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Myanmar. A New Generation fighting for democracy.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 8:00

Myanmar’s democratic transition took an unexpected turn in the early morning of Monday, February 1, 2021, when Senior General Min Aung Hlaing of Myanmar’s military (known as Tatmadaw) performed a surprise coup d’état and arrested the country’s leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint just before the first session of the newly elected parliament.

Min Aung Haling has repudiated the results of last November’s general elections on accounts of alleged election fraud by the leading party NLD (National League for Democracy).The coup leader declared a yearlong state of emergency and promised to hold elections after one year. On the first day, the military appointed 11 ministers of an interim government and on the second day, the military announced that it has formed the ‘State Administrative Council’, a government council mainly composed of ex-military members.

Naturally, the people of the South East Asian nation with over 52 million inhabitants rejected the coup and its “council”, and have been pushing back with fierce resistance since it began. From demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience to internet activism, the anti-coup movement grew stronger every day.
The military has responded with draconian laws, internet shutdowns, arrests of several citizens, and violent crackdowns resulting in deaths of protesters, detainees, and even bystanders.

Much of the protests and force behind the movement has been credited to young people, referred to as ‘Gen Z ‘(Generation Z). They have been praised for their creativity, use of technology, and determination not to submit to military rule. The protests have seen the unity and welcomed expressions of many different professions and identities, including different religious groups. Many civilians also have supported protesters by providing food, water and other drinks, printed placards, and free rides home, while others have cleaned up streets during and after the protests to maintain a good image of the protesters.

People have used any means they could think of to fight against the dictatorship; some of these movements include cursing rituals based on folk beliefs in cities like Bagan, Pathein, Yangon and Kyaukse; writing messages such as “We want democracy” on the streets across cities in Myanmar; using projectors on building walls at night; painting graffiti on walls and on the streets; and praying on the streets by Buddhist, Muslims and Christians.

The anti-coup movement also included calls to boycott military-owned businesses and their products. A mobile app “Way Way Nay” (Stay Away) is one of the many digital platforms gathering all the information of military business. For instance, military-owned telecommunications provider MyTel declined in business two weeks after the coup and so did military-owned Myanmar Beer.

But the fight has not just been on the streets – “keyboard fighters” – have been working online to attract international attention and keep the protesters engaged. The hashtag #WhatshappeninginMyanmar has been widely used on both Facebook and Twitter.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar, describes “with deep sorrow” the situation in the country which, after the coup of 1 February, “has suddenly returned to the nightmare of military repression, of brutality, violence and dictatorship”.

The Cardinal praises “the incredible courage, commitment and creativity of our people”, who demonstrate peacefully, giving “a sign of maturity”: “Young people and all citizens show tenacity and resilience: they are determined not to allow that democracy, freedom and peace, conquered with difficulty, can all of a sudden be cancelled. Young people do not accept that their hope is stolen. Their strength of mind is a great inspiration for all of us”, he said, noting the “mutual solidarity between people of different ethnic groups and religions, side by side for the same cause, a good for the people”.

“The nation – he asserts – is experiencing a moment of great trial and suffering, marked by bloodshed, pain, mourning”, as “many innocent people are injured, killed or arrested”, while “in the states of Myanmar inhabited by ethnic minorities the military has resumed attacking civilians, causing thousands of internally displaced persons”. Cardinal Bo hopes for “a Myanmar in which the military lower their weapons, leave power and do what an army should do: protect, certainly not attack, the people”. (Photo. Kamayut Media)

To become a ‘Muslim Singapore’.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 8:00

Seven years have passed and the real reasons for the introduction of the most severe version (at least on paper) of the Islamic penal code are still unknown, at least in part.

From among the various analyses of the question, we may synthesise three points of convergence. The first is that of national identity, closely bound up with the history and role of the monarchy. The recent past has shown up the fragility of the Sultanate with regard to foreign powers. It took the Japanese a week to conquer it during the Second World War, after it had extended its dominion from Borneo to the Philippines from the XV to the XVII century. It is substantially fragile due to its dependence upon petroleum, still a characteristic even today. From this derives the need to reinforce (firstly among the South-East Asian countries with its radical turn) its Islamic identity that is central to the state ideology that promotes ‘a Malaysian Islamic monarchy’.

Hassanal Bolkiah, in power since 1967, known as having had, at least in the past, crowded harems in his palace of 1,700 rooms, decided to change drastically his own and the national image, relying no longer only upon simply apparent Islamisation to restore the identity
and influence of his kingdom.
Secondly, the severe application of Sharia Law gives the Sultan – constitutionally and in practice, the spiritual and temporal leader – the power of greater control over a system that still shows signs of unease. Not simply due to the presence and, as is allowed, the actions of groups and individuals who deplore the lack of liberty and rights and demand greater ideological and cultural openness, but also for real reasons. The majority of the citizens are employed in the public sector but the adequate preparation of the youth finds no correspondence in the number of qualified jobs available. This results in growing intellectual unemployment which, in terms of frustration, associates itself with growing dissatisfaction towards the system in the lowest layers of the world of work, and towards a society where drug addiction and minor criminality are on the increase. It is a situation with shady areas that are not officially acknowledged and attributed to negative external influences or the result of following the Koranic laws only partially and which are therefore enforced all the more.

The third point is economic-diplomatic. Together with other measures, full adhesion to Sharia Law favours Brunei in concretising its plan to become the financial centre of Islamic credit in the region, (South-East Asia) of which it forms part, welcoming but also differentiating investments and economic initiatives coming from Islamic countries, entrepreneurs or financiers. For some time, with a move away from almost total dependence on the sale of petroleum resources, exported mostly to Japan and South Korea, the country has decided to take advantage of the prospects for the growth of the global Islamic economy to diversify its sources of revenue. This exploits a tendency which, in recent years, has caused the convergence of many trillions of dollars in the region, especially in the Muslim countries of Indonesia and Malaysia.
It provides a flow of possibilities of which the Sultanate has sought to take advantage by providing itself with deeper Islamic roots, and a penal and civic system in harmony with them, together with financial-economic structures based upon religious law. Its barely concealed ambition is to become a ‘Muslim Singapore’ created by initiatives and investments from the Middle East and Western Asia, just as the original was created mainly through Chinese influence.
It is a gamble that is more of a stand-by measure than one crowned with success, but which gave rise to objections at home and abroad and alienated the good will of some countries.

