represent an essential piece of Mediterranean culture. (Photo: SoundCloud)

Franz Coriasco

Sri Lanka. What next?

At the height of the numerous protests that have swept through Sri Lanka over the past 4 months, a crowd of protesters stormed the presidential palace in the capital Colombo, forcing President
Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee.
Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is elected as the ninth President via a parliamentarian election. Uncertain future.

On Saturday 9 July, on board a military plane, President Rajapaksa headed first to the Maldives and then to Singapore where he resigned in front of the Sri Lanka ambassador on 15 July. On July 20, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the ninth President via a parliamentarian election.

He won the election with backing of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party (SLPP) which had the most seats in parliament. Wickremesinghe is due to serve for the rest of Rajapaksa’s term, until November 2024. However, there are concerns his election signals an unstable future for Sri Lankan politics, with protesters vowing to unseat him just as they did Rajapaksa.

The institutional crisis in Sri Lanka was triggered by the collapse of the economic system. Totally dependent on foreign countries, in the early months of 2022, the island found itself without the currency reserves necessary to pay for imports of essential goods such as food,
oil and medicines.

The collapse of reserves is mainly linked to the decrease in remittances from abroad, which have reached their lowest levels since 2012, and to the crisis in the tourism sector caused by the pandemic and the deterioration of security conditions following the Easter 2019 attacks claimed by the National Thowheeth Jama’ath – a local Islamist group affiliated with ISIS – which caused about 270 victims and
over 500 injured.

The controversial policies promoted by the Rajapaksa brothers, characterized by poor strategic vision, contributed to aggravating the structural problems of the Sri Lankan economy. In particular, the reduction in taxes and the cut of about 7 percentage points in VAT, which went from 15 to 8%, approved by the government in November 2019 to boost domestic consumption, contributed to the deterioration of the macroeconomic situation.

In fact, thanks to the pandemic and lockdowns, the tax cut has produced a drastic reduction in overall revenue that has weakened the country and paved the way for rating agencies to downgrade. Even the recent decision by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to devalue the rupee, aimed at the government’s intentions to attract remittances and investments, ended up favouring a surge in inflation which reached 54.6% on an annual basis in June. Even an innovative measure such as the ban on the use of chemical fertilizers has proved short-sighted to the test of facts, causing a drop in crop yields of up to 60% in the central-northern districts of the country.

At international level, the end of the Rajapaksa era could translate into a gradual downsizing of the Chinese presence in Sri Lanka. The strong ties between Colombo and Beijing date back to the years of post-civil war reconstruction and have evolved due to the diplomatic action and political choices of the Rajapaksa. Subsequently, the inclusion of Sri Lanka in the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the maritime chapter of the New Silk Road, favoured Chinese penetration into the economic system of the island.

Over time, Beijing’s attention has turned to strategic infrastructures with investments useful to realize the Colombo Port City Project, funded by China Harbour Engineering, or the construction of the Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa port, commonly known as Hambatota, built thanks to the funds of the EXIM Bank of China and then sold under management to Beijing due to Colombo’s inability to honour the loans.

Overall, Chinese investments in infrastructure on the island amounted to about 12.1 billion dollars between 2006 and 2019, years in which, except for the parenthesis linked to the electoral defeat of 2015, the Rajapaksa dominated the political life of the island.

China’s economic commitment in Sri Lanka has sparked a wide debate on the real impact of investments and the island’s ability to cope with its debts, at the risk of ending up in the so-called “debt trap”. While, on the one hand, the ongoing crisis poses challenges to relations between China and Sri Lanka, on the other it seems to present an opportunity for Narendra Modi’s India. In fact, in a revival of what happened at the end of the civil war in 2009, Sri Lanka needs the help of the main regional players, namely India and China, and international financial institutions.

In this context, in the face of the lukewarm reaction from Beijing, Delhi has shown itself to be particularly reactive in wanting to support the island. In a short time, India has pledged about $ 4 billion in loans, credit lines and currency swaps, in order to guarantee Sri Lanka the purchase of basic necessities. Overall, Delhi has shown that it wants to take advantage of the space left momentarily by Beijing to turn the crisis into an opportunity. The goal is to regain lost ground in a country that fully falls within the priorities of the Indian neighbourhood strategy called “Neighbourhood First”.

