Spotlight on Africa

In this episode of Spotlight in Africa, we discuss the forthcoming presidential election in Cameroon, before turning our attention to Nigeria. We also explore ways to strengthen relations between South Africa and the United States, with a particular focus on improving conditions for seasonal migrant workers.

Cameroonians are set to go to the polls for the presidential election on 12 October, but the opposition remains fragmented, despite efforts to unite behind a single candidate to challenge President Paul Biya, who, at 92, is seeking an eighth term.

In the first week of September, the United Nations raised concerns over whether rising tensions in the country could jeopardise the possibility of free and fair elections.

According to Enrica Picco, Central Africa director for the International Crisis Group (ICG), this lack of unity, combined with the perception of an absent or weak opposition, could lead to low voter turnout. The ICG also warns that ongoing instability in the country may further depress participation.

On Saturday, Issa Tchiroma Bakary was named the opposition’s “consensus candidate” for the October vote. But will this be enough to galvanise voters?

The 10 other opposition candidates, who remain officially in the race, have yet to comment on Tchiroma Bakary’s appointment.

We have Enrica Picco on the line to discuss the potential flashpoints and the ICG’s recommendations ahead of the election.

Fears over divided opposition and instability, as Cameroon heads to the polls

In Nigeria, major oil companies are facing allegations that they have abandoned decades of pollution in the Niger Delta without addressing the environmental damage.

A UN-appointed panel of experts has written to Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies, warning that the firms cannot simply sell off their assets to evade their responsibilities to local communities.

We'll hear the reaction of community member Celestine AkpoBari, an Ogoni-born activist who coordinates the Ogoni Solidarity Forum and leads the Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative (MEDI).

Oil giants accused of dodging Niger Delta clean-up as UN panel intervenes

Finally, in South Africa, since Donald Trump assumed office in the United States, companies, business leaders and diplomats have been working behind the scenes to strengthen relations, particularly for the hundreds of South African seasonal farmers who spend a few months each year in the US to supplement their income.

One prominent advocate for these farmers is Neil Diamond, president of the South African Chamber of Commerce in the US, based in Atlanta.

We discuss the importance of these work opportunities in the US for South Africans, as well as the final three months of South Africa’s G20 presidency — a historic first for an African nation.

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale's English language service.

Spotlight on Africa returns after the summer break. In this episode, we travel first to Rwanda and then on to Malawi. We begin by examining how the United States, along with some European powers, is looking to third countries in Africa to take in illegal migrants, with particular focus on Rwanda. We then move to Malawi to explore how one village is now running entirely on solar energy.

Rwanda received seven people from the United States in the last week of August, as part of a deportation deal with the Trump administration, which has sought to send foreigners to third countries including Eswatini, South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.

Authorities in Kigali announced at the beginning of August that they had reached an agreement with the United States to take in up to 250 migrants.

The move has raised fresh concerns over human rights, legality, and the growing trend of wealthier nations paying others to accept deportees.

To understand the implications for migrants, for Africa, and for human rights, we spoke to Phil Clark, Professor of International Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. A specialist on Rwanda, the Great Lakes region, and conflict and post-conflict issues in Africa, he has conducted field research in Rwanda and beyond every year for the past 20 years

Rwanda agrees to take migrants from US in deal that includes cash grant

Meanwhile, in southern Africa, a community of nearly 9,000 households in rural Malawi became the country’s first village to achieve universal access to solar power at the end of August.

Kasakula town, where off-grid families have until now relied on lamps and candles, has reached this milestone, according to Brave Mhonie, general manager of the charity SolarAid Malawi and president of the Renewable Energy Industries Association of Malawi.

SolarAid is a small international charity, and chose the remote and low-income village of Kasakula to pilot its model called Energy-as-a-Service. 

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale's English language service.

This season of Spotlight on Africa concludes ahead of the summer break with a focus on Frantz Fanon in the year of his centenary. It also highlights a groundbreaking new report by UNESCO on the state of the publishing industry across the continent.

This week, we begin in Harlem, New York City, USA, with Rico Speight, a film and theatre director.

His film, Rediscovering Fanon, was screened in Paris on 5 July in partnership with the Frantz-Fanon Foundation, as this year marks the centenary of one of the inspirational figures of the anti-colonial movement. The film will also be screened acorss France and in Martinque later in the year.

According to Speight, Frantz Omar Fanon (1925–1961), whose ideas have stirred the hearts of progressives since the 1950s, continues to inspire even decades after his death.

With Speight's latest documentary, the filmmaker said he "aims to reveal the man behind the legend and analyse the relevance of his prolific theories in a globalised, post-racial millennium."

Biopic explores the life and legacy of Frantz Fanon, a century after his birth

We also head to Unesco in Paris, where Spotlight on Africa spoke to Caroline Munier about the UN agency's new report on the state of the publishing industry on the African continent. 

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale's English language service.

In this episode, Spotlight on Africa reviews the origins of protests in Kenya against police brutality. And you'll also hear from the co-founders of the Africa Basel contemporary art fair, in Switzerland, the newest event of its kind. 