Not only that of countries from where non-Muslims come, such as the Philippines which has seen a reduction in the number of its nationals, as well as the increasing difficulty in practising one’s own faith. A good number of Western or Asian countries fear that the Sultanate is beginning to be a centre for the spread of fundamentalist ideology of the Arabic kind and a financial sanctuary for global Jihadism in an area where tensions are already high.
For this reason, too, the moratorium on the death penalty met with relief and was extended to cover the Islamic penal code in May 2019. A move probably forced by international condemnation of Sharia Law, modified the previous month to include the death penalty for sexual practices between people of the same gender, for adultery and rape.
During a televised speech at the launching of the month of Ramadan, the Sultan had spoken of the lack of ‘understanding’ of the new law (Sharia Penal Code Order, SPCO), indicating once again that the application was at least discretional: “As evident for more than two decades, we have practised a de facto moratorium on the execution of the death penalty for cases under the common law. This will also be applied to cases under the SPCO, which provides a wider scope for remission”.
The reference to Hassanal Bolkiah – who opportunely then had the duty of ratifying the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) – is to the long, tortuous and above all controversial adherence to the radical Islam path embarked upon by the Sultanate and which, on several occasions, caused waves of protests and disdain, both by the UN and human rights groups as well as international entertainment stars. More specifically, the campaign that in the spring of 2019 called for a boycott of the luxury hotels belonging to the personal patrimony of the Sultan, such as the Dorchester in London, had among its promoters the actor George Clooney and the singer Elton John.

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

This resulted in once again slowing the full introduction of Sharia Law. Despite its definite course towards the Islamic world of South-East Asia, Southern Asia and the Gulf, it is still essential for the small country to become part of the international, global and regional context. Brunei is a member of the United Nations and has been, since independence, and a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, formerly the Islamic Conference), as well as of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). The three political, religious and economic aspects that receive varied emphasis in these organisations, find particular convergence in ASEAN, the Association of South-East Asian Nations. This is a regional organisation with ten member-states which has hitherto failed to develop at the level of political convergence and unanimity of expression regarding rights and democracy, and strategic relations, always preferring a ‘policy of non-interference’ in the internal affairs of each of its members. But it has, however, developed plans of integration in commerce, customs duties and freedom of movement within itself. In particular, Brunei’s relations with neighbouring Malaysia with which it failed to form a confederation in 1963, are very close and necessary.
It still maintains substantial relations with its former colonial protector. Brunei is a member of the Commonwealth, even though it does not recognise the sovereignty of the British monarchy and its bilateral relations are both economic and cultural, besides being consistent within the limits of the role of this Asiatic nation. (S.V.)

Venezuela. The Indios Warao: the ‘Boat People’.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 8:00

The Warao indigenous people inhabit the states of Bolívar, Monagas, Sucre and Delta Amacuro in the eastern part of Venezuela. The majority of them lives on the banks of the Orinoco River in the Delta Amacuro. This tribe, which is currently estimated to number about 50000, is the second-largest indigenous group in Venezuela,
after the Wayuu.

‘Warao’ is a name made up of two words: ‘Wa’ that comes from curiara, which means boat or canoe (this group’s main form of transportation) and ‘Rao’ meaning people or owners, hence the meaning of the word ‘Warao’, ‘owners or people of the curiaras’. The Warao have lived for centuries on the Orinoco Delta.
According to Warao mythology, in pre-cultural times the Warao lived in the sky, where a young archer ‘s shot went wide one day. While searching for his arrow, the archer, whose name was ‘Jara Yakera’ (Good Arm), found a hole and looked through. He saw lush and fertile land (Earth) and descending by a rope to the earth, he discovered an abundance of food. On his return he informed the Warao of his extraordinary find. The other Warao immediately decided to descend to Earth and live there, forsaking their sky world.

Warao Community (Photo: Luis Ovalles/C.C.)

The Warao of the Orinoco Delta refer to Kanobo (‘great father’) as the author of life and their protector, and ‘Kanobo arima’ is the name of the Wisidatu, a spiritual guide and the intermediary between Kanobo and the members of the community. Festivals are celebrated in honour of Kanobo by this indigenous group; during these ceremonies offerings such as yuruma (aru) and wina are made to the god and Jabisanuka and Najanamu (sacred dances) are performed in order to maintain good relations with the god and to be saved from diseases.
Kanobo communicates through dreams with the Kanobo arima. The ‘yuruma‘ offered to Kanobo is prepared only by those women who already went through menopause, since the Warao believe that women experiencing menstruation may contaminate the yuruma and makes it impure. When the yuruma is ready, the Wisidatu puts it into a container which is placed under the altar dedicated to Kanobo.

Warao Indigenous Community settlement on the banks of the Morichal Largo river, Monagas.(Photo: Ricardo Ricardo/C.C.)

On the day of the offerings the Kanobo arima invites other Wisidatus and they gather at the Kanobo’s temple where the ceremony is held. Before starting, the Kanobo arima smokes and invokes Kanobo and the spirits of other Wisidatus, and then the intercession for the community starts. Later the sacred dances Najanamu and Jabisanuka are performed.
Young or menstruating women cannot participate in the dance because they might contaminate the dance and make it impure, and that may cause Kanobo‘s anger and bring diseases among the members
of the community.
The dances that are performed in honour of Kanobo are considered sacred by the Warao, and they respect the different rules that these require. For instance, the different instruments used for the music that accompanies these sacred dances are used only for this purpose and are kept in a special container (torotoro). They can be only used by the wise men and the community elders, who are the healers and protectors
of the community members.

The Warao indigenous people believe that everything in nature has spirit, so there is a lot of respect for the jungle, the mountains, the stones which are believed to have spirit called maisikiri, Jobaji arao or other names. Therefore, the spirits of trees, rivers, those of the jungle,
are all greatly respected.
The elderly and wise men of the community are also very respected because they are the preservers of the community’s ancestral culture and the owners of wisdom. The Wisidatu is a shaman that plays an essential role in the community; he is the intermediary between Kanobo and the community, he communicates with spirits, and is believed to be able to expel the evil spirits from the body of people. Some Wisidatus cure mainly the spirit of a person, while some others cure physical diseases.

Orinoco Delta. Warao family in canoe (Photo: Kate Palitava/C.C.)

Maintaining good relationship with spirits is important to the Warao people. There are rules that must be respected in order not to make spirits angry. For instance, before cutting a tree, the spirit of the tree should be asked for permission. Or when a new curiara is made, people must remember that they are not supposed to let a lady with menstruation board the boat, because the boat would be contaminated and become impure and the spirit of wisdom (‘moyotu‘) would get angry. In the same way, the Warao people ask the spirit of the jungle for permission before cutting down trees to make room for sowing crops in order to obtain food. The wisdom of a people derives from their knowledge and traditions and the Warao communities are living examples of indigenous people who care, respect and protect their territories and the environment.

Johan Ramos

Music. Jonas Gwangwa. Antiapartheid jazz leader.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 8:00

The South African musician and composer was active both in music and in politics. At the cost of exile. Together with Hugh Masekela, a reference point for jazz enthusiasts.

He died on 23 January, the same day on which, in 2018, Hugh Masekela passed away. The South African trombonist Jonas Gwangwa was just eighteen months older than the trumpet player. Gwangwa and Masekela belonged to the same musical generation and shared the beginnings and other events of their careers; they also shared the experience of exile from South Africa due to apartheid.

Fr Huddleston with two members of the ‘Huddleston Jazz Band’ the teenage Jonas Gwangwa and Hugh Masekela, with Alan Paton.

