Spotlight on Africa

A Ugandan team of inventors has won 28,000-euro prize for a device that could revolutionise malaria testing. The Matibabu device tests for malaria without drawing blood using a beam of red light that determines changes in the shape, colour and concentration of red blood cells. The African region has the highest share of malaria cases worldwide and it is hoped Matibabu will be easier and faster than examining blood under a microscope. Spotlight on Africa spoke to Brian Gitta, one of Matibabu’s inventors, to find out about bringing the device to market and increasing the device’s accuracy up to 90 per cent…

Zimbabwe’s informal workers hope to make their voices heard in the country’s presidential election in July. They've been doing so through town hall meetings across the country to urge candidates to take them seriously.

They make up the bulk of Zimbabwe's workforce, and yet for many years, workers in the informal sector have operated on their own, outside traditional structures. Now they're hoping national elections on July 30 will give them a voice.

Informal workers include vendors, street traders, cross-border traders, farmers, to hair dressers, and for the past two weeks, they have gathered in several towns in Zimbabwe, including the capital Harare, to put their demands to the various political parties.

All were invited, including the ruling Zanu-PF, and the main opposition party the MDC-alliance.

"The purpose of these town halls is to allow the candidates to come along and listen to what the informal economy has to say," Mark Oxley, the field representative in Zimbabwe for the Center for International Private Enterprise, (CIPE), told RFI.

Oxley says that lack of knowledge about the informal sector is what pushed CIPE to partner with the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations, (ZCIEA) to spread awareness.

"I’ve been through the election manifestos, only four of them, as far as I can make out, contain anything on the informal economy. The manifestos of the two major parties have very little, and none of the parties appear to have any clear policy or idea with what to do with the informal economy," he said.

Nor do they appear to know what to do about the challenges facing informal workers either, says Wisborn Malaya, ZCIEA secretary general.

Coming out of the fringes

"We're subjected to harassment by police and are treated like illegal operators, with our goods confiscated," he told RFI, adding that the criminilisation of informal workers was being encouraged by outdated laws.

"There are outdated laws, which go as far back as 1968, 1978 that are governing the current operations of informal workers. Such laws can no longer fit the scope of the current operational environment in the country," he said.

The informal economy compared to the formal one is the second largest in the world after Bolivia, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but suffers from poor representation.

"There needs to be greater linkages between the formal sector and the informal economy," reckons Oxley. "If one can integrate and link the informal economy more to the formal economy it would mean significant measured economic growth," he says.

Ninety four percent of all workers in Zimbabwe work in the informal economy according to the 2014 Zimbabwe Labour force. As a result, argues Wisborn Malaya, they can no longer be excluded.

No more partisan politics

"We talk of somebody who is selling in the street. We want this person to be added to the main value chain, that this person pays fair dues to the local authorities and that this money is used to develop or improve the work space that that person is operating under," he says.

The July 30 polls will be the first elections without longtime leader Robert Mugabe, and the first, hopes Malaya, without partisan politics.

During the Robert Mugabe regime, "one person would hold 5 or 6 market places and people would pay money to him," he told RFI.

"People were allocated market places along partisan lines, or when they’re allocated that market place, somebody from a party would come to collect some form of revenue every single day from these people, which is outside what they would pay to local authorities."

Issues like these were put to the different candidates. For the first time since Zimbabwe's independence, they're more than 20 competing for the top job.

"Such democratic space has never been there before in Zimbabwe," says Malaya.

"It is a result of that democratic space that we’ve managed to do the town hall meetings, that we’ve managed to bring all these different political candidates and also tell them our demands," he said.

Holding leaders to account

Now that this form of grassroots democracy is over, what next?

"This is a process of advocacy," says Mark Oxley.

"We will be producing based on the recommendations from these town hall meetings a full informal economy agenda, which will be submitted to the new government," he told RFI.

Informal economy stakeholders remain optimistic that the July 30 polls will be an impetus for change, despite a bomb blast targeting President Emmerson Mnangagwa that has soured a political environment characterized by greater democratic space.

"It's time the informal economy was at the table, not on the table," continues Oxley, in the words of Lorraine Sibanda, president of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations.

Sibanda, during one town hall meeting in Gweru, in the centre of Zimbabwe, urged informal workers to hold their officials to account, through a song called Hokoyo.

"The meaning of the song is to tell to politicians, ‘hey watch out, we’re watching you," explains Malaya.

