Nairobi — The recent floods in Mozambique are the worst in that region in decades. Our correspondents, James Brew and Thambo Motlamele, report that Since 1997 the country was self-sufficient in its food supply and was already being hailed as a model of how African countries could uplift themselves without falling into the dependency trap.
This disaster saw South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi and Kenya among other countries come together in solidarity to help the situation. In Ghana Santuah Niagia presents a case of conflict between modernity and tradition. An environmental health officer is expelled from a rural community for making disparaging remarks about the people's 'primitive' way of life. This rekindled an age-old debate: what is development and who should bring it about, when and how? He reports that if development agents are to make an impact in their efforts to improve the living conditions of the people then they have to change their approach and involve the people in the planning and implementation of development projects.
Talk of successful business women and everyone imagines the elite executive women yet nobody talks of the small scale African business woman who in the midst of all odds starts from scratch and demonstrates that women can equally be competent in business given the right incentives. Our correspondent, Cathy Majtenyi, writes the story of Zeinabu Saleh Msomoka who made a fortune out of selling roasted cassava and porridge to school children. Zeinabu told her story of success during the recent National Summit on Africa held in Washington D.C. In the same breath, Cathy reports on African women's quest for lasting peace on the continent. Rose Ilibagiza and Jeanine Mukanirwa Tshimpambu, two prominent women from Rwanda and DR Congo respectively chose to become allies in the struggle for peace instead of being divided by the politics surrounding the war in DR Congo.
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In the Democratic republic of Congo the 21- month old war which has dragged in the armies of six African states is still on even after a peace deal was signed in Zambia last year. The war has cost thousands of lives and uprooted around one million people. In an exclusive interview, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, the leader of RCD-ML, one of the rebel groups fighting President Laurent Kabila, told the UN information agency (IRIN) that as much as it is important to have the UN's peacekeepers intervention, the Congolese people have also to be involved in the process. Wamba took issue with the proposed UN force of 500 observers and 5,000 soldiers saying that the group is too small for Congo a country in which the whole of Eastern Europe could fit compared to Kosovo which gets 6,000 peacekeepers.
AFRICANEWS News & Views on Africa from Africa Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 8034, Nairobi, Kenya email: amani@iol.it