Fascinated in the fifties by Bix Beiderbecke, fourteen-year-old Hugh Masekela asked Trevor Huddleston, an English protestant pastor ministering in Sophiatown, a suburb of Johannesburg, if he could have a trumpet. Huddleston – who would later become a reference point in the international movement against apartheid – ended up by giving him what he wanted, with the result that other small boys also asked for various instruments. A small orchestra was born called the Huddleston Jazz Band: on the trombone, there was Jonas Gwangwa, born in October 1937 in Orlando East, Soweto, in a family that loved music and
often came together to sing.

The boy preferred the clarinet but accepted what he was given. In a matter of a few years, Gwangwa and Masekela became the outstanding figures of the new generation of jazz in South Africa and were extremely popular among the urbanised black masses. In the late fifties, they featured on a pioneering album of modern South African jazz alongside the American pianist John Mehegan, and became members of the Jazz Epistles group whose pianist was – another outstanding personality – Dollar Brand (he would later take the name Abdullah Ibrahim and, once established in the United States, enjoyed a career among the foremost jazz musicians).
With the Jazz Epistles, with whom Gwangwa tried his first efforts at composition, South African jazz reached the level of contemporary American hard hop and found harmony of soul in this prevalently black style of music, interlaced with new disquiet and tension.

The American years
During that same phase, Gwangwa and Masekela were part of the all-black cast of ‘King Kong’, the most famous South African musical first performed in 1959. When, on the crest of a wave of success, ‘King Kong’ was first performed in London in 1961, South Africa had already experienced the massacre of Sharpeville (1960), so Gwangwa and another member of the band decided not to return to their country. Like Masekela, he went to the United States where, with the help of Harry Belafonte, he studied music at the Manhattan School of Music.
Without matching the popularity of Masekela (or Miriam Makeba), Gwangwa was honoured beyond the Atlantic and made an important contribution to opening up music with South African traits to American mass consumption, at a time when African music was still mostly unknown, and not only to the public at large.

Gwangwa was given charge of the musical direction and arrangements of the album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba and, as trombonist and vocalist (and composer) he played with Masekela on various albums by the trombonist, such as Grrr in 1966, Hugh Masekela & The Union of South Africa in 1971, and Main Event Live in 1978, attributed to Masekela and the star of exotic easy-listening, Herb Alpert.
As the seventies drew to a close, Gwangwa felt the need to approach his own country: he settled in Gaborone in Botswana (Masekela would do likewise a few years later), founded the Shakawe band with South African and local musicians and took part in the activities of Medu Art Ensemble, a group of anti-apartheid artists. In June 1985, during an attack on the South African army in Gaborone, several members of Medu were killed and Gwangwa’s house was destroyed. Gwangwa braved other dangers in Angola where, at the request of the leader of the African National Congress, Oliver Tambo, in the early eighties he founded Amandla, a team of artists to officially represent the ANC, which he directed up to 1990 and with which he organised a musical struggle against apartheid that reached forty different countries.

Wembley 1988
Together with the British composer George Fenton, he worked on the soundtrack of Cry Freedom, the film about Steve Biko directed by Richard Attenborough which achieved numerous plaudits. In 1988, like Makeba and Masekela, he took part at London’s Wembley Stadium in a concert for Nelson Mandela’s seventieth birthday, a mega-event that had 600 million TV viewers and sounded the death knell of the Pretoria regime.

Johannesburg. Jonas Gwangwa performs at the Joy of Jazz in 2014. (photo: Mail&Guardian).

Back home in 1991, after thirty years of exile, Gwangwa devoted his time to composing music and performed live concerts with the unmistakable communication, flavour and poetry of popular music and South African jazz. Gwangwa’s greatness was also due to having at his side a great woman of the generation of exile and struggle: Violet Gwangwa, who died a few weeks before her husband. They grew up together and became engaged in the late fifties. Later, when Jonas chose not to return, they were separated until the mid-seventies: they met again in Botswana and were married four days later.

Marcello Lorrai

SHELL Company in Nigeria. Decades of Crime and Impunity.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 8:00

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is one of the most polluted areas in the world. In the 1950s, important oil reserves were discovered in the area and since then the region has been a battle ground of environmental conflicts between international oil companies (Shell, Chevron, ENI and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) and the host communities predominantly of the Ogoni, Urhobo, Itsekiri and Ijaw tribes.

The oil extracted in the region is transported to the harbour of Bonny near the city of Port Harcourt through a pipeline owned by the Shell Petroleum Development Company, a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch company SHELL. Pipeline leaks, acts of sabotage, lack of proper maintenance and multiple breakdowns along the way have caused more than five decades of continuous pollution in the Niger Delta, affecting aquifers, fishing areas and the arable lands of the region.

Oil spills have been happening over the years, but there were three oil spills in 2003, 2004 and 2008 that ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the region. A succession of negligence on the part of the SHELL company, responsible for the maintenance of the pipeline, meant that the breakdowns were not properly repaired.

The company has denied responsibility for the spills that have polluted the region for decades but pointed finger to looting as responsible for the environmental disasters that have devastated the region. In 2011, the United Nations demanded the cleaning of the area, but the urgent measures were implemented inefficiently years later.

Currently, spills continue to occur and pollution directly affect people’s health, prevent the development of agriculture as a traditional way of life in the region and make it impossible to develop fishing as a means of subsistence. In addition, an estimated 16,000 children lose their lives annually due to pollution, with life expectancy being ten years less than that of the rest of the country.

In 2008, four farmers from different communities in the region of the Niger Delta, supported by international NGOs, decided to sue the Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) company for its environmental destruction as well as its lack of commitment to repair the damage caused. What is relevant in this case is that, for the first time, the plaintiffs crossed the borders of their country, Nigeria; where they did not find justice to Netherland; home country of parent company Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) to seek justice.

On January 29, 2021, after 13 years of legal proceedings, the Court of Appeal of the Netherlands finally issued a verdict condemning the Royal Dutch SHELL for the negligence committed by its subsidiary companies in Nigeria that were in charge of the maintenance and repair of the pipelines. Likewise, the Dutch Court of Appeal ordered the Royal Dutch SHELL company to repair the damages caused by the negligence of the companies along with the corresponding compensation to the defendants. During the judicial process, the plaintiffs suffered judicial abuse by the company who used all possible resources to prevent the plaintiffs from getting justice.

The ruling issued by the Dutch Court of Appeal is good news that opens up many opportunities in defense of human rights and the protection of the environment. For the first time a Dutch and European parent company has been convicted for the criminal and irresponsible activity of its subsidiaries outside its borders.

There have been 13 years of legal battle in which the direct legal link that exists between parent companies and subsidiaries have been recognized regardless of where they carry out their activity. The ruling recognizes that the parent company had the obligation to monitor the behavior of its subsidiaries, as well as to mitigate the damages that its subsidiaries could cause as a result of their activity.

But the ruling opens a path of hope for people who suffer human rights violations or the consequences of environmental disasters caused by multinational companies regardless of where they live or where the companies are located. Until now, territorial jurisdiction was used to the civil and criminal liability of the companies. However, this ruling recognizes the right of affected persons to sue companies regardless of the country in which they have their headquarters. The court ruling is not limited to the conviction of a company for negligence on the part of its subsidiaries, but includes the obligation to mitigate the damage.