"We now know we have the power to remove you and put in someone who can do what we want. If you don’t do it, we will remove you and put in someone who can," he said.

Zimbabwe’s informal workers hope to make their voices heard in the country’s presidential election in July. They've been doing so through town hall meetings across the country to urge candidates to take them seriously.

They make up the bulk of Zimbabwe's workforce, and yet for many years, workers in the informal sector have operated on their own, outside traditional structures. Now they're hoping national elections on July 30 will give them a voice.

Informal workers include vendors, street traders, cross-border traders, farmers, to hair dressers, and for the past two weeks, they have gathered in several towns in Zimbabwe, including the capital Harare, to put their demands to the various political parties.

All were invited, including the ruling Zanu-PF, and the main opposition party the MDC-alliance.

"The purpose of these town halls is to allow the candidates to come along and listen to what the informal economy has to say," Mark Oxley, the field representative in Zimbabwe for the Center for International Private Enterprise, (CIPE), told RFI.

Oxley says that lack of knowledge about the informal sector is what pushed CIPE to partner with the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations, (ZCIEA) to spread awareness.

"I’ve been through the election manifestos, only four of them, as far as I can make out, contain anything on the informal economy. The manifestos of the two major parties have very little, and none of the parties appear to have any clear policy or idea with what to do with the informal economy," he said.

Nor do they appear to know what to do about the challenges facing informal workers either, says Wisborn Malaya, ZCIEA secretary general.

Coming out of the fringes

"We're subjected to harassment by police and are treated like illegal operators, with our goods confiscated," he told RFI, adding that the criminilisation of informal workers was being encouraged by outdated laws.

"There are outdated laws, which go as far back as 1968, 1978 that are governing the current operations of informal workers. Such laws can no longer fit the scope of the current operational environment in the country," he said.

The informal economy compared to the formal one is the second largest in the world after Bolivia, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but suffers from poor representation.

"There needs to be greater linkages between the formal sector and the informal economy," reckons Oxley. "If one can integrate and link the informal economy more to the formal economy it would mean significant measured economic growth," he says.

Ninety four percent of all workers in Zimbabwe work in the informal economy according to the 2014 Zimbabwe Labour force. As a result, argues Wisborn Malaya, they can no longer be excluded.

No more partisan politics

"We talk of somebody who is selling in the street. We want this person to be added to the main value chain, that this person pays fair dues to the local authorities and that this money is used to develop or improve the work space that that person is operating under," he says.

The July 30 polls will be the first elections without longtime leader Robert Mugabe, and the first, hopes Malaya, without partisan politics.

During the Robert Mugabe regime, "one person would hold 5 or 6 market places and people would pay money to him," he told RFI.

"People were allocated market places along partisan lines, or when they’re allocated that market place, somebody from a party would come to collect some form of revenue every single day from these people, which is outside what they would pay to local authorities."

Issues like these were put to the different candidates. For the first time since Zimbabwe's independence, they're more than 20 competing for the top job.

"Such democratic space has never been there before in Zimbabwe," says Malaya.

"It is a result of that democratic space that we’ve managed to do the town hall meetings, that we’ve managed to bring all these different political candidates and also tell them our demands," he said.

Holding leaders to account

Now that this form of grassroots democracy is over, what next?

"This is a process of advocacy," says Mark Oxley.

"We will be producing based on the recommendations from these town hall meetings a full informal economy agenda, which will be submitted to the new government," he told RFI.

Informal economy stakeholders remain optimistic that the July 30 polls will be an impetus for change, despite a bomb blast targeting President Emmerson Mnangagwa that has soured a political environment characterized by greater democratic space.

"It's time the informal economy was at the table, not on the table," continues Oxley, in the words of Lorraine Sibanda, president of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations.

Sibanda, during one town hall meeting in Gweru, in the centre of Zimbabwe, urged informal workers to hold their officials to account, through a song called Hokoyo.

"The meaning of the song is to tell to politicians, ‘hey watch out, we’re watching you," explains Malaya.

"We now know we have the power to remove you and put in someone who can do what we want. If you don’t do it, we will remove you and put in someone who can," he said.

During the 20-year war between the Lord's Resistance Army and government forces in northern Uganda, community stations like Radio Wa used “come home messaging” to encourage abducted children to defect. Today, their broadcasts for peace are working to heal the north's hidden scars.

During the 20-year war between the Lord's Resistance Army and government forces in northern Uganda, community stations like Radio Wa used “come home messaging” to encourage abducted children to defect. Today, their broadcasts for peace are working to heal the north's hidden scars.