Despite invaluable Indian support, Sri Lanka’s future remains tied to the support of international financial institutions such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
While the former is providing the island with the necessary liquidity to buy gas and fertilizers, the IMF can offer Colombo a structural solution to overcome the crisis.

For this reason, negotiations have been underway for months between the Washington-based institution and the island which should end with the activation of the Extended Fund Facility, the IMF tool useful for resolving medium-long term imbalances in the balance of payments. However, negotiations are also progressing slowly due to the inability of the Sri Lankan political class to implement the agreed reforms.

Although IMF support for the island is not new, the negotiations over recent weeks could take on a broader political significance. In fact, Sri Lanka recently, on the basis of what has been done by other regional players such as India, contacted Russia in an attempt to obtain oil at a discounted price.

This move, in addition to fully inserting the island in the wider diplomatic competition underway between the West and Moscow, could incentivize the IMF to accelerate the closing of the deal. For its part, however, Sri Lanka must find a quick solution to the institutional crisis so as to be a credible interlocutor in the eyes of the Fund.

The current crisis, therefore, could impact on Sri Lanka’s international and regional positioning. At the moment, China does not seem interested in playing a central role in the affairs of the country and this leaves open a space that India could try to exploit. In this context, the flight of President Rajapaksa to the Maldives, a country historically close to Delhi, also signals the central role played by the subcontinent in this phase. In addition to the competition between India and China, there is the increasingly important role of international financial institutions which represent the only lifeline for a sinking country.

However, in the short term, Sri Lanka does not seem capable of resolving the severe economic crisis. The momentary lack of an internationally recognized political leadership, in fact, deprives the IMF of interlocutors and prevents the reaching of an agreement that appears for the moment only postponed. In the absence of a sudden change of policy by Beijing in the coming months, it is possible to foresee an expansion of Indian influence in Sri Lanka that would partially rewrite the balance in the Indo-Pacific. Any repositioning of the island, however, would be fragile as it is essentially linked to necessity rather than a clear strategic choice.

Moreover, in the long run, China is unlikely to abandon its assets in the country entirely after years of political and economic investment. In light of what has been described, it is possible to imagine that Sri Lanka will turn into one of the main theatres of the clash between Delhi and Beijing in which the effectiveness and prospects of their respective regional strategies will be measured. (Photo:123rf.com)

Tiziano Marino/CeSI

Nollywood in Netflix Sauce.

The Blood Sisters miniseries has disembarked on Netflix. Filmed during the pandemic by Biyi Bandele (Half of a Yellow Sun, Fifty) and Kenneth Gyang (Òlòtūré, Confusion Na Wa) and produced by EbonyLife Studios, the 4-episode miniseries has already found considerable success both in Nigeria as well as in the UK and the United States.

The story begins with the luxurious celebrations for the engagement of Sarah, a sweet and beautiful girl of humble origins, and Kola, a powerful manager of a pharmaceutical company. The party, however, is upset by the death of Kola who, after neutralizing the killer sent by her older brother, is killed (in self-defence) by Kemi, Sarah’s best friend.
To escape the police and the revenge of the powerful Kola family, the two women hide in the slums of Lagos waiting for an opportunity to leave the country. During their escape, the two protagonists must defend themselves from greedy and violent characters. The foremost of these is the mother of Kola, head of the family, linked by an ambiguous relationship with her favourite son Kola.
She is as sweet and understanding with Kola as she is cruel and disparaging with her other two children. Femi, the older brother who lives in the shadow of Kola harbours a desire for revenge with his power-hungry wife Olayinka. And Timiyen, the ‘mistaken’ sister, a drug addict in the process of detoxification.

Scene from Blood Sisters (Photo: Netflix)

Sarah’s parents are certainly no better. Greedy social climbers from an Igbo village, they are more interested in the loan given them by Kola’s family than in their daughter’s happiness. As a corollary, there are other male characters who are not particularly noteworthy. Cops, detectives, killers, and traffickers are even less convincing than the protagonists.
Directing, set design, acting, costumes and dialogues, all defer to the classic stylistic features of a Nollywood (the Nigerian film industry) in a Netflix sauce. Nothing new then despite producer Mo Abudu’s bombastic statements: “Blood Sisters is a crime thriller, which is a new genre for us, so the prospect was inspiring and very exciting! It was also a particularly unique and intense experience; we shot it during the pandemic, but we stayed true to the vision we share with Netflix, which is to tell authentic and exciting African stories with superb production levels”.