This week, we go to East Africa where Kenyans are protesting to denounce police brutality, exactly a year after a wave of protests organised against an unjust tax, that led to police violence.

This year's protests were triggered by the killing by the police of a teacher and blogger in his cell. Albert Ojwang, 31, had been arrested for criticising a policeman online.

On Monday (23 June), Kenyan prosecutors said they were charging six people, including three police officers, with murder over his death.

To better understand the issues surrounding this incident, Spotlight on Africa podcast spoke to Douglas Lucas Kivoi, Principal Policy Analyst, Governance Department, Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA).

We also head to Switzerland for a new artistic event known as Africa Basel.

This first edition of a contemporary African art fair was created to coincide with the largest fair in the world, Art Basel, in Switzerland. It was held from 17 to 22 June, with over 30 galleries and dozens of artists.

Spotlight on Africa spoke with the two co-founders of the event, as they opened the first days of the event in Basel: Benjamin Füglister, artist and cultural entrepreneur born in Switzerland, and now the director of the Africa Basel and Sarah Hachi-Duchêne, curator at unx.art.

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale's English language service.

Ethiopia is currently battling one of its worst locust invasions since 1958. But since then, the country has rolled out a defence system to make sure damage is minimal across the country. Find out more in this edition of Spotlight on Africa.

Read more on Ethiopia's efforts to control the locust invasion

In Accra, a new documentary out this January sheds light on the 2005 murders of 56 West Africans in The Gambia – most of them Ghanaians. In I cannot Bury My Father, director Nana-Jo Ndow explores the lack of closure – and the lack of information – the families of the victims were given. RFI speaks to Ndow and Isaac Mensah, one of the sons of the victims, who are looking for the remains of their parents – and looking for answers.

The Paris Peace Forum is now underway with around 30 heads of state and leaders of civil society meeting to promote global peace. French President Emmanuel Macron opened the forum on Tuesday by saying that the global political system was in "unprecedented crisis", and called for new kinds of alliances to help solve problems.

United Nations General Assembly President Tijani Muhammad-Bande spoke to RFI on the sidelines of the forum in Paris, and he expressed similiar sentiments, calling for respect of diversity while promoting shared universal values.

The time to invest in Africa is now. That was the message hammered home at last week’s France-Africa business summit, which saw the French government position itself as a new investment hub for the continent. Yet, many French companies still shy away from African markets and bilateral trade has fallen. Can France make up for lost time with China and reclaim its status as Africa’s main European trading partner? And if so, on what terms? RFI’s Christina Okello reports.

To listen to this report, just click the 'Play' button below or above.

To get the full story, click on the article version below:

• SMEs are key to reviving French business ties to Africa

In August, America marked 400 years since the arrival of the first Africans in 1619, which started the institution of slavery. In France, observers are questioning whether there are lessons to be learned for France’s African community.

In a brightly lit room of the American library in Paris, members of the public pour in for a conference exploring the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans to the British colony of Virginia. The guest speaker, a civil rights expert and playwright, is yet to arrive.

When she does, Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, apologises profusely, blaming her lateness on her taxi driver who got lost and then wanted to overcharge her.

Her humour dispels the mood of the topic she’s come to discuss. But from the get go, she insists upon celebration and not defeat.

“I want to thank my ancestors. Without their perseverance, I wouldn’t be here,” she tells the audience.

Ongoing struggle

In August of 1619, some 20 indentured Africans arrived in the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, after being kidnapped from their villages in present-day Angola.

“They arrive and they learn the economy, the language, culture, and they actually progress, and then once the law takes effect and they’re enslaved, from there we have this fight, this ongoing fight for 400 years, so there’s a lot to commemorate.”

Browne-Marshall, a professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, had just returned from a trip to Angola.

“I went back to Angola. I wanted to know more about these first Africans, and I discovered Queen Nzinga. Not only did she rule but she went to battle and stood up to Portuguese slave traders,” she comments.

Choose to fight

By highlighting the brave achievements of the Angolan warrior queen and others like her, Browne-Marshall attempts to reclaim some of the dignity lost during the slavery era, which she has documented on extensively.

“We all have choices. Are we going to go on with the programme even if it is oppressive to others, or are we going to stand our ground and fight? Queen Nzinga did, and that really inspired me.”

Her research has also focused on recent battles for equal rights, including that of Mum Bett, the first enslaved African American to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts.

“Just as Mum Bett became Elizabeth Freeman by pushing against those that would oppress her, we have to continue pushing forward. We can’t sit down and believe that the battle is over.”

Same battle

Yet the battle may be more difficult depending on what side of the Atlantic you’re on.

“I’ve been in the same company for over twenty years and have never been promoted,” a female engineer from Martinique tells the audience.

“I think the US has enabled black people to have more opportunities than here in France,” she says.

To which Browne-Marshall replies “Are you demanding the freedom and that you be treated fairly?” echoing the words of former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Another female member points out differences between slavery in the United States and France.

If the enslavement of Africans began in 1619 in the US, it would not begin in France until 1642. Moreover, it would eventually be abolished here in 1848, after initially being reinstated in 1802, while America would follow suit in 1865.