"When the radio began, there was a lot of insecurity," Radio Wa's director Magdaline Kasuku told RFI.

It was in late 2001. "There was a lot of violence, there was a lot of killings and one of the biggest weapons they [the rebels] used was children."

Between 1986 and 2006, Joseph Kony kidnapped thousands of children into his rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into child soldiers.

At the height of the conflict, community stations like Radio Wa in Lira, northern Uganda, began to emerge, offering locals isolated in towns and villages, a different message to the one being played out on their doorstep.

The programme they came up with was Karibu.

"Karibu is a kiswahili word that means 'welcome'," explains Kasuku.

"Many parents would come through the radio to complain, saying 'Look, my child has disappeared, I don't know where he or she is. Could you help me find out where my child is?'," she says.

The programme was so popular in reaching out to communities in the north that it came under threat from the LRA.

In 2002 the rebels burnt it down.

It would take less than a year for Radio Wa to be rebuilt, owing to public outcry over its destruction.

"It went beyond Uganda," comments Kasuku. "The whole world was wondering how a small community radio which is trying to empower the people in a wartorn area, can be burnt down, so it really became a national issue."

Avoiding propaganda trap

So much so that even Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni came to inspect the damage, promising to rebuild Radio Wa.

"They said, Tthis radio is so powerful in reaching out to the community here.' So they gave us a wider coverage," recounts Kasuku.

"Normally, community radios are given to cover a kilometre or a kilowatt. That day, he [Yoweri Museveni] promised that we are going to be given four kilowatts."

But in its bid to promote peace did Radio Wa not fall into the trap of toeing the government's line and promoting its anti-LRA propaganda?

For Kasuku, the aim of Radio Wa's Karibu programme went beyond partisan lines.

"Parents would come to the station and make an appeal: 'I want to talk to my child, my daughter, my son, wherever they are, if they're still alive, I want them to know that I still love them. I know that they might have done so many bad things, killed people, and all that, but they should be able to know that I love them,'."

Coming home

The formula encouraged more than 1,400 abducted children to break with the LRA and return to their families.

After the war former LRA combattants questioned by police said they had been encouraged to return home through listening to stations like Radio Wa.

Hearing their mother say "Wherever you are, my child, just come back, we love you, we forgive you," helped persuade them, explains Kasuku.

Children who were abducted, came back, to tell their story and pull the lid off the atrocities they endured under the LRA.

More than 10 years on, after a peace deal was signed in South Sudan, does Radio Wa's message of peace still ring true in the Uganda of today?

The scars of war may be healing but the country is still grappling with kidnappings and killings, this time of young women in the Kampala capital.

Healing the scars

"There are no more gunshots, yes," Kasuku says. "But, when we interact with the community, you find that they have so many unfinished business. There are so many people who up to now have never let go of what their experiences were."

The appearance of LRA commander Dominic Ogwen at the International Criminal Court at the Hague has stirred up painful memories.

Kasuku says, many survivors still live with trauma and insists programmes like hers are necessary.

"We want to continue encouraging people and letting them know they can overcome the trauma, the pain, the violence, all the bad things they went through in life. And they don't need to retaliate."

Ugandan authorities are also keen to document the country's past and are planning a new war museum to this effect.

"People need to start the healing process," reckons Kasuku.

"That is the message that we keep on passing. Even today, despite the fact there is no more war. So, I think at Radio Wa, we realise we have even more work now than we did before," she says.

Voters in Cameroon are expected to go to the polls in October for presidential elections that will challenge the 35-year-rule of incumbent President Paul Biya. And one man is hoping to bring Biya’s reign to an end. Akere Muna has been described by some as the most credible possible successor to the Cameroonian leader. The former vice chair of Transparency International has already declared himself as a candidate in the race for the country’s top job. He created the Now Movement aimed at “bringing together Cameroonians from all walks of life”. Muna also serves as the sanctions commissioner for the African Development Bank and served as chairman of the Ecobank board in Cameroon. Raised in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon and having developed a successful law firm in Yaoundé, Muna says he can help “bridge” the divide between Anglophones and Francophones given the ongoing crisis in the north-west and south-west of the country. However, his declared candidacy for the presidency flies in the face of the more established political opposition and he challenges an incumbent who has ruled the country since 1982. Spotlight on Africa spoke to Akere Muna…