(Photo Netflix)

Other enthusiastic statements warn us that the world would finally be ready for a 100% Nigerian and at the same time universal story. This is why it was shot in English with micro forays into Igbo and Pidgin. The promotional material states that the series is an ode to Lagos, a commercial megalopolis where different social classes coexist. It would be precisely the economic dynamics between rich and poor that constitute the international element, some argue, making an unlikely comparison with Squid Game. Others extol the feminist theme.
A story of sisterhood and women’s emancipation that denounces domestic violence and systemic corruption. Unfortunately, these good intentions are not enough to make it a series of innovative qualities. We find the woman behind the scenes, Mo Abudu, a tireless African media mogul, much more interesting.

Photo from the premiere of Blood Sisters held in Lagos. (Netflix)

Ambitious and determined, she started her career as a talk show host. In 2013 she founded the EbonyLife Media network which produced more than 5,000 hours of content including The Wedding Party one of the most successful Nigerian films. With offices in Lagos, London, and Los Angeles, EbonyLife Media works with international partners to develop African stories imbued with Black Consciousness for the continent and the diaspora. Mo Abudu’s empire also includes the EbonyLife Creative Academy in partnership with the Lagos state government and the EbonyLife Space, a luxurious event and cinema resort where, in fact, the first episode of Blood Sisters was filmed. (Open Photo: Netflix)

Simona Cella

 

Ethnic Variety.

The period of Dutch colonization made the country one of the main crossroads of both the slave trade and the migration of labour to be employed in plantations and mines, leaving as a legacy the multi-ethnicity dictated by the mixing of cultures, languages, and religions.

This, however, has had little effect on the divisions between the various ethnic groups which, in fact, can still be found today. Among the most represented ethnic groups, there is that of the descendants of immigrants who came from Asia, hired by the Dutch at the end of the nineteenth century, but also that of the Afro-Surinamese. The Hindus represent the largest ethnic group with 148,443 inhabitants, then there are the Cimarron with 117,567 inhabitants, the Afro-Surinamese with 88,856 inhabitants, the Javanese (coming from the island of Java, an ancient possession of the Dutch East Indies) with 73,975 inhabitants, the mixed ethnic group with 72,340 inhabitants and finally the indigenous with 20,344 inhabitants, including the Maho community. Due to their presence, Suriname joined the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), pledging to recognize the right of these peoples who traditionally occupy those territories.

Schoolgirl, Paramaribo. ©feije/123RF.COM

As regards the Afro-Surinamese it is good to point out that the ethnic group is divided into two sub-groups: Creoles and the Maroons-Bushinengue. The latter, whose name indicates the numerous clans of descendants of slaves of African origin, are divided in turn into six tribes, concentrated mainly in the easternmost part of the country: Ndyuka (Aukan), Saramaccani, Paramaccani, Kwinti, Aluku (Boni), and Matawai. In the country, there is also a group composed of descendants of Lebanese traders and another of descendants of Sephardic Jews, as well as descendants of European colonizers who amount to about 1% of the population. To these groups, we must add the new generation of immigrants who have arrived in recent decades from China, Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti. Its varied ethnic composition makes Suriname also a multilingual country and, in addition to the local language the Sranan Tongo, Dutch is spoken which has, since the colonial period, been the official language, together with Hindi, Javanese and Sarmacha.
Although Dutch is the official language, it is spoken only by a minority of people while Sranan Tongo is recognized as a lingua franca as well as being the most widespread locally. However, despite its widespread use and although it has an official grammar, only very few people are able to read or write it. The different ethnic groups also have their own native languages. Hindus speak Sarnami, which is a local variation of Hindi spoken by their ancestors, and the Javanese speak Bangsah Jawa whose linguistic structure is very similar to the language spoken in Java.