For Browne-Marshall, both countries have similar undertones. “In both, you see protests every day. People are protesting for higher wages, they are protesting for other things. Why aren’t people of African descent protesting for full inclusion?”

Identity conundrum

Such identity politics hit a raw nerve in France where the notion of "Frenchness" is associated with a common set of values as opposed to colour or origin.

Furthermore, critics point out that flagging up the differences between communities runs the risk of forging a common identity between them at the expense of a national identity, and thereby legitimising racial divisions that activists want to abolish.

“Assimilation doesn’t mean giving up your soul,” argues Browne-Marshall.

“The French, of all people are the ones everyone knows will stand up for their culture. So, why can’t people in the African diaspora stand up and say I am proud of my heritage as an African in this country, and I’m French?”

The issue of French identity came to the fore during last year’s World Cup, where some commentators joked that the tournament had been won by an African team, due to the fact that 19 of its 23 players were of African descent.

Civil rights in France

The debate is a complex one, but for Browne-Marshall it should not distract from the legacy of slavery, which still lingers in enduring inequities in opportunity for the children of migrants or whose family generation emigrated to France.

"I think that France needs to have a civil rights movement,” she reckons, referring to the decades-long struggle for equal rights for African-Americans led by figures such as Martin Luther King.

“Fighting for your freedom and not waiting for it to be handed down to you, is something so powerful for the spirit and so necessary,” she said.

This is the third part of RFI's series on France's diasporas. Subscribe on iTunes or Google podcasts.

To listen to this episode, hit the Play button above

A recent Paris exhibition honouring forgotten black models of modern art has shone a spotlight on black identity in a society where race remains a controversial subject.

France has been multicultural "since the 19th and 20th century", says Denise Murrell, co-curator of Le Modèle Noir or Black Models.

The landmark exhibition on modern art’s forgotten black models ran from March to July at Paris’ Orsay museum. On Friday 13 September, it was due to premiere at Pointe à Pitre in Guadeloupe.

The lavish show, portraying people of colour in French art from the country’s final abolition of slavery in 1848 until the 1950s, “shows without question that there was a black presence in the heart of cultural activity in the 19th century,” mirroring “today’s diverse, contemporary society”, Murrell told RFI.

Yet these figures were left out of history. The four-month long exhibition sought to give them back their identity, by renaming leading paintings in the models’ names. Portrait of a Negress thus became Portrait of Madeleine and Edouard Manet’s Olympia, showing a reclining nude prostitute, has been renamed Laure, in honour of the black maid in the background.

Being ignored

“Madeleine, the black woman in the painting, has been subject to a silencing or obliteration of her identity by a generic title…so being able to rename her was important,” continues Murrell.

Similarly, Laure, who inspired one of Manet’s most important works, is barely noticed, and extensive scholarship on the work has focused more on the cat than the servant stooping down to offer flowers to the white woman.

“Laure was emblematic of the condition of the diaspora, being invisible even though one is in plain view. I wanted to do something about it,” comments Murrell.

Revealing the maid’s identity became the foundation of the curator’s doctoral dissertation, Seeing Laure, Race and Modernity from Manet’s Olympia to Matisse, Bearden and Beyond, and an earlier exhibition of Le Modèle Noir in New York that Murrell curated called, Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today.

Black studies

Over 400,000 visitors flocked to the Orsay museum to see Laure and many of the other Black figures in French art such as Haitian model Joseph, who was the central figure of Gericault’s famous painting the Raft of the Medusa.

Joseph was portrayed as the hero in the artwork – the one who called for rescue for the other stricken crewmembers. In an era where slavery was still rampant, such a favourable portrayal was a clear call for abolition.

For Murrell, the success of Le Modèle Noir is a clear sign of the "hunger" in France for information on the subject, which has "historically not been widely discussed”, she says.

While the representation of black people has become a topic in the history of art on both sides of the Atlantic, research in black studies is relatively new in France.

• Breaking the mould of mental slavery

Le Modèle Noir exhibition was the first of its kind in Paris, while London and the Netherlands have already drawn crowds to shows such as Black Chronicles at the National Portrait Gallery and Black Is Beautiful at Amsterdam’s Newe Dirk museum. 

Republican values

The term "race" remains controversial in France. 

Advocates of strict secularism are against defining society in racial terms, saying it undermines the French Republican value that “everyone is equal". 

Last year in June, the government removed the word from the constitution, arguing it was a "made-up social construct". Former president François Hollande, in his 2012 election campaign, said the term “has no place in the Republic”.

Collecting statistics based on race remains illegal.

Critics say that such apparently lofty ideals conceal the extent of racial discrimination in France.

Murrell believes embracing black identity in France could, in fact, reinforce the foundations of the Republic.

“I think recognition of France’s multiple heritage and the contribution of people of colour to French society can only strengthen Republican ideals,” she says, “because it creates a sense of belonging for populations who may perhaps feel they have been ignored.

“I think that part of the ability to improve the condition of the diaspora is to hear the voices of people from the diaspora.” 

To hear more stories like this, subscribe to RFI's diaspora series on iTunes or Google podcasts.