Burundians go to the polls on 17 May for a controversial constitutional referendum to decide on changes that could extend the president’s term limits. The changes to the constitution could potentially enable President Pierre Nkurunziza to stay in power until 2034 with an additional two terms of seven years. Nkurunziza has already been in power since 2005 and his 2015 bid for a third term in office led to bloodshed. There were protests, an attempted coup d’etat and crackdown by security forces with an estimated 1,200 people were killed. The International Criminal Court said it was investigating state-sponsored crimes against humanity in the country, however the government became the first country to withdraw from the war crimes court. Ahead of the constitutional referendum, the EU warned that the vote will take place in a persistent climate of intimidation and repression. The country’s Catholic bishops also said they were opposed to the constitutional changes, saying it was not the appropriate time to make profound changes to the document. Furthermore, rights group Human Rights Watch said the campaign for the referendum has been marred by violence. Spotlight on Africa spoke to Jean-Regis Nduwimana, a media analyst from Lake Tanganyika University…

The various Anglophone groups in north west and south west need to come together and talk, setting aside their differences over self-declared independence, federalism or self-determination, according to a leading Anglophone lawyer. Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, who spent 8 months in prison for organising Anglophone protests, has told Spotlight on Africa that infighting between the differing groups needs to stop. The crisis in Anglophone regions has worsened over recent months with allegations of Cameroonian security ransacking towns and villages, while armed separatist groups have continued to carry out reprisal attacks. Some groups support independence and in October 2017 declared Ambazonia as a breakaway state. Spotlight on Africa spoke to Agbor Balla, president of the Fako Lawyers Association and vice president for the central Africa region at the African Bar Association…

The various Anglophone groups in north west and south west need to come together and talk, setting aside their differences over self-declared independence, federalism or self-determination, according to a leading Anglophone lawyer. Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, who spent 8 months in prison for organising Anglophone protests, has told Spotlight on Africa that infighting between the differing groups needs to stop. The crisis in Anglophone regions has worsened over recent months with allegations of Cameroonian security ransacking towns and villages, while armed separatist groups have continued to carry out reprisal attacks. Some groups support independence and in October 2017 declared Ambazonia as a breakaway state. Spotlight on Africa spoke to Agbor Balla, president of the Fako Lawyers Association and vice president for the central Africa region at the African Bar Association…

What’s the latest on the jailed Anglophone leaders? Those who were transferred from Nigeria.

The latest is that there’s no latest in the sense that we don’t have any information. Nobody has seen them, nobody has spoken to them - their lawyers and family, nobody that I know. I’ve been there with a couple of lawyers twice and we were not allowed to see them.

Besides from those transferred from Nigeria, do you know how many Anglophones in total are currently in custody?

There are close to 1,000 that are in custody between 2 maximum prisons in Yaoundé – Kondengui principale, where I spent 8 months, and there is Kondengui centrale where Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terence and the others are. There are also some detained at the Sed [Secrétaire d'Etat à la Défense], the gendarmerie headquarters, in Yaoundé. Some are also supposed to be at the judicial police at Elig Essono. Then there are close to 409 at the central prison in Buea, others in Bamenda and scattered all over the country. These are those that we can identify. Some of them have already been convicted – Penn Terence was given 12 years, others had 11, Mancho Bibixy and Tsi Conrad were found guilty on terrorism, secession and group rebellion. So the matter has been adjourned until 8th [May] for the sentencing.

Why do you think you were released from jail last year?

To be sincere and honest with you, we don’t really know. I don’t know what was the reason that they used in deciding to release myself, Dr [Neba] Fontem, Justice [Paul] Ayah and 51 others.

Do you support the violence carried out by some separatist groups? They say they’re defending the people against crimes carried out by the Cameroonian security forces.

It's a very tricky one. I believe in self-defence, I believe in the right for people to protect themselves, protect their people. I think it's a fundamental right – the right to self-defence. But I don’t agree when you go beyond self-defence when you start doing things that are outside of the law. That’s what I have a problem with. I also think the whole thing about self-defence stems from the fact that most of the people I’ve spoken to believe in an armed struggle. Their argument is that, the government arrests people and because they cannot protect themselves, they just kidnap some of them, take them to Yaoundé, and try them - so they’re trying to protect the people. So it's a tricky balance between self-defence and committing offences also.

The violence is quite close to home for you, in fact your family house in Mamfé was attacked. How did this make you feel?