The decision of the Dutch Court of Appeal has come at an important time for the European Union in which a Directive on mandatory Due Diligence on business and Human and Environmental Rights is being drafted. This judgment of the SHELL case in Nigeria reinforces the demands of the Civil Society that demand from the EU the need to create binding legal mechanisms that will make corporations accountable for their human rights and environmental crimes. In this sense, the adoption of European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) recommendation to the European Commission on January 27, 2021 on mandatory due diligence in which European companies are required to address their impact on the environment and human rights throughout the value chain is quite commendable.

But this conviction is also a reason to continue fighting for a more universal social justice with respect for human rights. Negotiations of the United Nations treaty on Business and Human Rights and environment must take a cue from the conviction to impose on corporations the responsibility for the behaviour of their subsidiaries.

This responsibility cannot be relegated to the initiative and goodwill of the companies, but requires legislation that is committed to the people who suffer human rights violations. Legislation cannot limit the liability of companies based on criteria such as the volume of activity, the size of the company, sector of activity or the profits obtained. All companies are responsible for their activity and the activity of their subsidiaries regardless of the country in which they carry out their activity.

The responsibility of companies in the exercise of their activity and the effectiveness of demanding legislation with respect to human rights and the environment will be insufficient if they do not guarantee access to justice for those affected. In the SHELL case, four farmers risked their lives to restore justice, but only repairing the damage caused can restore dignity to the Niger Delta region.

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

Nigeria. Islands in an archipelago.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 8:00

John Campbell, a Senior fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, recently wrote a book on Nigeria (“Nigeria and the Nation-State – Rethinking diplomacy with the postcolonial world”). A career diplomat, Campbell has written a work that is well worth reading and briefly examines the historical, political, and cultural roots of the actual situation of Nigeria.

The main thesis of this book is that Nigeria is not a nation-state as we are used to see within the international community. According to Campbell and some scholars, Nigeria is an ensemble of authorities that coexist within the formal borders of the state, like islands in an archipelago. During his tenures as a diplomatic in the country and his travels there, he noted that there were “structures of authority that often commanded deeper loyalty than the government of Nigeria and its capital, Abuja. Tribe tended to be more important than national identification.

Traditional rulers and institutions, whose power was based on custom rather than on statute of European model, exercised informal or extra-legal power. Hundreds of traditional rulers in Nigeria, among them the Sultan of Sokoto, the Shehu of Bornu, the Oba of Benin, and the Ooni of Ife, appeared to exercise authority parallel to that of the formal state and in some cases nearly its equal [page X].” According to the author, the “most powerful islands” are actually Abuja, the so called “Lagos-Ibadan corridor”, Port Harcourt in the oil rich Niger Delta and some other capitals of the states of the federation. He applies to Nigeria an idea elaborated by the US National Intelligence Council in 2005 to describe the “governed space in African countries” in general.

Oil rig in the yards. Apapa, Port of Lagos, Nigeria.

The second characteristic is that this archipelago is based on a prebendal-type power system. That is to say, the elites have access to the government revenue (in Nigeria, it is revenue generated by oil) and can share it both with their patrons and with their clients “not because of their services to the state, but because they are entitled to do so [page XII].” This relation is not exclusive to the elite, but it is expanded throughout society. In the eyes of Nigerian leadership, the country is not a failed state “because it successfully distributes national oil wealth to the national elite; this is what it [is] supposed to do. For most Nigerians, the state provides little, and they in turn have little loyalty to it. Alienation from the state is a common theme among the insurrections that are undermining the state [page 8].”

Three crises
This situation, according to Campbell, is the main consequence of British colonial rule in this territory. British officials aggregated different entities in a single territory that morphed into Nigeria “to maintain an “acceptable” level of security by balancing ethnic and regional groups. Divide and conquer was central to British colonial policy in Nigeria and elsewhere, though within a context of law and regulation. It was a policy whose explicit goal was to prevent indigenous people from forming common bonds […] [page 71].” The British did little to develop a Nigerian national identity and basically abandoned it when it was not useful anymore. “The British […] abruptly brought Nigeria to independence – not because of the strength of local agitation or in response to the overwhelming demands of a powerful national independence movement but because Britain had lost confidence in the entire colonial enterprise and determined to withdraw from many parts of the world as fast as possible [page 37].” And Nigerian leadership also did little to develop a Nigerian national identity since independence. Therefore, “most Nigerians primarily identify with and are loyal to their family, religion, and ethnic group [page 94].”

Due to several factors this process of identification with family, religion and ethnic group is getting worse, and the islands of power are starting to withhold cooperation. According to Campbell, there are three concurrent security crises that endanger the survival of Nigeria. In the North East, jihadist groups are challenging government control of the territory. In the central part of the country (the Middle Belt) a plurality of ethnic conflicts is fuelled by the growth of the population and environmental degradation. In the South, autonomist movements inspired by the Biafra secession and armed groups of various origins could put at risk the oil industry, the main source of revenue for the government. These three crises must also be considered in a context of lower international oil prices, a pandemic outbreak and a deep social and economic transformation of Nigeria due to rapid and unmanaged urbanization.

A dangerous strategy
Campbell wrote this book to change the US perception of Nigeria and to influence the US foreign policy in general and the relations between Washington and Abuja in particular. Therefore, he exposes in detail several proposals for the US Administration and the Department of State to deal with the Nigerian crises that were elaborated according to the dynamics of the US apparatus. Since they are focused on the American reality, these proposals are specific and can be judged correctly by people that have a deep knowledge of American politics. But Campbell’s multidimensional analysis of Nigeria is useful also to non-Americans, who share an interest in Nigerian issues.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nevertheless, it is legitimate to have doubts concerning one of these proposals. Campbell’s fundamental suggestion to US leadership is to change its strategy with Nigeria, shifting from an exclusive relation with the federal government to a relation with all the different centres of power. “The accelerating decentralization of political power in Nigeria suggests that US engagement, too, should include state, local, and traditional centres of power. Abuja is likely to view with suspicion closer US ties with the states, whom it will feel it cannot control, but such concerns should not derail a new approach; instead, efforts should be made to allay these suspicions through yet-to-be cultivated relationships and spearheaded by a US ambassador with a strong relationship to Aso Villa [the official residence of the President of Nigeria] [page 199].”
But this strategy is potentially dangerous for Nigeria, at least to an external observer. Campbell states that “Washington should support the unity of Nigeria, even if it is loose, or even chaotic. The alternative, a breakup of Nigeria into ethnically denominated politics, would be a humanitarian disaster, almost certainly involving the United States in ways difficult to foresee [page 195].”

People in the street in the city view of Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria (Photo: Jordi Clave Garsot/123RF.COM

But the proposed strategy goes in the opposite way. Dealing directly with traditional and local powerbrokers will likely further weaken Nigerian institutions. Traditional rulers will be emboldened by their direct relations with Washington and will ignore or resist Abuja. And the US could be tempted to by-pass the Federal Government to pursue their political goals with the help of traditional or local players. In the medium to long term, this could result in a further fragmentation of Nigeria.
At this moment, as previously seen, there are centrifugal forces that are pushing Nigeria into disintegration. Adding another force could be fatal, even if in the long term. With all its problems, strengthening the Federal Government must be put in first place by foreign governments when planning a strategy towards Nigeria.