Interior view to Saint Peter and Paul cathedral in Paramaribo. ©homophoticus/123RF.COM

While indigenous tribes have managed to pass on and preserve their original linguistic heritage, today they are losing it as younger generations are less inclined to its conservation. There are also the Cimarron tribes with their native languages and the Chinese and Brazilian migrant communities who respectively contributed to the spread of their languages. The largest number of indigenous and Cimarron tribes are concentrated in the remote interior of Suriname, where they mainly live in villages along the country’s major rivers. Both ethnic groups are made up of different tribes. Hindus and Javanese are also historically concentrated in some specific areas of the country, namely in the districts of Saramacca and Nickerie.

Mosque in Surinamese countryside. 123rf.com

This variegated social composition has had an impact, as anticipated, also on the religious factor. This has meant that multi-religion has become one of the characteristic aspects of the country where, within this mosaic, Christians represent the largest component with 40% of whom 21% are Roman Catholics, 11.18% are Evangelicals, 11.16% are Moravian, 0.7% are Reformed, 0.5% are Lutheran, and 3.2% belonging to other strands. Hindus come next with 19.9% of which 18% are Sanatan Dharm, 3.1% Arya Dewaker and 1.2% belong to other variants of Hinduism. Muslims amount to 13% and are divided into Sunnis 3.9%, Ahmadiyya 2.6%, and 7.3% to other strands of Islam. Then there is a 10% of the population that follows mixed cults such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Agama Jawa, Judaism, Winti, etc.
The country’s multi-ethnic character has also had a completely positive influence in the musical field, in which a lively soul and jazz scene was born with European, African, North American, and Asian influences. Surinam! a compilation released in 2012 by a Dutch record company, Kindred Spirits, had great success in this area, including the best dance and funk productions released in Suriname between the seventies and eighties. (F.R.)

 

Immense Natural Resources.

Suriname is a country rich in natural resources in terms of biodiversity, fresh water, raw materials, and cultural heritage.

The mining sector is linked to the extraction of bauxite, gold (which is extracted from the alluvial deposits of Saramacca and Lawa), silver, nickel, and crude oil (which is extracted from an offshore field off the coast of Paramaribo, Saramacca district, connected to an oil pipeline at the Paramaribo refinery). This sector constitutes the most important item of the country’s exports, amounting to 85%. This, however, makes the economy of Suriname subject to fluctuations in the market prices of various goods. In the 1980s, in fact, the fluctuations in the prices of raw materials generated internal political disturbances that resulted in a terrible economic crisis that prompted the country, in the following decade, to resort to international aid granted on condition that the country implemented a development plan including austerity and structural reforms. This plan, however, did not change the state of poverty in which the population finds itself.

Bauxite Factory at Paramaribo. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Mark Ahsmann

Of the minerals present in the subsoil, bauxite is the one that the country has in large quantities with the largest deposits located in the areas of Accaribo, Moengo, and Param. Once extracted, the mineral is partly exported, mainly to the United States, Canada, Belgium, and Norway, and partly processed on site. The forest heritage, due to its great valuable species, is another important item in the country’s economy. Then there is agriculture, where the cultivation of rice predominates, covering more than three-quarters of the cultivated land, and to a lesser extent, we also find crops of sugar cane, bananas, coconuts, citrus fruits, and legumes. Another important element of the country’s economy is the fishing of crustaceans which, once caught, are sold in foreign markets. From an industrial point of view, the country does not display adequate development, due also to insufficient production of electricity but also due to the absence of skilled labour and foreign investment. The exceptions are industries related to mining and those of a rather modest size that deal with the processing of agricultural and forestry products. Internal trade is underdeveloped, given the prevalence of a strong subsistence economy and insufficient road and rail communications networks, limited only to the coastal strip.

Dutch tourists in the Bigi Pan Nature Reserve. CC BY-SA 2.0/ Jan Willem Broekema

Another significant element of the Suriname economy is made up of tourism coming especially from Holland, but also from drug trafficking, cocaine in particular. In 1999, the then president Dési Bouterse was also involved in these trades favoured by the strategic position in which the country is located.
He was convicted by the Dutch court for drug trafficking, while his son Dino, who was at the head of the national counter-terrorism team, was arrested in Panama in 2012 and extradited to the US.
If the raw materials present in the country on the one hand represent wealth, on the other they constitute a threat to the ecosystem since the high profitability has encouraged gold mining, deforestation, intensive hunting, and poaching.
In fact, these activities, if carried out without due attention, can generate a significant impact on the environment, degrade water quality and damage the ecosystems of southern Suriname with a significant impact on indigenous communities whose livelihood is exclusively guaranteed by their customs and traditions: the use of natural resources, hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of medicinal plants.