I felt a bit sad and a bit disappointed because I believe that for most of my adulthood I have, in one way or another, contributed or fought for our people. I’ve been involved - the struggle did not start in 2016, it’s just that I came to the limelight in the struggle in 2016. But I have been in the struggle from the days of the All Anglophone Conference when I was a young boy. So for me to then go to jail, my dad was buried in my absence, then to see what happened, but it’s not the majority of the people. So what’s why I don’t get dejected because I still believe that in any struggle you have people who disagree with you. You have people who don’t think like you. But I caution violence and I’m urging all the groupings that we can still disagree without being disagreeable. If we have a common goal, to fight to protect the self-determination of our people, we need to understand that not everybody will think alike.

You talked about diverging views there. The Anglophone movement has somewhat splintered into a number of different groups. Is it important to reconcile this?

It’s very important for us. It’s true that it’s not easy to speak with one voice. But I think it’s very important for us as a people to try as much as possible not to be seen, the perception, that we’re fighting each other. There are times when the leaders, the other groupings and their followers, they spend a lot of time criticising and attacking each other. Rather than focusing on the target, which is the self-determination of the people. If I had my way I would advise, I would urge, I would organise with the other leaders, let them sit down and have an Anglophone leadership forum. Where the leaders can sit and dialogue and try to agree on the things that all of them have a common interest in.

Was the self-declaration of Ambazonia a bad idea?

The time that it was done, I think it was precipitated, enough groundwork had not been done for the declaration. But I wasn’t involved so perhaps they had more information, perhaps they had information that I didn’t have.

You’re saying it was a bad idea?

No. I would not say it was a bad or a good idea because I don’t have the facts that they have. I don’t know the background to which they decided to declare independence. But the situation on the ground – declaring independence – does it change anything? How can we effectively, if you have independence, how can you effectively protect it? How can you effectively live as an independent state? What are the recognitions you have from other states? So it’s not just about the declaration of independence.

What role have France and the UK played since the start of the crisis?

I think they’re doing behind-the-scenes diplomacy. I met a couple of diplomats, officially and unofficially, from both the French and the British. I personally think that they could do a lot, they could do more. They could engage, not only engage in government, but engage with both parties to try to see and find a solution. How we can get a truce from what is going on. Also to address the problems that the Anglophones have been raising. It’s very important for us to look at these problems and try to find a long-lasting solution. The British and the French they should know better because this problem, in a way they’re connected to the problem, in a way they’re responsible for what is happening. So they cannot just claim that it’s an independent state, we cannot intervene. When do you want to intervene? Do you want to intervene when there’s a peacekeeping mission? I don’t think it’s proper. Yes they’re doing something, which I appreciate, but I think that they can do more. I urge them to engage the government, to engage the other groupings also in trying to see how we can find a solution. Because the current situation on the ground, it’s not helpful for anybody, it’s not helpful for the country, it’s not helpful for the citizens. So the earlier we find a solution where we can live in peace and harmony as we used to live prior to the uprising. Genuine peace, genuine justice, genuine harmony, not the situation where one group of persons feel they’re second class. In a society that there is equality, that there is fairness for each and every one, no matter what part of the country you come from. I think it will be better.

Can change for Anglophones come about through the ballot box do you think? With the forthcoming elections?

There are diverging schools of thought. Some believe that an election could help the situation. It’s difficult to defeat the current leadership because of everything they have, they created the constitutional council, everything, they have the money, they have the resources. The elections can never be free and fair. Electioneering is an entire process, not just voting. It starts with the entire process, from registration, access to media, campaign financing, everything, not just the voting. I don’t think that they will be able to defeat the current head of state. I wish that there was a possibility that those who were vying for the highest office could come together and have a veritable candidate. So that they can give the ruling party a run for its money. But when you talk to most of them you don’t have the feeling that they would come together.

So the elections for you are irrelevant?

I think they won’t help the situation. Going for an election when a part of the country is having this kind of armed conflict - because it's a war in the south west and north west regions - I don’t think it's the best solution. I think we should try and see how we can find a solution, address these issues, because elections won’t solve the problem. This problem has been created by the current government, I don’t think it has the ability and the capacity to solve the problem. So him [President Paul Biya] being in power – this problem will not be solved. I think the problem will be solved when he leaves power.

The World Bank this month published its latest analysis of Africa’s economic outlook. The international financial institution says growth in sub-Saharan Africa is picking up, although not quite as fast as it originally forecast last year. The increase in growth has been helped by rising commodity prices such as oil and metals. Spotlight on Africa spoke to Punam Chuhan-Pole, the World Bank’s lead economist for the Africa region…