Andrea Carbonari

Why the Sun Shines by Day and the Moon by Night.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 8:00

In the beginning of the world the king called the people together to be given their tasks. He sent out messengers for them. He sent the dove to call the moon, and the bat to call the sun.
Each messenger was given a certain time to go and return, so that they might all arrive together.

The dove went to call the moon and brought her, and the king said, “I will give you, then, the office the sun should have had, namely, that of shining by night. When you first shine people will beat their drums and blow their trumpets; they will also bring out their fetishes for you to see them, and the fetishes of twins. These are the honours I give you.”

After giving the moon her office and honours the king waited for the bat to bring the sun; but as the bat did not come the king sent the dove to look for her and bring her.

The dove went and returned with the sun. Then the king said, “Because you have stayed so long, I have given to the moon the office I meant to give to you. Now I will give you the office of showing people the way
to walk about.”

It was on this account that the sun hated the bat, because he loitered on the way when sent to call him, and stayed longer than the time
given by the king. And very soon thereafter the sun had a chance to be even with the bat.

The bat later lived at a place with only its aged mother. Shortly after their settling there, the mother suddenly fell sick unto death. The bat called for the antelope, and said to him, “Make some medicine for my mother.” The antelope looked steadily at her to see what her disease was. Then he told the bat, “There is no one who has the medicine that will cure your mother, except the sun.” After saying this, the antelope returned home.

On another day, early in the morning, the bat arose to go to call the sun. He did not start until about seven o’clock. He met the sun on the road around eleven o’clock. And he said to the sun, “My journey was on the way to see you.” The sun replied, “If you have a word to say, speak!” So the bat requested, “Come! make some medicine for my mother. She is sick.” But the sun replied, “I can’t go to make medicine unless you meet me in my house; not here on the road. Go back; and come to me at my house tomorrow.”

So, the bat went back home. And the day darkened, night came, and all went to sleep. At six o’clock the next day, the bat started out to call the sun. About nine o’clock, he met the sun on the path; and he told the sun what he had come for. But the sun said to him, “Whenever I leave my house, I do not go back, but I keep on to the end of my journey. Go back, for another day.” The bat returned home again.

He made other journeys in order to see the sun at his house, five successive days; but every day he was late, and met the sun already on the way of his own journey for his own business. Finally, on the seventh day, the bat’s mother died. Then the bat, in his grief said, “It is the sun who has killed my mother! Had he made some medicine for her; she would have become well.”

Very many people from afar came together that day at the mourning for the dead. The funeral was held from six o’clock in the morning until eleven o’clock of the next day. At that hour, the bat announced, “Let her be taken to the grave.” He called other beasts to go into the house together with him, in order to carry out the corpse. They took up the body, and carried it on the way to the grave.

On their arrival at the grave, these beasts said to the bat, “We have a rule that, before we bury a person, we must first look upon the face to see who it is.” They then opened the coffin. When they had looked on the face, they said, “No! we can’t bury this person; for, it is not our relative, it does not belong to us beasts.
This person looks like us because he has teeth. And it also has a head like us. But, that it has wings, makes it look like a bird. It is a bird. Call for the birds! We shall leave.” So they departed.

Then the bat called the birds to come. They came, big and little; pelicans, eagles, herons and all the others. When they all had come together, they said to the bat, “Show us the dead body.” He said to them, “Here it is! Come! look upon it!” They looked at it very carefully. Then they said, “Yes! it resembles us; for, it has wings as we have. But, about the teeth, no! We birds, none of us, have any teeth. This person does not resemble us with those teeth. It does not belong to us.”

And all the birds stepped aside. During the time that the talking had been going on, ants had come and laid hold of the body, and could not be driven away. Then one of the birds said to the bat, “I told you, you ought not to delay the burial, for many things might happen.”

And all the birds and beasts went away. The bat, left alone, said to himself, “The wicked sun alone is to blame for all of my troubles. If he had made some medicine, my mother would not be dead. So, I, the bat, and the sun shall not look on each other again. We shall have no friendship. When he appears, I shall hide myself. I won’t meet him or look at him.” “And – he added -, I shall mourn for my mother always. I will make no visits. I will walk about only at night, not in the daytime, lest I meet the sun or other people.”

Folktale from Zambia

Brazil. Capoeira, the dance of the resistance.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 8:00

A martial art that combines dance, self-defence and music, with its roots in ritual Bantu dances. In Brazil, it is the symbol of the fight against racism and social exclusion.

It is not just a way of fighting but an expression of cultural identity, in particular that of the African-Brazilians. Dancing, singing, oral culture and instruments such as the berimbau are associated with capoeira and this expresses one of the most powerful means of physical and spiritual resistance of the African-Brazilians against racism and social exclusion.
“A true capoeirista is not the one who simply knows how to move the body but the one who is moved by the soul”.
It was during the nineteen-forties that this was said by Mestre Pastinha. He founded the first Sports Centre of Capoeira Angola in 1941, in Pelourinho, Salvador Bahia. This was also the redemption of the very name of Capoeira; even after the abolition of slavery in Brazil (1888), the government saw it as a crime. Anyone practising the capoeira rodas was imprisoned and often beaten by the police.

In 1932, persecution was less intense and the fighter Mestre Bimba opened the first Capoeira gym in Salvador. He included movements taken from other martial arts such as the batuque, developing one of the first systematic training methods, naming it Luta Regional Bahia.
It was in 1940 that the Capoeira finally emerged from the Brazilian penal code. Mestre Pastinha declared: “I practice the real Capoeira Angola and, in my school, they learn to be sincere and just.
This is the law of the Angola which I inherited from my grandfather. It is the rule of loyalty. I did not change the Capoeira Angola which I learned. It is not offensive. Capoeira waits. A good capoeirist must be able to sing and play all the instruments of Capoeira.”

Capoeira is a mosaic, one of the fruits of the diaspora of the African peoples enslaved by the Portuguese. Mestre Pastinha was a member of Viva Bahia, the first para-folk group of Brazil, founded in Salvador in 1962 by Emília Biancardi, an ethnomusicologist and teacher. A tireless student of indigenous and African culture, she collected more than a thousand indigenous and African musical instruments which are today exhibited at the Centro de Referência Emília Biancardi (IPAC-SecultBA) of Solar Ferrão. Her father was a lawyer of African descent and her mother of Italian descent. As a convinced supporter of the importance of traditions as an element in the defence of one’s identity, she brought Capoeira on the scene. Moreover, to train her pupils, she gathered the best teachers in Salvador and Recôncavo, Baiano, and her excellence was also recognised by the writer Jorge Amado who affirmed: “Viva Bahia is a victorious accomplishment and worthy of support for its revealing work”. Viva Bahia has performed in the United States, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe and has contributed considerably to the internationalisation of Capoeira.