Street with old colonial buildings in Paramaribo, capital of Suriname. ©mathess/123RF.COM

In addition, Suriname is also threatened by climate change which makes natural habitats vulnerable, generating a negative impact on the communities living in the southern part of the country, but also by the phenomenon of land grabbing. This phenomenon threatens, in particular, both the indigenous communities and those descended from slaves who today find themselves living in territories that we could define as strategic due to the presence of raw materials in the subsoil. Already in the past, in the 1960s, the US company Alcoa worked on the construction of the hydroelectric plant, obtaining in exchange the concession for the extraction of bauxite. The work, which led to the formation of Lake Brokopondo, forced thousands of Maroons (mainly Saramaccans) to emigrate to other areas of the country or to nearby French Guiana. In addition to the Maroons, the Maho community is constantly threatened by these phenomena without receiving any protection from the state. (Open Photo: Teal sky and green trees with Suriname river landscape. 123rf.com)
 F.R.

 

Ukraine war and climate change help Namibia to sell its hydrogen potential.

The country’s solar and wind huge potential coinciding with Europe’s need to diversify its energy mix away from fossil fuels provides large opportunities which are beginning to materialize with a first large hydrogen project.

As the EU aims at decarbonising its economy and reduce its dependence from Russian oil and gas, it is turning towards sources of clean energy.  On the 3 May, at the European Parliament, the spokesman for the European People’s Party on Energy, Christian Ehler stated that “Energy independence has become an absolute priority”. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to “accelerate the roll-out of hydrogen and renewables to ease off dependence on Russia”, he said.
The hydrogen potential is promising. Indeed, hydrogen makes it possible to obtain energy without carbon emissions, either through its direct combustion with oxygen or in the form of electricity via a fuel cell. It may be used to decarbonise sectors which are hard to electrify, such as steel and cement plants and has applications in the transport sector.

According to World Platinum Investment Council estimates, the sector will be worth U.S. $ 2.5 trillion by 2050. Japan alone is planning to import up to 800,000 tonnes of hydrogen annually from 2030. Global volumes could reach 800 million tons by 2050. Potential suppliers such as Chile, Australia, Saudi Arabia are already moving to meet the demand.The EU plans to import 10 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030. to replace fossil fuels in the industry and transport sectors. According to the World Energy Council, the EU demand could even reach 60 million tons by 2050. The European Investment Bank has already EUR 1 billion investments in the pipeline to finance hydrogen projects.
For the trade association Hydrogen Europe, the EU cannot produce all this hydrogen domestically, because it doesn’t have enough sun or wind. Hydrogen Europe considers Africa as its prime partner.
Already, countries like Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are developing green hydrogen plans. Namibia is the more advanced. The country is endowed with huge clean energy potential, and it is one of the best prepared for hydrogen production.

Namibia is uniquely positioned to be one of the largest green hydrogen producers globally.

According to the World Bank, Namibia boasts from a huge 720 GW wind power capacity and could export ammonia at competitive prices. According to German government experts, Namibia should offer competitive prices that would place the country among high-potential green hydrogen producers and exporters. In addition, the country has large reserves of platinum and iridium, two metals used to separate hydrogen from water.
By the end of the decade, Namibia could become an exporter of green hydrogen from both wind and solar power, said James Mnyupe, economic adviser to the Namibian presidency, to participants at the “World Hydrogen Summit” in Rotterdam, in May 2022.
Namibia enjoys indeed over 3,500 hours of sunshine per annum and high wind speeds. Accordingly, the power of giant solar farms can be used to make hydrogen, which can be used for fuel or converted into ammonia to make fertiliser. In order to produce hydrogen, Namibia would use desalinated sea water which would be split into hydrogen and oxygen, by electrolysis. Then, the hydrogen would be piped to a terminal and exported to Rotterdam, Germany or South Africa”.
The solar potential could be developed soon, following the signature in 2021 of a Memorandum of intent (MOI) by the U.S. government to build a 5 GW solar power complex in Botswana and Namibia, with the support of the African Development Bank and of the World Bank Group. This scheme which is part USAID’s Power Africa Initiative could be one of the largest solar power complexes in the world, using both solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar power technologies.