In the plantations
Capoeira was invented by Africans who began to be sold as slaves in Brazil at the start of the XVI century, to work in the sugar-cane plantations. To defend themselves against the capitães do mato (militiamen in the pay of the landowners to recapture runaway slaves), they performed defensive exercises. Since fighting was prohibited, they used song and dance to confuse their masters.

They combined ritual and martial dances whose roots are to be found mainly in the Bantu region of Congo-Angola. Up to the XVII century, it was essentially rural but developed in the cities in the XVIII century. King João VI (1767-1826) had as his bodyguard the capoeirista Joaquim Inácio da Costa Orelha, or Corta-Orelha. There are historical documents concerning Capoeira in Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Recife and São Luis do Maranhão. José de Alencar, in his book Iracema, writes that the word originates from the Tupi language: caa-apuam-era (a deforested area). Others say it comes from the word capò (basket).

United Nations Heritage
In 2008, Capoeira was declared a cultural heritage, part of the formation of Brazil’s identity. In 2014, UNESCO declared it part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Today it is still a means to becoming aware of the exploitation and racism present in Brazilian society. All of this was well expressed by the Mestre de Capoeira Moa do Katendê, a Baiano composer and dancer, who brought Capoeira to the world. Born Dique Pequeno in 1954, he was stabbed to death in Salvador in 2018, during presidential elections, simply for expressing his political opinion.

Mestre Moa said: “Capoeira is a story that starts from my life’s journey as an integral part of Viva Bahia, thanks to which I first went abroad.” He composed music for the Blocos-Afro that came to the fore on the artistic scene in Salvador with the Blocos do Afoxé, and he also founded the Badauê. “Moa was a performer known all over the world. His passing is an immense loss”, declared Antônio Carlos dos Santos, o Vovô do Ilê- Aiyê. Guellwaar Adún, a poet and Baiano editor of African descent, now living in the United States, remembers him: “Those who belong to the world of Capoeira know how much the people of African descent have suffered and know the inequality we must still face today. Moa do Katendê fought against all this with his art. He was one who sowed knowledge and culture. We will always continue to exist and to resist”.

Antonella R. Roscilli

The Syrian War. Ten Years Later.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

March 2021 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Syrian war. The bulk of the fighting ended in 2017, but Syria continues to suffer.

The people, those outside Damascus and Latakia especially, live on the edge of famine, and the country is completely devastated. No reconstruction has occurred, and half the population has been displaced. Russians, Hezbollah and Iranians intervene to police the stabilized rural areas while Turks and Americans help keep Damascus’ authority in check, by continuing to occupy areas of the country.
President Bashar al-Assad has managed to maintain his position, but he controls a devastated country where half of its citizens are displaced, refugees or exiled. What passes for a negotiation process at United Nations is deadlocked: Russia and China insist on protecting the Ba’athist government in Damascus while western powers refuse to lift sanctions to facilitate reconciliation and reconstruction until President al-Assad resigns.
Meanwhile, small wars, small conflicts continue in the last remaining areas still held by the opposition in the northern region of Idlib. Russians, Americans and some Islamist militias are also targeting Islamic State remnants in the east. The main part of the war ended in 2017 with the pushback of various rebels and Islamists from Aleppo and the gradual collapse of the Islamic State core. Yet, all the protagonists, weak or strong, remain in Syria.

Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan. UN Photo/Mark Garten

The Ba’ath Party and President al-Assad have certainly survived. They may even have beaten enormous forces pitted against them against all odds. But the country of Syria and the Syrian people have lost.
The various estimates which generally speak of about 500,000 killed and some 12 million refugees (over half of the 2011 population of 21.8 million) are credible. While the fighting has become limited to areas in the north – near the Turkish border and around Idlib, the devastation of towns and villages, not to mention the infrastructure from hospitals to water supply and power generation facilities, has been widespread.
The majority of those Syrians who have remained have endured conditions of extreme poverty. Given the extent of disruption of daily life, the economy has collapsed while the black market thrives. Syria is confronting a situation of such entropy that the Covid-19 pandemic has had little impact: what fragments are left of the healthcare system cannot cope with managing the spread of the virus, let alone enforce social-distancing or mask-wearing. The coronavirus aside, Syria has continued to endure a virus of a different kind throughout the entire duration of its internal war, as Israel has continued launching almost daily air attacks over Syria to target Iranian and Hezbollah positions.

The Protests
The Syrian riots of 2011 had more economic than political goals in mind. And this makes the resulting war all the more tragic; because at the heart of the protest were demands of reform rather than regime change and inter-sectarian intolerance. Bashar al-Assad partially opened the economy to ‘free markets’ early in his presidency. But inequality grew sharply: five per cent of the population controlled some 50% of Syria’s wealth. High unemployment and favouritism stifled economic opportunities for the youth and the middle classes.

Syrian Girl. Five percent of the population controlled some 50% of Syria’s wealth. (UN Photo/Mark Garten)

Moreover, by 2011, Bashar al-Assad had lost legitimacy in the rural areas, one of the main areas of non-sectarian support for the Baathist government which engaged in an intense land redistribution program during the years of Hafez al-Assad.
The failure of the regime in the economic, political and national spheres determined the conditions for the revolt.
The protests that flared up in every corner of the country were unprecedented and took Assad himself by surprise; he reacted both with force (repression and arrests) and with some concessions such as the repeal of the emergency law. Rather than the poor majority, Bashir al-Assad seemed more interested in nepotism, appointing close family and fellow Alawites to Syria’s top posts. His father, in contrast, was a more astute manager, who promoted the co-optation of other the Sunni bourgeoisie throughout the country. Nonetheless, the Ba’ath had suppressed political discourse for decades, deploying pervasive political repression through the secret police, the Mukhabarat, which had effectively silenced any alternative political movement.

The image of President Bashar Assad is riddled with bullets. (AP)

The Syrian Ba’ath party, moreover, served a combination of political and ethnic interests, revolving around Assad’s own Alawite minority, which represents only 10% of the country’s population. Few outsiders (i.e., Sunnis or Christians) have been permitted to reach key positions.
Bashir had tried to reform Syria early in his presidency only to run into the Alawi-Ba’ath elite wall. Some analysts believe that in many ways, Bashir al- Assad is himself a prisoner of the Ba’ath and the Alawi minority. He could not resign in 2011. And he cannot resign in 2021. Thus, even after ten years of war, Assad remains a hostage to the threat of dissent, from his own Alawite sect (who would replace him with a more ‘determined’ figure) as well as from the Sunni majority and the young rebels who have fought for change, even though this change did not necessarily imply progress.(A.B.)

The European Green Deal: impact and responsibility in Africa.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

The European Green Deal is the European Union’s (EU) strategic plan to take the lead on climate change and make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

The European Green Deal was presented by the President of the European Commission at the beginning of her term of office (December, 2019) and sets out concrete measures covering all sectors of the economy with the intention of reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and reversing the effects of rising temperatures that continue to break records year after year.

The Covid-19 crisis has made even more necessary the urgency to develop the European Green Deal and promote its lines of action in all sectors of activity. The pandemic, with a worrying mutation of the virus, has provoked the most important economic, social and health crisis of the century, and many scientific studies point to environmental degradation as the origin of the pandemic.

The exponential increase in the exploitation of natural resources, coupled with climate change, threaten biodiversity and become risk factors for new infections in the future.

The European Green Deal has its scope of application in the EU, but for its proper implementation it requires a transformation of two essential factors. Firstly, there is a need for a progressive transformation from a consumption-driven economy to a new form of circular economy that transforms and recycles natural resources.

Secondly, new ways of obtaining clean energy without CO2 emissions into the atmosphere need to be developed. However, in order to achieve the objectives of the Green Deal, the EU needs to work together with other continents and regions that also enable economic transformation in their territories.

Otherwise, the EU’s efforts will be in vain and will lead to a new form of green inequality. It would be of no use for Europe to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions if other countries do not carry out the necessary transformations within their economies.

The climate emergency proclaimed by the European Parliament is not exclusive to the EU. The African continent, where only 4% of the world’s greenhouse gases are emitted, is the continent most affected by the consequences of climate change.

In Africa, extreme weather phenomena such as torrential rains that erode the soil and cause food shortages, intense heat waves that make it impossible to develop agriculture and livestock farming as a traditional way of life for the people, or devastating droughts that threaten food security and biodiversity, are intensifying more frequently.

These concatenated situations of climate catastrophes require intergovernmental collaboration to reverse the effects of global warming. The fight against climate change must be coordinated and requires joint economic transformations that address the root causes and promote a clean, zero-emission economy that protects the environment and improves people’s well-being.

What is the point of promoting sustainable, environmentally friendly forms of transport in Europe or setting limits on pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions in the automotive sector if we sell our oldest and most polluting cars to Africa? What is the point of creating a circular economy with clean energy in Europe if we continue to promote a commodity-dependent economy in Africa? What is the point of the EU moving towards an economic transformation based on renewable energy sources if we do not give Africa a chance for a fair energy transformation?

Negotiations on a new agreement between the EU and Africa are more than a year behind schedule. It is not the pandemic that has been the main factor behind the delay, but the EU’s desire to impose its priorities on the agenda of the negotiations.

The EU still sees the African continent as the ideal place to obtain raw materials and sell its products, but without granting it any consumer rights. Seeking joint priorities means moving in parallel towards real common objectives such as covering green transition; digital transformation; sustainable growth and jobs. The intention to include other elements such as peace, security and migration control as priorities in the EU-AU agreement is to include the EU’s problems as a priority for the African continent. And they are not.

The European Green Deal must be seen as the big deal for all. Any form of international cooperation agreement between Europe and Africa must be cross-cutting and motivated by the joint efforts of the two continents to develop an environmentally friendly economy.

Joint EU and AU strategies must therefore focus on infrastructure investments that promote greener forms of transport, international trade agreements that address the needs of the two continents, economic initiatives that encourage the transformation of the unsustainable consumer economy into circular economies, as well as the incorporation of binding agreements for businesses that promote and respect the environment (and human rights).

The EU’s green deal and the economic transformation it entails cannot omit the environmental impact of its economic activity in developing countries and especially in Africa.
The transformation of the EU economy has direct effects on millions of people in Africa and despite its good intentions, the EU must be accountable for the impact of its transformations. The Green Deal will be for everyone, or it will be for no one.

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

Fasts & Feasts in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tradition.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

The most important period of the year for Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia is the Lent fast leading up to the Easter feast. Easter, known as Fasika, will fall on 2 May this year corresponding to 24^th Miyazya 2014 in the Ethiopian Calendar.

Fasting is central to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity with some 250 fasting days during the year, about 180 considered obligatory and the others only for the clergy. During these days no meat, milk products, or eggs are consumed. The Lenten fast, known as Abiy Tsom or Great fast, is the longest continuous fasting period, lasting 55 days.
Although Lent is a period of abstinence from animal products, the diet involves a wide range of dishes. Typical dishes include Siljo, made with beans or peas with mustard and pepper, Shembera made from lumps of ground chickpeas in a hot stew and hi/bet, a light creamy mixture made from lentils with fenugreek and sesame oil. Throughout Lent solemn hymns are sung accompanied by a lyre-like instrument called begena.

The Easter cycle includes five of the nine major feasts in the Ethiopian Church calendar. Establishing the date of the moveable feast of Easter was a major preoccupation of early Church scholars, involving complex calculations based on 19-year lunar and 253-year solar cycles determined by Babylonian and Greek astronomers, set out in handy tables. The calendar, of Alexandrine origin, was instituted by Augustus in 30 BC, modifying the ancient Egyptian calendar. Church scholars first sought to establish the date of the fast of Nineveh commemorating a sixth century plague, ensuring that this took place in the first three days of the second week preceding Lent, 10 weeks before Easter.
The calculations guaranteed that Lent begins on a Monday, and that Easter is later than the spring equinox, falls on Sunday, and does not coincide with the Jewish festival of Passover, as enjoined by the Fitha Negest. The last Sunday before Lent when people enjoy a feast with meat dishes is called Qibela, meaning ‘reception’, ushering in the period of repentance and fasting. The seven Sundays preceding Easter have names based on texts read during services.

The final ‘Week of Pains’ is marked by 10 services every day called ‘hours’ with specified readings from the Psalms, Gospels, Miracles of Jesus and Mary, hymns and poetry recitals. During this period no baptism, absolution for deaths or saints day commemorations take place, and people are expected to refrain from heavy manual work. The Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, Hosana, commemorating the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem. Palm branches are blessed by priests and distributed: in Aksum. For example, they are carried by a mule, symbolising Jesus’ riding a donkey into Jerusalem. Many people, especially children, plait palm leaves into headbands or rings, sometimes in a crucifix form.
Each day has a special name, starting with Passover Monday, recalling the People of Israel crossing the Red Sea. On Maundy Thursday, unleavened bread is used during the service, and the head priest sitting on a stool with a towel around his waist washes the feet of the clergy in imitation of Christ washing his disciples’ feet. A dish called gulban is prepared from maize, millet, dried peas or beans, mixed and crushed in a wooden mortar, beaten and boiled in an earthen pot.
On Thursday and Friday people go to church and perform prostrations, called sigdet, the number assigned by the priests depending on confessions. The climax of the Holy Week is the period of complete fasting from Thursday night for the priests or Friday morning for the laity until the cock crows on Sunday morning and the announcement
of Christ’s Resurrection.