Hydrogen fuel cell in a research laboratory. 123rf.com

A contract for an industrial project which would be the first large green hydrogen project in the country was being negotiated in May 2022 by the Namibian government and the preferred bidder, Hyphen Hydrogen Energy. This company is a joint venture between the British Virgin Island registered investment and infrastructure company Nicholas Holdings and Enertrag South Africa, a subsidiary of German renewable energy company. Enertrag which operates more than one thousand wind turbines around the world.
According to Obeth M Kandjoze, the chair of Namibia’s Green Hydrogen Council, the first phase of the project, which would use both solar and wind power, is expected to enter production in 2026 and generate a 2 GW capacity to produce 120,000 tons of green hydrogen for conversion into green ammonia, at a cost of US 4.4 billion.
Further phases in the late 2020s, will expand the capacity to 5 GW and 3 GW of electrolysed capacity, increasing the combined investment to $ 9.4 billion and hydrogen production to 300,000 tons annually for regional and global markets. That figure compares with Namibia’s annual GDP of $10.7 billion.

Hyphen’s project is part of the Southern Corridor Development Initiative (SCDI) portfolio of projects.

Hyphen’s project is part of the Southern Corridor Development Initiative (SCDI) portfolio of projects. About 4,000 km² were allocated for this project which will be entirely financed by Hyphen. The SDCI comprises a 26,000 km2 area between Lüderitz and Orangemund, on the Southern coast. It has the potential to produce 3 million tons of green hydrogen which would represent the equivalent of one third of the EU’s total import needs by 2030.
The adjudication process was made with the assistance of the Colorado-based NREL national laboratory of the US government and experts appointed by the EU Global Technical Assistance Facility on Global Energy. Once the necessary feasibility processes are concluded, Hyphen will have the rights to the project for 40 years.
Yet, Hyphen’s project is only a start, the beginning of Namibia’s big hydrogen adventure. According to preliminary market estimates by the World Bank, the Kharas region could produce 2 million tons of ammonia, generate $ 800 m. in revenue and house generation assets of 5 GW at less than 3 US cents per kwh.
According to Namibia’s President Hage Geingob, Namibia has identified four potential Hydrogen Valleys across the country. The Hyphen project is just chapter one of the development of the first one: the SCDI.
Namibia’s potential has already attracted many partners.

Namibian Mines and Energy minister, Tom Alweendo and Germany’s Economic Affairs and Climate Action minister and Vice Chancellor, Robert Habeck signed a joint declaration of intent to accelerate the research, development and production of green hydrogen.

On the 11 April 2022, Robert Halbeck, the German Minister of economic affairs and climatic action and Thomas K Alweendoo, the Namibian Minister of Mines and Energy, signed a joint declaration of intent. Germany will finance hydrogen pilot plants up to EUR 30 million in addition to 200 scholarships and the development of a national green hydrogen strategy for EUR 10 m.
In September 2021, beside Hyphen, Namibia received eight more commercial proposals to develop large green hydrogen projects namely from Sasol, Fortescue Future Industries and Tumoneni. By May 2022, the Windhoek government had received 31 bids to develop pilot plants and three to develop the national green hydrogen strategy.
In November 2021, Namibia signed an agreement with the port of Rotterdam which plans to become the Green Hydrogen export hub for Europe and the rest of the world and another deal with Belgium to promote and develop cooperation in the field of green hydrogen, which was sealed after President Hage Geingob’s visit to the Benelux
in mid-February 2022.

Hydrogen renewable energy production. 123rf.com

The first project to come on stream is a pilot plant which will be built by Namibia’s Ohlthaver & List Group and CMB Tech, a subsidiary of the Compagnie maritime belge shipowner (CMB), and which will start production by end 2023. The project which represents an investment of US $ 18 million will be developed by a joint venture called Clean Energy in the Erongo region. Depending on the results of the demonstration plant, a larger production plant will be built in a second phase. The aim is to produce hydrogen from solar power and distribute the fuel to trucks, locomotives, mining equipment and ships.
The government plans to create a National Green Hydrogen Research Institute (NGHRI) with centres to carry out studies on clean hydrogen production and storage, new materials, hydrogen fuel cell technology, hydrogen use, etc. However, Kennedy Chege, researcher on the Mineral Law in Africa at the University of Cape Town warns that the amount of water required to produce hydrogen in such a dry country could be a challenge. Desalination and the cost of electrolysis used to produce hydrogen can be expensive, which could erode the competitiveness of Namibian green hydrogen, says Chege. (Photo: 123rf.com)

François Misser

Climate Change and Advocacy. Planting Bamboos.

In the Philippines, the missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) are committing to plant 100,000 seedlings of Bamboo by 2022. With an ambitious goal for planting 1 billion bamboos by 2030, collaborating with the local churches of parishes and dioceses in the Philippines. But why Bamboo?

The first reason is climate change. Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than an ordinary tree. A hectare of Bamboo absorbs 12 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Second, bamboos prevent erosion and flooding. A clump of Bamboo will absorb 30,000 litres of water annually.  The third reason is that the Bamboo is useful for livelihood.
The shoots are processed and bamboo poles are made into furniture and construction material.

The Filipino government estimates that if we plant a billion bamboos, this will result in 15 billion dollars in annual income. We believe that this is a conservative estimate. We think it will reach up to 25 billion dollars annually if we put the right factories in the right places and have massive bamboo planting.

As Missionaries, we have the hope that we can do this; that we can plant a billion bamboos, absorb gigatons of carbon dioxide from the air, give jobs to a lot of people, and prevent erosion and flooding, which caused a lot of damage to property and even to life.

We therefore would like to call on everyone in the whole Philippines and in the whole world to join us. We are now partnering with the Global Climate Action Project, and they are making an App for us with a geotagging feature to monitor the number of bamboos planted. After joining our baseline data, you can see it in Google Maps afterwards. So, we would like to thank the many people in our bamboo advocacy.

We hope to make a difference because otherwise, climate change will become irreversible. We have no other choice. This is the only planet that we have. Let us take Care of it for ourselves and future generations.

The scientists are saying the year 2030 is the deadline. We must keep global warming at no more than 1.5°C by 2030; otherwise, climate change will become irreversible. We now know that the bamboo can help mitigate climate change, prevent erosion and flooding, and increase people’s economic profit and well-being, especially that of the poor.

Planting one billion bamboos is not an idle dream. In the Philippines, we are responsible only for 2% of greenhouse gases, but we will be the first ones to be hit by super typhoons. We believe, first of all, that awareness is widespread. Secondly, the government has said that every village is to have a seedling nursery. And there is a law called The Philippine Bamboo Industrial Development Act.

The government will fund the seedling nurseries, supporting the building of factories to produce engineered Bamboo. Logging is already outlawed in the Philippines. It’s forbidden to cut a tree without permission from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

We have made our move. As missionaries, we have decided to have 100,000 bamboo seedlings planted by 2022. One interesting initiative is that elementary, high school and college graduates cannot graduate and are not given their diplomas if they do not plant ten trees each.
So that’s it.

That would be a lot because we have 28 million elementary school students. How many will graduate? Then we have college graduates also. We really believe that this is doable. We may not succeed but it is possible. It is not an impossible dream to plant 1 billion bamboos in the Philippines, absorb gigatons of greenhouse gases, prevent erosion and flooding, the loss of lives and property and give jobs to thousands of people. The government is already mobilizing. They only need some help from the developed countries responsible for most of the greenhouse gases that plague us now, especially in the Philippines.

The churches are also mobilizing. Archbishop Emeritus Antonio Ledesma, said he would talk to all the bishops so that the whole diocese and all the dioceses in Mindanao may help in this bamboo advocacy. (Photo: 123rf.com)

 Benigno B. Beltran

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Gallery – Comboni Youth Movement at World Youth Day

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