On Good Friday churches are decorated with hangings and brocades, and the crucifix is covered by a curtain. A representation of the body of Christ is placed in front of the sanctuary with flowers, incense and candles. Readings from the Old Testament and Christ ‘s life are read out every hour announced by a deacon’s bell-ringing. A censor attached to a string is agitated before the Gospel readings, symbolising Jesus being pulled and pushed by the Jews.
At the 11th hour, deacons in a circle perform a ceremony cursing Judas, one holding a stick with a candle at its tip, which they strike, extinguishing the light, symbolising defeating Judas and the Devil. Priests then walk in procession three times around the altar holding candles, censors, umbrellas and crosses while a deacon rings a bell. At that point drums are heard for the first time since Palm Sunday, and the priests break into triumphant dancing and singing, swaying in unison with their sticks and sistra. Thereafter priests strike the faithful on their backs with olive branches or a whip, commemorating the Flagellation of Christ, and the faithful confess sins.
Early on the morning of Holy Saturday, known as Kidame Seur, or ‘Abolition of the Sabbath’, work can be resumed in preparation for the Easter feast; people wash themselves and their clothes, and a Service of Peace is held. Deacons bake loaves, bring them out covered with cloth, priests bless and cut them for distribution. Priests and deacons, donned in their most splendid ceremonial vestments, carrying crosses and umbrellas, visit houses of the faithful ringing bells and giving people blessed reeds exchanged with gifts for the Church. People decorate their houses with fresh grass on the floors, symbolising joy and fertility.

During the Easter Vigil on Saturday night the altar is covered with sumptuous cloth, the entire Book of Revelation is read and priests and deacons sing and dance with their sticks, sistra, drums and bells. As the Resurrection is proclaimed the sanctuary doors are opened, the curtains removed, wax tapers are lit representing the descent of heavenly light, and deacons chant in front of the open sanctuary doors: “The Lord rose up as though awakening from sleep like a mighty man aroused by wine”.
Drums are beaten, the congregation claps, and women ululate. The congregation follows the priestly procession three times around the altar singing ‘Send your light upon us who believe in your Resurrection!’
Finally, the head priest utters the words: “Christ is risen from the dead” to which the congregation answers: “With great power and authority”. The priest continues: “He bound the Devil” and the people respond: “He set Adam free”. To the Priest’s statement “Peace”, the people add: “From now onwards”, and when the Priest concludes: “It is so” the people proclaim: “Joy and Peace” .

The Easter Liturgy follows after midnight and the service is concluded around 3 am. Fasika evokes the joy of breaking the fast; the verb Feseke is used by extension breaking other fasts, and the term Fisik for non-fasting days and foods. On return from church in the early hours of Easter Sunday people break their fast with a mixture of linseed, honey and water or milk, easing digestion.
In the morning the Easter bread is ceremonially blessed and cut by a priest or elder. People feast on doro wot, spicy hot chicken stew with boiled eggs, and for those who can afford it, mutton or beef, sometimes neighbours clubbing together to slaughter an ox. Fasika is a day of relaxation and feasting when friends send each other messages or letters, and nowadays text messages, with expressions such as: ‘Rejoice, for He has brought you the Light of his Resurrection’, or ‘Congratulations, for He has freed you from the bridle of fasting’. The festive mood continues until the following Sunday named Dagme Tensae, the Second Resurrection, when the main wedding season begins. After the long Lenten period Wednesday and Friday fasting is cancelled for 50 days until Pentecost.

Amha K. Deneke

Nigeria. Edo Museum of West African Art. Collective Memories.

Monday, 1 March 2021 8:00

A museum project has been launched this year under the care of architect David Adjaye who wishes to give value to the cultural heritage of the ancient kingdom of Benin (XII-XIX centuries), of which Edo was the capital. Besides the bronze items and historical remains, there will also be room for contemporary artworks. The British Museum is involved in the project.

In Looking for Transwondetland, the writer Noo Saro-Wiwa, daughter of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, devotes a whole chapter to Benin City (Nigeria), the ancient Edo which was the capital of the glorious empire of Benin. In that chapter, she tells of the glories of the city and its long lost artistic and architectural greatness, as a counterpoint to the neglect she observed during her journey and the abandoned state of the civic museum which nevertheless contained exquisitely made objects. “The bronze container for cola nuts in the form of a fish goes back to the sixteenth century; the cockerel, also in bronze, which once had its place on the altar dedicated to defunct queens; the container in the form of a leopard which the oba (king and religious head) used during ritual hand-washing. I had to restrain myself from caressing the inlay work on bracelets, ivory flutes and magnificent elephant tusks,” Noo writes. Soon afterwards she adds: “After the British invasion in 1897, the more refined objects were scattered and accumulated in various parts of the world such as the British Museum and the Louvre in Paris or the ethnological museum of Berlin. Despite all of this, a vast amount of wonderful items are on display in the National Museum of Benin City …”

Present-day Nigerian museums are, instead, in a terrible state, adds one of her interviewers, a journalist she met by chance and boasted of having a thorough knowledge of the artistic patrimony of the country.
To reach the museum of Benin City, Noo Saro-Wiwa had to enter a sort of dangerous obstacle race, requiring her to reach a compromise over the questions of information and signposting. It is nine years since her book was published. The scenario may quickly change. In Benin City, during this year, a large archaeological dig is to be started which will reveal the walls of Edo and the remains of the imperial palace. A museum is to be built over these remains in which the historical artefacts now present in Nigeria, together with those that are to be returned, due to the agreements gradually negotiated within the debate on restoration, will be suitably displayed.

The mega-project was announced in mid-November, (financed to the tune of four million dollars), by the Legacy Restoration Trust (a Nigerian non-profit organisation institutionally concerned with recovering and valuing the historical and artistic heritage of Benin City), the British Museum (which holds more than 900 objects from the Benin empire) and the studio Adjaye Associates. The Ghanaian celebrity David Adjaye has been placed in charge of the project.
The Edo Museum of West African Art will not be limited to acquiring artefacts like a traditional museum, Adjaye explained. Its structure will incorporate archaeological remains. The orthogonal walls and the network of courtyards of the ancient capital will form an active part of the planned display: “It will be geared to being a reminder of the collective memories lost in the past, and promoting understanding of the greatness of this civilisation and culture”.
These memories are in imminent danger of being lost. As Noo Saro-Wiwa observes, even diaspora Nigerians know more about the ancient Ethiopian kingdoms than the history of their own motherland. Today, very few people know anything of the centralised political system and the relations of parity it maintained with European countries, or about the autonomy it succeeded in maintaining regarding the United Kingdom (for a long time, it was the only kingdom on the Nigerian coast not to be subject to British control).

Besides the bronzes, there will be room in the pavilions for historical artefacts in other materials and also contemporary works of art. Photographs of the museum show, for example, the splendid Flying Girls by sculptor Peju Alatise. The aim is to give life to a cultural pole that attributes its complete value to Nigerian heritage. “Benin City boasts an enormous amount of artefacts and ruins that may, and must contain all the elements of a multi-disciplinary research centre, including archaeology, art, education, history and the protection of the environment” – explained Godwin Obaseki, Governor of the state of Edo. “The construction of a museum at this level demands careful archaeological work that guarantees the conservation of buried historical remains and the rigorous registration and cataloguing of the artefacts”. It will also involve the local community in starting support activities and the completion of the cultural investment. Benin City no longer wishes to be known for its human trafficking (a large number of women prostitutes from here are spread worldwide), but for its new cultural tourism, both national and international.

Stefania Ragusa

Photo Gallery – Snapshots from Africa

Advocacy

Baobab

Youth & Mission